Kinfolk Issue Sixteen: The Essentials Issue will explore the different meanings of life’s fundamentals and suggest ways we can incorporate them into our daily lives. We want to uncover the
heart, the kernel, the foundation, the bedrock—whatever brings us back to our cores. Deciding what is essential in our lives isn’t about paring back our belongings and forgoing our beloved but
unnecessary frivolities: Instead of determining how little we can live with, it’s about working out what we cannot live without.
Stories you’ll find in Kinfolk Issue Sixteen:
∙ The Essential Endeavors: a profile series introducing a number of entrepreneurs, editors, designers and curators whose professions involve cutting things down to their essence
∙ The Best Medicine: a series of portraits of people expressing themselves through laughter
∙ How to Be An Essentialist: an interview with author Greg McKeown that shows how we can all stop being everythingists and simplify our lives
∙ Tickled Pink: an essay and menu created in honor of that perfect summer fruit—the watermelon
∙ The Cloud Appreciation Society: an interview with the founder of an organization that simply wants you to look up and gaze at the sky
∙ Words with Friends: a series of essays exploring the core components of communication and conversation
∙ A Sense of Belonging: an excerpt from the book Community: The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block
∙ For our regular neighborhood series, we visit a number of interesting small businesses located in the calm oasis of Yanaka in Tokyo
∙ Plus, articles about eating with your hands; how the great philosophers tried to simplify their theories; the unspoken behavior that forms a basis for a civil society; the positive side of
saying no; along with a tribute to olive oil and the usual blend of photography, writing and art.
“Be thankful for the opportunities you have to indulge in being wholly yourself, and start looking at life through an essentialist lens.” —Nathan Williams, Editor in Chief, and Georgia
Frances King, Editor