Serial entrepreneur Radha Agrawal — Thinx, Super Sprowtz, Daybreaker — is talking about civic engagement in her beloved America. But for all intents and purposes, she could be talking about Philadelphia, where she’s hosting an early morning rave on Friday.
“We want to galvanize and celebrate civic engagement and citizenship in a way that is not like a trip to the DMV, but a fun party that feels like a place to see and be seen,” she says. “We want to make it weird, make it fun, and make it playful.”
Here’s what that looks like, to Agrawal: From 6 to 9am on Friday April 12, DJ Menace will spin tunes for a “silent rave” in Dilworth Plaza (everyone gets their own headphones). Three Queens Yoga’s Alexandra Holmes will lead a class at 6am (bring your own mat). Performance artist Darrell Thorne will teach pole/poll dancing. There will be coffee and other non-alcoholic beverages. Agrawal suggests attendees bring breakfast snacks to share with new and old friends.
“We want to remind each other that we get to do this, that this is a privilege. We have the freedom to celebrate, to pole dance, to get together and dress up in glitter and celebrate life.” — Radha Agrawal
And there will be civics: tables for registering to vote or filling out an absentee ballot; boxes in which to drop off mail-in ballots; shout-outs to one of Agrawal’s favorite things — American democracy. “We want to remind each other that we get to do this, that this is a privilege,” she says. “We have the freedom to celebrate, to pole dance, to get together and dress up in glitter and celebrate life.”
Tickets to Daybreaker on April 12 are free; RSVP here. More than 2,000 people have already signed up. Dress code is anything fabulous and purple. “We’re bringing red and blue together, like Prince,” says Agrawahal.
The lineage of Daybreaker
Agrawal launched Daybreaker 10 years ago, in New York City, when she was in her mid-30s, and simultaneously building both Thinx period underwear and Super Sproutz, an online cooking veggie-based cooking show for kids. Her aim was to find community through an alternative to the usual alcohol-fueled, bro-forward social gatherings at nightclubs. She brought in a silk aerialist and performance artists, harpists and didgeridoos; each three-hour event includes a two-hour dance party, followed by a special guest — an astronaut, or relationship expert Esther Perel, for example.
“It was really a social experiment: Would people be willing to wake up early in the morning and create a spectacle at a time of day when we’re the most energized?” she says. Indeed they were: The New York City parties are legendary, and Daybreaker is now in 23 cities around the world — including, before the pandemic, Philly.
Daybreaker returns to Philadelphia as part of the company’s Purple Tour, consisting of morning raves in 20 cities in electoral swing states — Pennsylvania (including Pittsburgh), Ohio, North Carolina and others — throughout this election year.
A civic-minded entrepreneur with a rolodex of the great and powerful — Kimbal Musk, Elon’s brother, is on the board of her newest venture, Belong Center — Agrawal is like your lifestyle guru best friend. (Her twin sister, Miki Agrawal, with whom she started Thinx, was once described as a “bohemian capitalist;” that could apply to Radha, too.) She is never without her signature wide-brimmed hat — even on Zoom. Her businesses have at heart the idea of self-empowerment — whether through the freedom of period panties or the healthy lifestyle of early life nutrition — and, more recently, the empowerment that comes from community.
Her latest venture, launched in December, is the nonprofit Belong Center, which targets the epidemic of loneliness in America through small gatherings described by The Wall Street Journal as like “Alcoholics Anonymous for the Burning Man set.” It will also include Belong-sponsored block parties, the opening of Belong Centers in cities around the country, as well as the placement of Belong benches that include conversation prompts to help people connect. The project is an offshoot of her for-profit Belong Institute, for entrepreneurs, and her book, Belong: Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life. “When I look at what’s underneath every issue we face as a species, literally, it’s loneliness,” she says. “If we can end — not reduce, but end loneliness — we systematically can take down every social issue.”
Daybreaker’s Purple Tour combines Agrawal’s passion for belonging with her passion for American democracy. Born to Indian and Japanese parents, Agrawal is French Canadian by birth. She became a U.S.citizen just in time to vote for Barack Obama in 2008 and she has — as John Oliver once described at The Citizen’s Ideas We Should Steal Festival — an immigrant’s love for the United States. Just talking about America brings her to tears.
“I’m a product of the American dream. I built my businesses, found my husband, had my daughters here,” she says. “I still believe that America is the greatest country in the world.”
Friday, April 12, from 6 to 9am; Dilworth Plaza, 1 S. 15th Street; free; RSVP here.
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