During Climate Week in New York City, the most memorable gatherings are often the quietest. While the week filled with high-level panels and institutional receptions, one invitation-only gathering chose a different language: a tea ceremony built around reflection, wellness, education, and care for future generations.
The event, titled simply Tea Ceremony, was shaped by Kyle Mathews, joined by fellow hosts Vin Infante and Genia Xasis. H.H. Dr. Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe celebrated the occasion, thanking Mathews directly for creating a room where hospitality became a way of honoring shared responsibility.
The program opened with a sound bath, an invitation to arrive and settle before a word of conversation. From there it moved into the Japanese Way of Tea, with hand-whisked Kyoto matcha and wagashi, followed by ikebana, the art of Japanese floral arranging. A closing sound bath completed the arc before the gathering opened into dialogue. The structure was deliberate: stillness first, then tea and contemplation, then conversation.
The ceremony was curated by Shirley Choo, whose sequencing gave the morning its rhythm. Supporting the gathering were TRIIBE, Omega Lifestyle, and Berkana, names that appeared together at the base of the invitation as partners in the program.
It unfolded across two mornings. On Wednesday, September 23, guests gathered from 10:00 to 12:00 at The Penthouse at the Baccarat Hotel in New York. On Thursday, September 24, the ceremony continued from 10:00 to 12:00 at the Alumni Ventures Conference Room, bringing the same calm into a space more often associated with enterprise and momentum.
The stated purpose was plain: service of education, mental health, and health care for the generations coming after us. That phrase gave the ceremony its moral center. In a week devoted to the planet’s future, two quiet mornings of tea, flowers, and sound made the case that care for tomorrow begins with the habit of attention today.
Originally published on Times Square Chronicles.
