Board Games & Bars is a weekly-to-fortnightly meetup that brings game players of all experience levels to NYC bars to play games, both classic and new. What started as a fun way for co-hosts Nolan and Kate to gather their friends while playing board games has become a living and diverse community. We’re committed to creating a safe space for people to revisit old favorites, learn new things, and make friends.
Excerpt from email sent to BG&B members on November 9, 2016:
We’d like to take this opportunity to declare BG&B as a safe space for members of any and all oppressed groups. This includes (but is certainly not limited to) people of color, LGBTQ+ people, women, people of ALL gender identities, people of NO gender identity, immigrants, undocumented people, Muslims, sexual assault survivors, people with disabilities, people with mental illnesses, just to name a few.
While we haven’t explicitly stated this in the past, we want to make clear that there is a zero tolerance policy for microaggressions, hateful language, or any kind of violence against oppressed groups. If you ever feel unsafe or uncomfortable by something that happens at a game night, please speak up. If you’d like to address it in the moment, we will have your back 100%. Otherwise, please talk to us privately. If you feel more comfortable contacting one of us rather than both, or emailing rather than texting or speaking in person, that is perfectly fine. Your safety and your well-being are important to us. Even if you think something might be too small to bring up, tell us. Whether it’s a card in Cards Against Humanity (we’ve ripped up cards before and will do it again!), or an unintentional but still hurtful comment from one of us or another game night attendee, we will listen and we will try to make it right.