Many writers and artists keep notebooks where ideas go to die. But what if the notebook was the goal? We’ll investigate what it means to commit to a notebook as an object, activity, and space all of its own, and not a tool for some project that never materializes.

Open Studio: Writer’s Block

Make time for your writing. We’ll spend a few minutes getting to know each other, and then we’ll spend the rest of the time in silent writing time together. We don’t share what we’ve worked on, but we do support each other in the work.

OPEN STUDIOS

Our Open Studio sessions offer you dedicated time and space to work on your book arts projects. You get to choose what you’re going to work on during each two-hour block, and you can help yourself to a small assortment of snacks, coffee, tea, and sparkle water.

These sessions are non-instructional time, meaning you work independently but in community with others.

Sign up for a single session or a whole bunch!

Make your own hardback book! We'll fold signatures, sew text blocks, create covers, and case in the text blocks. These take extra time and attention, but they're worth it. 

Do you have a creative project you’d like to workshop? Join a small group of writers and artists exploring what happens when art meets its audience. We meet regularly — you can register for all sessions or just a few. In order to give deep and detailed feedback, we limit the number of presenter spots in each session, but anyone can join to be a responder. When it’s your turn to present, bring a piece of visual art, music, writing…. any creative project you are working on, and the group will reflect on and ask meaningful questions of the work you’ve presented. Trust us: good feedback doesn’t have to be hollow, brutal, or boring. You’ll leave with greater clarity on your work, and a renewed enthusiasm to continue working on it. Open to everyone.

Open Studio: Bindery

Work side-by-side with other bookbinders on a project of your choosing. Bookbinding tools and some materials available.

OPEN STUDIOS

Our Open Studio sessions offer you dedicated time and space to work on your book arts projects. You get to choose what you’re going to work on during each two-hour block, and you can help yourself to a small assortment of snacks, coffee, tea, and sparkle water.

These sessions are non-instructional time, meaning you work independently but in community with others.

Sign up for a single session or a whole bunch!

In this three-hour introduction to all things Gelli Plate Printing you’ll go through the exploratory process of inking, printing, and layering to make your own unique pieces, which you can use for covers or endpages or appreciate just as they are. 

All experience levels welcome and encouraged.

Join us for a book talk with Evanston's warm and insightful Dr. Geeta Maker-Clark as she introduces us to her revolutionary new book, Medicine for All People: Science and Ancient Wisdom for Revolutionary Healing.  Geeta's book will be available for purchase after the talk.

Hive's Salon Series programing is free, but space is limited, so registration is required. 

Everyone who attends this talk gets $5 off Joanne Jacobson's class on Thursday 11/19, Body Language: Writing Our Bodies. Use discount code Geeta2026 on checkout.

Dr. Geeta Maker-Clark—integrative medicine physician, thought leader, and activist—describes a profound reimagining of what medicine can be: a vision where ancestral wisdom, scientific evidence, and a commitment to equity come together in service of healing. She reveals how extractive food and health care systems have co-opted our awareness of our natural, deep intelligence and connectedness—contributing to the disproportionate burden of chronic disease in communities that have been historically excluded from resources and power. These conditions are not simply the result of individual choices, but of structural forces that shape access to nourishment, safety, and care. In response, Medicine for All People guides readers back to medicines that are both ancient and urgently relevant: culturally rooted foods, nature-based and gratitude practices that regulate the nervous system, dance and embodied movement that supports neuroplasticity and joy, and meaningful connection that restores a sense of belonging. Integrating these powerful, freely available medicines into our daily lives creates a path for individuals and communities to move toward sustainable health and radical social change.

How are we—modern citizens of the twenty-first century—body?  How can language deepen and illuminate our connections to our bodies?

Our bodies are at once the most personal and the most universal of human experiences: join us to write together and to share “body language” in which we express this important aspect of being human.