Waterstop Infoshop is a community-run creator space, wisdom school, and mutual aid hub that emerged amidst global systems collapse to water seeds of artful reclamation.

 

Address

20 North 2nd Avenue East
Duluth, MN 55802

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socials for updates

Become a Waterstop Artist Member

Waterstop Artist Members (WAMs) help care for the space and community with 1-4 hours per month of work-trade and a monthly donation of $3-24. Water your seeds of liberatory imagination! Use the studio for personal time, client sessions, private events, group meetings, or community events; access shared supplies and storage space.

One-Time Events

  • Spill Paint Not Oil: Screen Printing Workshop & Community Fundraiser

    Saturday, October 4 | 11am-4pm

    Join us for a day of art and community. Spill Paint Not Oil is a community-driven art action collective that creates art to organize, build power, and support movements in and beyond the Twin Cities.

    11am-2pm – Screen Printing Workshop *Limited space available. RSVP here!

    2-4pm – Community Fundraiser *Enjoy art for sale and food to share.

    Suggested donation $10-$20. All proceeds go toward supporting Waterstop & mutual aid projects (incl. The Women’s Environmental Institute, The Paper Lantern Project, The Immigrant Law Center of MN, Mid Minnesota Legal Aid’s Immigrant Law Project, The Acacia Center for Justice, Inquilinx Unidx por Justicia / Renters United for Justice, Camp Nenookaasi / Nenookaasi Ozhige).

  • Breath, Beats & Body Movement

    Saturday, October 11 | 7-9pm

    Create intentional breath awareness and self-healing through practices like vagal humming, drumming, hand percussion, and authentic self-expression through a community jam session, inspired movement, and Spoken Word. Whether you're here to witness or be moved to divine inspiration, Toussaint Stewart will guide you with a container where you can freely connect with your truth through breath, beats, and body movement and word. This is a Duluthish event, as well as a Black, Brown, Indigenous, queer, and 2-Spirit safe space. Pay-what-you-can (suggested $5-10) – no one turned away for lack of funds. More dates to come…

  • envelope with crinkled paper, poised pen, stamp, map scrap, ticket stub, and collage letters spelling "Becoming A Letter Writing Artist"

    Becoming a Letter Writing Artist: Queering the Craft

    Thursday, October 16 | 3:30-5:30pm

    Paper is a portal into the sacred and mundane. Writing and sending letters can be a slow, tender, nonlinear, radical release of rigid expectations and attachments to outcomes. Come unlearn and relearn how to be in relationship by turning letters into art. In this supportive group space, we’ll tune into our bodies, feel the pleasure of our raw and finished practice, and make it our own. Bring your ideas, stories, and queerest ways of connecting. Supplies will be provided—you’re also welcome to bring your own! Pay-what-you-can (suggested donation $5).

  • Songs for Struggle and Liberation

    Saturday, October 25 | 7-9pm

    Join your comrades in an informal song circle to share socialist and liberatory music for times of struggle. all levels of skill are welcome and appreciated (even those with no musical background). No instrument? No problem! Come to sing, listen, or play a hand instrument. $5 donation to the space suggested but not necessary. Bring songs to share with the group!

  • Femme Frights Double Shock Show

    Friday, October 31 | 7pm-12am

    Catch a double-feature of feminist horror: Spider Baby (1967) and the R-rated version of A Woman’s Torment (1977). Part of the feminist horror film club that provides a space for horror fans to discover and discuss films revolving around the female and feminine presenting experience. Pay-what-you-can (suggested $5-20) – no one turned away for lack of funds.

  • The Eternal Song Film Screening & Discussion

    Saturday, November 22 | 7-9pm

    The Eternal Song, the first in a 12-film documentary series, is a cinematic journey through timeless lands and Indigenous cultures. Voices from across generations and traditions invite us to witness the enduring scars of colonization on lands and peoples, and the healing pathways carried through ancestral wisdom. Pay-what-you-can (suggested donation $10).

Event Series

  • Femme Frights Film Club

    First & Third Saturdays, September 6 – October 18 | 7-9pm

    A feminist horror film club that provides a space for horror fans to discover and discuss films revolving around the female and feminine presenting experience. Pay-what-you-can (suggested $5-20) – no one turned away for lack of funds. Catch a Double Shock Show Halloween night! (See the calendar for details.)

  • Authentic Movement Workshop

    Mondays, September 29 – November 3 | 6-8pm

    Remember how to feel. Authentic Movement provides a simple structure for connecting with our body’s inward experience and expressing it outwardly through movement—a gentle, self-guided practice that everyone (people of all bodies, abilities, and backgrounds) can do; no dance or movement experience is required. Integrate the many layers of your feeling being by letting your body guide the way. This 6-week series is designed for beginners though open to people with any level of experience. Pay-what-you-can (suggested $60-80). Register here.

  • Contemporary Beadwork Classes

    Thursdays, October 2-30 (Except October 16) | 4-6pm

    Join us for hands-on workshops where participants will integrate traditional Indigenous art forms and modern interests, with American Indian artist Airlea Indaniss DeFoe. This workshop is designed for all skill levels, whether you are brand new to beading or looking to deepen your skills. Supplies provided. Free, for Native American participants. Email airleadefoe@gmail.com to register.

    Airlea Defoe is an Ojibwe beadwork artist focusing primarily on medallions. Her favorite part of making art is making people happy! She loves when people see her creations and get excited about what is made for them.

  • Miyazaki Movie Club

    First & Third Fridays (Fourth Friday in October), October 24 – April 24 | 6-8pm

    Calling all Studio Ghibli fans! This twice monthly film night will include most (not all) Hayao Miyazaki movies—featuring fantastical, whimsical worlds of humans, animals, and spirits colliding. Whether this is your first time or your hundredth time watching, these movies are sure to delight and inspire. For ages two to one-hundred-and-two (check the calendar for film details and age advisories). Pay-what-you-can (suggested $5-10 for one, or $65-$130 for all thirteen).

  • Hospicing Modernity Workshop

    Sundays, November 2 – 23 | 4-7pm

    A reading, writing, discussion, and practice workshop based on the book Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira. Together, we’ll: •  Reimagine how we learn, unlearn, and respond to crisis; •  Expand our capacity to hold personal and collective space for difficult and painful things; •  Understand the “5 modern-colonial Es”: Entitlements, Exceptionalism, Exaltation, Emancipation, and Enmeshment in low-intensity struggle activism; •  Interrupt our satisfaction with modern-colonial desires that cause harm; •  Create space for change driven neither by desperate hope nor a fear of desolate hopelessness. Pay-what-you-can (suggested $30-80). Register here.

  • Dance Thing by the Duluth Dance Union

    Thursdays, October 2–16 | 6:30-8pm

    A dance improvisation workshop open to all skill levels and types of movers. Each class explores improvisation through solo and group scores, partnering, watching and doing followed by short discussions, and embodied mindfulness exercises. We are building a supportive space to do dance together. $5 suggested donation.

Ongoing Events

  • Margins to Center Reading/Writing Club

    Third Sundays | 11am-2pm

    A reading/writing group to dream up the kind of world we want to live in. We'll learn from each others' stories as well as from those who've resisted capitalism, oppression, and fascism in order to imagine how we can build our collective power in Duluth. Open to all genuinely interested in learning about liberatory movements for justice. A meal will be provided. Pay-what-you-can (suggested donation $5-10).

  • woman sewing

    Mending Mondays

    First Mondays, 3:30-5:30pm

    A community meetup to mend and make clothes. Bring your mending projects – sewing machines and supplies will be provided. Pay-what-you-can (suggested donation $5-10).

  • people supporting each other doing work

    Accountability Café

    Fourth Fridays, 10am-2pm

    A judgment-free space for giving and receiving peer support in knocking things off the to-do list. Co-work side-by-side and cheer each other on in getting things done! Kids activities available. Pay-what-you-can (suggested donation $5).

  • Food Not Bombs

    Last Sundays, 4-6pm

    Free mutual aid potluck at the Clayton Jackson McGhee Memorial (East 1st St & North 2nd Ave). Bring food, clothing, and hygiene items to share. Volunteers and donations welcome. For more info, email fnbduluth@gmail.com.

  • children telling stories surrounded by animals and stars

    Star Stories Storytime

    Second Saturdays, 1-3pm
    (starting November 8)

    A time for telling and hearing stories old and new about our wondrous more-than-human world. How & why stories, trickster tales, and mycelial myths re-enchant our animate earth and weave in teachings about being kin. Youth, elders, and everyone in between are invited to orally tell, read, and listen. Pay-what-you-can (suggested donation $5).

Make Waterstop Your Space

Hold your meeting, class, private session, or community event at Waterstop! Rates range from $0 (with work trade) to $40/hr. Inquire at waterstopspace@gmail.com.

Waterstop is Always Looking for Material Donations:

  • Cardboard (tubes/rolls, boxes)

  • Clean Plastic (containers, bottles, bags, straws, hangers)

  • Clothing (new, used, worn) & Fabric Scraps

  • Odds & Ends (buttons, ribbon, string, shoelaces, single socks/gloves)

  • Shelf-Stable Food

    Donations can be dropped anytime by the front entrance.

Page Art Credits:

Waterstop logo by Josif Nieto