Hosting a Garden Party

The time is right for yet another post inspired by the amazingly humane online talk hosted by Diana Ivanova for the participants in the Host Leadership Gathering in Sofia, June 2024.

            Diana spoke about an initiative she leads in Ahrtal, Germany – a region which was devasted by the floods in 2021. She has invited (and keeps on inviting) people to act as hosts in their private gardens and open them to visitors for small local events: а concert, а reading, or just а walk round the garden. The thing is that these gardens were badly damaged by the floods and people are now happy to open and show them in a new light,

You may choose to watch the video or look at the slides. Either way, you will notice Diana stepping back and opening spaces for her neighbours to perform as hosts.

Born in Montana, Bulgaria, Diana now lives in Bad Bodendorf. Diana works interdisciplinary as a journalist, curator, group therapist and trauma yoga therapist with a research focus on trauma and memory. She has authored the book “Ahr Valley of Compassion. 89 Fragments of Life After the Floods”.