Honoring Identities at Swift Waters

We want Swift Waters Collective to be a place where whatever comfort or discomfort emerges happens in a context of mutual respect among guests, openness to difficult questions, and a collective effort to learn through communication and experience. We acknowledge that social categories, namely those relating to race, gender, queerness, ability, age, body shape, religion, ethnicity, and class, are real and complicated categories, and that they impact our lives in ways that aren’t always visible and aren’t always respected by those with different experiences. We aim to create an environment where the personal, social, and philosophical consequences of these different experiences are taken seriously.

We will do everything we can to ensure that guests feel able to share any discomfort or lack of safety they feel. This statement avoids buzzwords and pre-packaged sentiments as part of our belief that these ideas benefit from thoughtful, intentional, and good-faith engagement.

If you are considering staying with us and want to discuss your identity, or our approach to identity and social categories, as part of that decision, please let us know – we welcome those conversations. We don’t  want a single person to feel discouraged from our space based on fear, discomfort, or wariness about extra inner labor involved in managing other people’s responses, or non-responses, to the parts of you they are less familiar or comfortable with. None of these differences in identity or experience should make it stressful for someone to participate in our project, and we care about putting effort into following through on that commitment and hearing any feedback on this matter carefully.

We would be remiss not to note that we are in a rural area with mixed political affiliations (PA is a swing state, after all). Some houses in the area have Trump posters. There are some inclusivity flags around as well. Because we do not want anyone to feel caught off-guard, you should also know one house (a 10 min walk away) has a Confederate flag. People of color do live in our area, and guests of color and trans guests have thus far reported feeling safe when walking about or interacting with locals at the Lackawaxen Inn.

We welcome additional questions you may have about the area and environment here. We are also happy to support your feeling safe any way you need, e.g. if you’re more comfortable having a buddy if you walk at night. This shouldn’t be necessary, but you feeling safe matters to us.