Episode Summary

"They use weapons of mass destruction, division, and distraction. Be the antidote, be a weapon of mass creation."

Samia Tossio calls herself a "playful creative activist," but there's nothing playful about watching 59 family members killed in Gaza whilst living in suburban Sutton.

What emerges from that brutal reality is something extraordinary: a community artist who transforms grief into solidarity, silk into resistance, and a local coworking space into a sanctuary for the conversations everyone else is too afraid to have.

This isn't a conversation about Palestine that happens to mention coworking. It's a conversation about what happens when community spaces choose courage over comfort, when they recognise their role as civic infrastructure rather than just desk rental.

Samia met Vibushan and Paul from Oru Space when their venue was still a building site. By June 2024, when she walked in carrying silk Palestine protest banners, their first response wasn't hesitation—it was "How can we help?"

What followed was £12,000 raised in one evening for a water well in North Gaza. Not through corporate sponsorship or grant applications, but through community, conversation, and the radical act of showing up for each other's humanity.

Bernie connected with Samia during Refugee Week, drawn by what Oru Space represents: the first coworking space he'd found in London willing to create space for Gaza solidarity work.

In a city with over a thousand coworking spaces, that statistic should make every community builder pause.

Samia's Brutiful Tales project—co-creating massive silk panels with communities across Palestine and the UK—embodies everything coworking claims to be about: collaboration, creativity, and connection across difference.

Her recent trip to Palestine in early 2025 brought back not just stories but a responsibility to amplify Palestinian voices through art that refuses to be ignored.

The conversation moves between the intensely personal—Samia's grandfather's renowned jewellery and watch repair shop was bombed in the 1930s, her cousin's life in Jerusalem, the weight of inherited displacement—and the urgently practical: how community spaces can choose to be part of healing rather than hiding from the world's pain.

This episode is for anyone who believes coworking can be more than productivity theatre. It's for space operators wondering how to create a genuine community rather than just efficient networks.

It's for anyone who's ever felt the gap between their values and their venue, between what they say they stand for and what they actually make space for.

Timeline Highlights

[01:39 ] "What are you known for and what would you like to be known for?" – Bernie's opening question reveals Samia's evolution into creative activism

[03:25 ] The moment that changed everything: "How is everything going?" Vibushan asked, and Samia shared that 59 family members had been killed since October 7th.

[05:08 ] "Right, let's help you. How can we help?" – Vibushan's immediate response, offering free use of Oru Space for fundraising

[06:33 ] "How can we do more?" – Vibushan's commitment to amplification beyond the initial £6,000 raised

[08:02 ] "I was there this year" – Samia's revelation about visiting Palestine in February/March 2025

[08:22 ] "One word: Brutiful. Both brutal but so beautiful" – How a friend's question birthed the name for Samia's project

[13:54 ] The privilege and pain of movement: "Because I'm a grandchild of the Nakba"

[15:46 ] "My dad never spoke in anger or hatred" – The generational wisdom that shapes Samia's approach

[17:02 ] "Resolve the problem in Palestine and watch many of the world's problems disappear" – Her father's prophetic words

[22:14 ] "Choose wisely. It's really awful to be able... The energy that we have to go through"

[23:22 ] "They use weapons of mass destruction, division, and distraction. Be the antidote, be a weapon of mass creation"

[26:15 ] The miraculous creative flow: separation wall panels painted like a xylophone "to make them brutiful"

[29:03 ] The exhaustion of creation: "I actually needed to just stop looking at what was going on and get my energy back"

The Politics of Presence

What strikes you first about Oru Space isn't their furniture or their WiFi. It's their willingness to hold space for the conversations that matter most.

When Samia walked in carrying Palestine protest banners, Vibushan didn't ask her to check her politics at the door. He asked how he could help.

This isn't performative allyship or virtue signalling. It's what happens when community builders understand their role as civic infrastructure.

Vibushan himself is a first-generation Sri Lankan Tamil refugee—he knows what it means to need sanctuary, to need amplification, to need someone to say "your story matters here."

The result? £50,000 raised by Sutton Friends of Palestine since their first fundraiser. Not through institutional channels or corporate partnerships, but through the radical act of community showing up for community.

When spaces create genuine belonging, people don't just rent desks—they build movements.

Art as Resistance Infrastructure

Samia's Brutiful Tales project transforms collective witness into collective creation. Each silk panel—some two metres, some three metres, some five metres long—becomes a canvas for community response to Palestinian stories.

The first panel features artwork by globally renowned Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour alongside contributions from audience members at Samia's talks.

The process is as important as the product. During a Zoom session with Seraj Library in Ramallah, a military presence interrupted their co-creation session.

Children were left scared as tear gas filled the streets. This wasn't abstract solidarity work—it was a real-time witness to daily reality under occupation.

Yet the work continues. Panel three is being created by Art to Heart, a disability arts organisation in Nablus, in partnership with the An-Najah National University Faculty of Arts.

The Silk Roads connect not just places but possibilities, proving that creativity can cross any border, survive any checkpoint.

The Economics of Courage

Here's what most coworking operators miss: taking a stand isn't a business risk—it's a business strategy. When Oru Space chose to support Palestine solidarity work, they didn't lose members. They found their tribe.

The people who show up for hard conversations are the same people who show up for community. They're the members who attend events, refer friends, and see their workspace as more than just hot desks and meeting rooms. They understand that belonging isn't about agreeing on everything—it's about creating space for everyone's full humanity.

Bernie's observation haunts this conversation: in a city with over a thousand coworking spaces, Oru Space was the only one he found addressing Gaza solidarity work. That's not just a missed opportunity—it's a failure of imagination about what community spaces can be.

The Spiritual Physics of Creation

"You are really either humanKIND or you're humanCRUEL," Samia says. "Actually, it's a choice that you've got to make. So just make that choice and choose wisely."

This isn't theology—it's physics. Every space, every community, every conversation either builds connection or erodes it.

Samia describes looking over both shoulders at the end of her life, asking what wake she's left behind. "I don't want to see that I've left turbulence, destruction, devastation. I'm planting seeds and pretty little flowers." This is the spiritual work of community building: understanding that every interaction either plants seeds or spreads poison.

The brutiful—that space between brutal and beautiful—is where real community lives. It's where Samia processes grief into art, where Oru Space transforms desk rental into movement infrastructure, where ordinary people discover their capacity for extraordinary solidarity.

Community as Communication in Unity

Samia defines community as "communication in unity through diversity and inclusion." Not uniformity. Not agreement. Unity—the recognition that our liberation is interconnected, that when anyone is unfree, none of us are fully free.

This understanding transforms how we approach community building in coworking spaces. It's not about creating echo chambers or avoiding difficult topics. It's about creating containers strong enough to hold difference, brave enough to name injustice, generous enough to centre healing.

When Samia's cousin showed her around Jaffa, they sat on the steps where her grandfather's jewellery shop once stood—bombed in the late 1930s. The building is gone, but the stories remain. The exile continues, but so does the resistance. The brutality is real, but so is the beauty.

Links & Resources

Samia Tossio's Work

* Brutiful Tales Instagram

* Samia on Instagram

* <a href="https://ww