Facilitators
Ashley Bonn
event Co-Producer
Ashley Bonn is the founder and director of Conscious Growth. With over a decade of experience in event production, she weaves together permaculture, music, art, and healing to co-create transformative spaces where culture and community can thrive. Rooted in the Cascadia Bioregion, Ashley holds a background in sustainability leadership, nonprofit management, and permaculture design. Her passion lives at the intersection of nature, creativity, and spirit, where she integrates practical skills, ecological knowledge, and cultural wisdom in service of co-creating a more resilient future. During the Conscious Growth Convergence, Ashley will be facilitating the opening and closing ceremonies, teaching a workshop on "Elemental Permaculture," and weaving all the elements of the convergence together.
SETESH FREE
SonYA ROBIN
event Co-Producer
Cultural Consultant
Setesh is deeply woven in the transformational music community after spending close to a decade living in ecovillages curating immersive events ranging from music festivals, permaculture convergences and healing retreats. After spending 6+ years as a resident, event director and board member of Lost Valley Education Center Setesh co-founded Reciprocity Music, an international, intention for impact booking agency, tour & event production collective. Setesh has developed extensive experience as a booking agent, serving as a lead visionary for Poranguí, Mose, Deya Dova's North American recent tour runs while producing immersive events across the country as "Reciprocity Music presents.". He has supported successful fundraising platforms through dynamic campaigns helping to support water protection, indigenous land restoration and music education. He aspires for Reciprocity Music to be a beacon in utilizing music as a vessel for transformation.
With rich experience in mission driven for-profit structures, nonprofits and worker owned co-ops, Sonya brings a savvy heart-centered approach to business development, operations, and people & culture. As an artist themselves, they know well the complexities of navigating artistry and capitalism. Sonya offers their business expertise delightfully in-service to creating sanctuary for artists in the music industry.
ALYX SOMAS
Paul ChiYOKTEN
aaron johnson
Tending the Tender Village
Aaron Johnson is a social activist fostering environments where Black-bodied individuals can express their full selves. His journey began, as it does for many Black men, from a lack of loving, platonic touch. Now, he assists other Black men in developing holistic touch practices to transition from being Chronically UnderTouched to achieving touch balance. He aims to create spaces for Black and BIPOC folks to connect with each other and the earth. He is establishing retreats and workshops on Black-owned land in the Mojave Desert to promote healing, connection, meditation, and singing, enhancing the healing process for those overlooked by mainstream society. Workshop Title: Tending the Tender Village Workshop Description: Music, Grounding, and Dismantling Obstruction as a Foundation for Building Intentional Communities”- This workshop offers an opportunity for everyone in the community to come together and explore ways to discover and express their voices. It will include a song circle and meditation, providing a space to slow down and connect with one another. We will rethink how to share our stories, poems, chants, grief, and dreams. Participants will learn what it takes to discover their messages and be heard. We will facilitate songs, stories, and simple grounding practices that support your voice and expression.
Protectors of the Salish Sea
Alyx Somas is a 2S Native American Culture Tender and Re-Indigenization Practitioner, sharing indigenous lineage life-ways in response to the realities of empire, ecocide, genocide, and separation—anchored in the truth that we all come from beautiful, collaborative ancestors. Their work centers holistic nervous system care and trauma-informed somatic practice that de-individualizes what is systemic, tends to this new multi-cultural era that calls for us to heal our shared history, and restores us to our ancestral ways of reverence for all that lives. They hold workshops, ceremonies, consultations, rituals, and mentorships in Ancestral Reclamation, Decolonial Leadership and Relationship Life-ways, Grief and Initiatory Rites, and Spirit Healings. Connect on IG @CollectivityProject Workshop Title: Collective Ancestral Healing for Liberation Workshop Description: A rooted ceremonial space to harvest the medicine of deep lineage, to remember ourselves to our wise pre-colonial ancestral origins, and to revitalize the living decolonial pathways that nurture our collective liberation. This ceremony restores relationship to indigenous lineage wisdom through somatic attunement, journaling and child-like emergent ritual. A gentle and encouraging space to nourish the wholeness of our ancestry, to expand our capacity to align our intention with our impact, and to meet these times of polycrisis with our deepest human nature of interdependence and belonging.
Collective Ancestral
Healing for Liberation
Paul Chiyokten Wagner is a Coast Salish musician, storyteller, and founder of Protectors of the Salish Sea. Through songs, stories, and activism, he uplifts Indigenous lifeways and inspires action to protect the lands and waters of Cascadia. We are honored to welcome to the 2025 Conscious Growth Convergence — where he’ll offer a music + storytelling set on Friday evening 10/3 and join our Cultural Regeneration Panel on Saturday 10/4!
Lydia Skahan
Woven in Strength:
Plateau Basket Weaving
amron bevels
Alixa Garcia
Lydia Skahan (Nez Perce, Umatilla) is an artist, educator, and cultural entrepreneur dedicated to sustaining Plateau traditions for the next seven generations. She learned weaving as a child from her grandmother, Jenny Williams, and has since shared her knowledge nationally through workshops, exhibits, and cultural programs. Lydia specializes in Plateau basketry, quillwork, and regalia design, blending ancestral teachings with modern practice. She is the founder of Wiyeépi’im, a creative space centered on custom designs, cultural workshops, and community engagement. Through her work, Lydia uplifts both tradition and innovation, helping others connect to art, culture, and identity. Workshop Title: Woven in Strength: Plateau Basket Weaving Workshop Description: Join us for an immersive, hands-on workshop in the traditional art of Plateau-style basket weaving. Participants will learn the history, cultural significance, and techniques behind these enduring art forms that have carried our peoples’ stories, foods, and medicines for generations. Guided step by step, you will create your own woven basket using natural fibers and materials, while reflecting on the values of patience, resilience, and connection to the land that are woven into every strand. All skill levels welcome. Fee: $40 (materials & supplies) Capacity: 30–40 participants.
Ceremony Facilitator
Amron will co-guide our ceremonies and serve as an MC — weaving the threads of our gathering together with grace and power. With a gift for presence and attunement, Amron supports us in centering our collective intention and holding the question: “What role do you play in the village?” A conventionally trained medical doctor turned multidimensional mentor, Amron is here to liberate leaders. Their work blends psychic attunement, energetic precision, and business alignment to catalyze rapid spiritual acceleration. We can’t wait to gather with Amron as she calls us deeper into connection. Her presence empowers us to walk the edges of consciousness in this era of awakening.
Rooting our Soul Commitment
Alixa García is a Colombian-born, globally-raised multidisciplinary artist, activist, and cultural strategist whose work interweaves ritual, spirit, and a profound reverence for the Earth. As the co-founder and co-artistic director of Climbing PoeTree, an award-winning spoken word, hip-hop, and world music duo, García has dedicated over two decades to harnessing creativity as a catalyst for social transformation. Workshop Title: Rooting our Soul Commitment Workshop Description: As we move into the heart of the 6th mass extinction, what is your soul commitment in times of collapse? In this session, we activate the Soma—our living wholeness—through Creative Somatic practices that awaken our embodied multidimensionality. From here, we unearth, fine-tune, and root our soul commitment within the Soma. This session serves to quiet the racing mind, tap into the sensing body, and activate the energetic body while offering powerful insight and a way to fortify one's inner constitution in troubling times.
Alexa Lux
Aliko Mountain weste
Moana Aluli
We Are the Music:
A Song-Catching Co-Lab
Capitalism & the Nervous System
Alexa Lux is a creative powerhouse with a mighty voice and a big vision. Singer/songwriter and founder/director of Cascadia Folk Choir, Alexa is devoted to two key principles: music as birthright, and music as medicine. Whether in her original music, song leading, or community organizing, she is on a clear mission to bring the ministry of music to the people - one heart-soaked note at a time. Workshop Title: We Are the Music: A Song-Catching Co-Lab Workshop Description: It's time we remember that we are ALL capable of making music, because we ARE music. Come experience the magic of group songwriting, where wisdom and melody are sourced from the circle. With facilitated guidance & musical support, we will birth a new song into being - a song that belongs not to one, but to all.
Born and raised in Seattle to a French Jewish mother and Caribbean father, Aliko Weste is a first-generation American, trans, Black, Jewish entrepreneur and producer. He is the founder and director of several businesses and Pacific Northwest-based projects. Over the past eight years, Aliko has collaborated with somatic therapists, activists, scholars, and wisdom keepers who have deeply influenced his passion for neo-indigenous thought and action. Through his intersectional life and roles as a producer, entrepreneur, community builder, and designer, he offers a rare lens on the history of capitalism and the path to collective wholeness. Workshop Title: Returning to Our Houses of Magic: Capitalism & the Nervous System - A Comprehensive Historical and Somatic Inquiry Workshop Description: This workshop takes you on a powerful journey into the hidden histories of capitalism - tracing its origins to medieval Europe and the era of primitive accumulation - while uncovering its lasting impact on our planet, culture, and nervous systems. Drawing on Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch and Dr. Michael Yellow Bird’s pioneering work on neurodecolonization, Aliko weaves together historical analysis and collective inquiry to illuminate how systems of domination have shaped our internal and external worlds. More than a critique, this offering is a return: to our bodies, our creativity, and the houses of magic we once called home. Together, we begin the vital work of reclaiming what capitalism has stolen from our cultures, our communities, and our nervous systems.
Land & Sea Philosophy
Moana Aluli Meyer (known by many as MoMagiccc) is an Indigenous elder, community leader, and wellness guide from O’ahu, Hawaii. With a dedication to serve community, Moana has led the path of (w)holistic healing, giving special attention to natural supplements, movement, and meditation. You can find Moana in Portland, Oregon, where she spreads her energy of Aloha to all she encounters by way of her spirit. Through Indigenous Hawaiian practices of meditation, storytelling, song, and dance, Moana invites us into a deeper awareness of our connection to both land (ʻāina) and sea (moana). Rooted in the wisdom of her ancestors, she reminds us that when we stand firm on the Earth and open to Spirit, we are nourished in body, mind, and soul by the freedom of Aloha that flows through us.
LOGAN KEISTer
JAMES RIAN O'keeffe
Herbalism in Permaculture Design
Anna Mae
Freestyle Singing for Revolutionaries
Mythosomatic QiGong
Logan Keister is a clinical herbalist, educator, medicinal herb farmer, and permaculture designer, born and raised in the coniferous forests of Oregon. He currently resides in Noti, Oregon where he runs his own small business Noti Botanica where he sells herbal remedies, offers holistic health consultations, and shares his teachings on herbalism. Workshop Title: Herbalism in Permaculture Design Workshop Description: This workshop will explore how to incorporate medicinal herbs into our landscape with the permaculture design perspective. We will look at permaculture zone theory and see how to increase the efficiency and productivity of our medicinal landscape. These techniques can be used at all levels from a small apartment to thousands of acres of land. Permaculture design is often presented as a food-focused movement, but this class aims to bring the herbalist perspective into our landscapes.
James Rian O'Keeffe brings over a decade of experience freestyling as a performer, teacher and one-on-one music coach. His workshops create a robustly safe container for self-exploration, skillfully directed and compassionately supported. He is also a composer of original music and shares musical space with many local and regional artists including Aimee Ringle, Micaela Kingslight, Samara Jade, Max Ribner, Anna Mae Srouji and others. Workshop Title: Freestyle Singing for Revolutionaries Workshop Description: Freestyle singing is the melodic and lyrical expression of what you are feeling and thinking in the moment. This work can be as fun as it is deep. Tears and laughter are commonplace. Come ready to relax and approach your edges with curiosity and love. Throughout the workshop, James Rian provides energetic support and helps you move through blockages and fears as you venture further into the garden of your unique voice. It's your birthright to sing what you wanna sing!
Anna Mae is a Performance Artist & Mytho-Somatic Movement Guide of Lebanese, Scottish & Bavarian ancestry. Drawing on her deep study & devotion to the rich movement + sound medicine traditions of the ancients, her offerings elegantly weave a sonic tapestry of somatic inquiry + story + song, inviting participants into the dreamlike realms of imagination, & connection to the more than human world. Workshop Title: Mythosomatic QiGong Workshop Description: A heart centered + empowering container to explore the space where spirit (consciousness) + matter (the animal body) meet. Dynamic flowing movement weaving together embodied presence + conscious breath, mythic & elemental storytelling, acupressure self massage, and healing sound.
LUX GYPSUM
The Relational Revolution: Embodying a Culture of Care
ariel therese
Brian Byers
Lux Gypsum (all pronouns) is a queer, non-binary politicized healer, cultural visionary, and event organizer. In their workshops, talks, and client work, Lux focuses on conflict transformation, somatic trauma resolution, and growing our skills to create resilient, purpose-oriented communities. For over 9 years, Lux has honed their capacity to skillfully hold potent group containers for learning and healing. In addition to facilitating community workshops and events, Lux is also a Somatic Connection Coach, Conflict Mediator, and Community Consultant, supporting individuals, couples, and groups to embody the world they long for. Lux is trauma-informed and committed to uprooting supremacy culture in all their work, imperfectly. You can follow Lux's work and offerings on Instagram @healing.rising. Workshop Title: The Relational Revolution: Embodying a Culture of Care Workshop Description: Our relationships are catalysts for growth and transformation. In the mirror of another, we uncover our blindspots, unhealed wounds, and social conditioning—and begin to see how they impact us and those we love. How we meet these moments of relational challenge reflects how fully we embody our values and care for each other. In this workshop, we’ll explore our shared values and the relational skills we need to live them—because revolution happens at the level of relationship.
Opening Up Your Channel
Through Song
Arielle Therese is a queer song carrier of Celtic ancestry based in Seattle. She channels healing messages of self-liberation, empowerment, and earth reverence. By day, she is a community convener and systems change consultant and facilitator in service of a regenerative future. In her music, she weaves an angelic landscape through layering harmonies with both a vocal looper and drum. The essence of her music centers on a regenerative philosophy where all beings and living systems are uplifted and protected. She believes in the power of co-created collective energy and aims to facilitate a coherent group process where audience members and participants can tap into their magic together. Workshop Title: Opening Up Your Channel Through Song Workshop Description: This workshop will empower you to tap into your channel in real-time, in a safe container. We will explore deepening a relationship with our voices and channels for the purpose of energetic clearing and healing. Through small group exercises and large group vocal improv activities, we’ll practice tapping into our unique essence, sound, or message. As we open our channels, we’ll weave together a collective prayer built with our voices in real-time. This is for all levels of singers who want to experiment with tapping into their channels and having an emergent jam together.
Oak Stewardship & Fire Ecology
Brian Byers is a permaculture designer, educator, and activist with over a decade of experience in sustainable agriculture and forestry within the Willamette Valley. As a passionate advocate for building resilient communities, reconnecting individuals to the natural world, and fostering a sense of place, Brian brings a holistic, systems-based approach to all of his work. Brian holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Gutenberg College and has studied permaculture with regional experts including Andrew Millison, Heiko Koester, Hazel Ward, and Jude Hobbs. He is a certified permaculture designer with advanced certifications in surveying, earthworks design, forestry, and teaching. Since 2016, Brian has served as the lead instructor for the Lost Valley Permaculture Design Course (PDC). His tenure at Lost Valley also includes roles as Garden Manager (2014–2016), Land Steward (2019–present), and Executive Director (2022–present). In these capacities, Brian enjoys supporting the organization’s mission to promote ecological & social resilience through education, land stewardship, & community engagement. Workshop Title: Oak Stewardship & Fire Ecology Workshop Description: Spend an hour and a half with LVEC Land Steward Brian Byers exploring the magic and mystery of the oaks of Lost Valley. This interactive workshop will highlight the work of conserving and restoring oak ecosystems through land tending, fire, and grazing. Learn about the importance of oaks to the past, present, and future of our planet, and why conserving what we still have may hold the key to adapting to climate change.
Fernanda samambaia
KArro Moss
Grief Ritual Facilitator
Intuitive Music for Healing & Ritual
Fernanda Samambaia is a Latinx femme, activist, and mud builder, Fernanda is deeply devoted to Afro-Brazilian spiritual practices and the regeneration of culture and community. With over a decade of grief work, she brings wisdom, compassion, and a profound gift for creating safe, transformative spaces. Grief Ritual: Fernanda will lead a five-hour grief ritual — a collective ceremony where we can honor our losses, release what we’ve been holding, and open up our emotional capacity for ALL feelings. This practice is a powerful opportunity to be witnessed and held in community, reminding us that no matter what the circumstances, grief itself can be medicine.
Karro Moss (he/him & they/them) is an artist, intuitive musician, and sound healing practitioner. Inspired by sacred folk music and earth-rooted ceremony, he is passionate about creating ritual spaces for collective healing, personal transformation, and remembering our innate and ancestral wisdoms. Workshop Title: Intuitive Music for Healing & Ritual Workshop Description: Explore a variety of musical instruments that can be used for sound healing and sacred music, including: flutes, ocarinas, harps, strings, percussion, and the voice. This space will offer an opportunity to get creative with sound and improvisational music, grounding into our connection, intuition, and strengthening our communion with nature. Participants will be invited to craft a collective ritual through sound together. All experience levels welcome-- those new to musical expression encouraged! Please bring any instruments you may have to share or contribute for the group.
Christine MArie
Oak Wisdom: Remember & Empower
Christine Marie is a ceremonialist, writer, and guide devoted to earth-based healing, ancestral remembrance, and embodied empowerment. Rooted in reverence for the natural world, she weaves somatic practice, ritual, and intuitive guidance to support people in reclaiming their power and connecting to the wisdom of their lineages. With a background in energy medicine, trauma-informed facilitation, and plant spirit studies, Christine Marie creates sacred spaces that invite deep healing & transformation. Workshop Title: Oak Wisdom: Remember and Empower Workshop Description: When we connect with the spirit of the Oak, we enter into relationship with a wise elder of the natural world—one who teaches us how to stand rooted in times of change, to remember where we come from, and to hold steady alignment in our individual and collective power. In this immersive guided journey, we will walk with the Oak as a symbol of ancestral wisdom, embodied strength, and collective resilience. Through visualization, drumming, somatic grounding, and sound ritual, we’ll move through the oak’s lifecycle—from seed to root, trunk to canopy—exploring each stage as a mirror for our own growth, healing, and empowerment.
Kat Brady
Soul Temple Mojo
MAitreya Wolf
Five Elements Through QiGong
Dr. Kat Brady, LAc. (they/them) has studied and practiced Qigong for over a decade and is a certified teacher from the Ling Gui International Healing Qigong school under the instruction of Master Liu He. They bring their Qigong practice to life by blending in Chinese medical and Daoist wisdom to connect each student to their place as the pivot between heaven and earth. Kat received their doctorate in Acupuncture and Chinese medicine from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in Summer 2023 and has both a public and private clinical practice in Portland, Oregon. They have studied various forms of karate from a young age including Goju Ryu, Shotokan, and Kempo (second degree black belt). Workshop Title: Five Elements Through QiGong Workshop Description: In this energizing morning Qigong class, we will use movement, visualization, and mantra to explore the 5 elements of Chinese philosophy. The 5 Elements expand the concepts of Yin & Yang to explain how subtle energetic movements and changes that exist in both the body (microcosm) and the world around us (macrocosm). Wood is like the upward growth of young plants in the spring, Fire is like the expansive blooming of flowers in the summer, Earth is the steady pivot around which the other energies turn, Metal is like the descent of leaves in the Fall, and Water is like the patient hibernation and storage of animals in the Winter. Through practicing Daoist Qigong we will explore and embody each of these elements in how they relate to the changing seasons and changes within our own bodies as well as how these understandings can build resilience within ourselves as the world changes around us.
Maitreya Wolf is a voice of nature and the mystery that bridges worlds in her manifold offerings. Present as a musician, medicine guide, earth mystic, and the founder of the Soul Mojo Mystery School, Maitreya has a four-pronged taproot at the center of everything she is and does: Beauty, Soul, reverence for the Earth, and Conscious Evolution. After 30 years of dance ranging from ballet through raves to clubs and now ecstatic dance, Maitreya created Soul Temple Dance as a weaving of many of the elements which have allowed her to deepen most fully into her own dance practice as a mystical path – meditation, heart-sharing, music, free-form movement, and prayer. This offering is an invitation into the deepest realms of dance as embodied prayer, spiritual practice, and catalytic magic; come feast. Workshop Title: Soul Mojo Dance Workshop Description: Join Shamanic Counselor, musician, and life-long dancer Maitreya Wolf, for a dance workshop experience unlike any other in this special festival edition of her signature Soul Temple Dance offering. Weaving the elements of guided meditation, heart-sharing, free-form movement, and prayer, you will be guided into full presence with what's alive in your heart, share that with the circle in a concise and authentic - not vulnerable (unless you want that) - way, dance deeply into it in a lightly facilitated dance prayer experience, and then ground that all into your system so that you can harvest the jewels that emerged for you in the process and take that forth into the rest of your life. This session is an invitation into the deeper possibilities of dance as spiritual practice from someone who has been dancing for over 30 years and knows the power of dance to catalyze true awakening, healing, and empowerment.
Patrick Merle sellin
Breathwave Ceremony
Patrick Merle Sellin, M.A. is a heart-centered healing artist specializing in psychosomatic therapy and spiritual guidance. Patrick is a certified facilitator and Senior Trainer in the Breathwave Conscious Breathing community, offering private retreats, breathwork trainings and psychedelic integration consultation worldwide. Workshop Title: Breathwave Ceremony Workshop Description: Breathwave is a powerfully gentle approach to conscious connected breathing. Conscious connection to our breathing is a simple, direct path to embodied and collective coherence, orienting us to unique perceptions of wholeness and interconnectedness. Gathering in circle, attuning intentions, laying back: we allow the respiratory intelligence to open naturally without pausing, controlling or forcing the breath. Participants in this Breathwave Ceremony will learn to relax into a potent-yet-peaceful (parasympathetic) rhythm of respiration, which is optimal for the expression and integration of unexpressed energy in the body-mind. Breathwave facilitators are present to help identify and correct any imbalances or resistance to an optimal breath rhythm, making easy the removal of psychosomatic barriers that keep us from sustained coherence with Breath/Spirit.
river siobhan
kyrynn simons
Heart of Now: Relational Processing
Heart of Now: Relational Processing
River is a communitarian & facilitator devoted to presence, connection and authentic expression. She has trained in a wide variety of modalities, including as a Zegg Forum Facilitator, Heart of Now Assistant, Neo-Tantra Practitioner, REPAIR Process Guide, NVC Mediator, Psychedelic Peer Support, and Transformational Play Party Facilitator. In her current work, River supports houseless youth & youth in crisis in Eugene, Oregon. In her spare time, River photographs festivals, goes to ecstatic dance, and organizes & facilitates transformational workshops. River brings a grounded, heart-centered approach to every space she holds, and walks through life rooted in a commitment to earth, spirit, and authentic connection. Workshop Title: Heart of Now: Relational Processing Workshop Description: In this workshop, we will be weaving the powerful modalities of Heart of Now and Zegg Forum into a workshop designed to connect you more deeply to self and community. Our workshop will begin with guided mediation and movement, & prompts for heart-shares that will leave you feeling held and holding. After our initial connection, we will give an introduction to what Zegg Forum is, and guide a Zegg-inspired Forum where individuals will have the space to share their process, guided by trauma-informed facilitators, and held by community.
Kyrynn is a Heart of Now Facilitator who supports individuals in coming home to their hearts and community. She uses somatic therapy practices, authentic relating, and community exercises to clear trauma blockages in the nervous system, allowing people to live more authentically. She nurtures deep regulation and safety by providing a sanctuary space for raw expression. Kyrynn also facilitates sound healings, voice activations, and somatic singing workshops. In addition to workshops - she offers one-on-one Nurture Sessions, works as a caregiver, and is currently an apprentice in medicine ceremonies. Workshop Title: Heart of Now: Relational Processing Workshop Description: In this workshop, we will be weaving the powerful modalities of Heart of Now and Zegg Forum into a workshop designed to connect you more deeply to self and community. Our workshop will begin with guided mediation and movement, & prompts for heart-shares that will leave you feeling held and holding. After our initial connection, we will give an introduction to what Zegg Forum is, and guide a Zegg-inspired Forum where individuals will have the space to share their process, guided by trauma-informed facilitators, and held by community.
PLAEDO WELLMAN
Strategies for Mutual Aid
& Community Building
Plaedo introduces himself as a "raccoon wizard Bodhisattva, philosopher of play"—a funky, eccentric creative professional with over 15 years of experience weaving through performance, education, and community development. As a performance artist, he alchemizes psychedelic hip hop bass music, storytelling, and spoken word poetry into soul-stirring yet danceable performances that have thrived in diverse settings from festivals and universities to coffee shops and churches. As an educator, Plaedo specializes in engaging "playshops" on topics including cultural resiliency, trauma healing, personal development, and permaculture. Beyond his artistic work, he's deeply committed to practical community action—designing services for the unhoused, organizing conscious celebrations, and cultivating permaculture gardens. Whether serving as artist, educator, or organizer, Plaedo approaches each role with playful wisdom and passion for cultivating resilient communities and cultures. Workshop Title: Strategies for Mutual Aid & Community Building Workshop Description: Drawing from over 12 years of experience in homeless shelter sites as an activist, advocate, and nonprofit employee, this experiential workshop reveals the profound wisdom found within homeless camp communities that can revolutionize how we build supportive systems. Through interactive discussions and hands-on activities, participants will discover sophisticated strategies for survival, mutual aid, conflict resolution, and collective care developed by marginalized communities. You'll practice essential skills including deep listening, empathetic presence, collaborative rule-creation, and restorative conflict resolution—approaches refined in high-stakes environments. This transformative experience challenges the narrative that positions homeless camps as problems to be solved, instead revealing them as laboratories of innovation with strategies for healing trauma, building trust, and creating belonging that can transform any community or organization.
monel Chang
Hollye Holbrook
PrANA PORTAL
Ancestral Healing for
Colonized Peoples
Monel Chang (all pronouns) is a Corean-born, PNW-based movement artist, workshop facilitator, and naturopathic doctor. Monel is passionate about ancestral healing, collective growth, and facilitating attuned spaces. They were most recently part of a "Healing from Japanese Colonialism" grief circle at the Asian Diaspora Jam in California. Workshop Title: Ancestral Healing for Colonized Peoples Workshop Description: This ancestral healing workshop is a guided group ritual for people from colonized lineages who seek to reconnect with their ancestors, reclaim cultural memory, and begin to heal intergenerational wounds.Participants are invited to honor both the grief and resilience carried in their bloodlines. The workshop creates a sacred space for remembering what was stolen, listening for what remains, and dreaming into what can be restored.
Awaken & Align:
Morning Flow Yoga
Hollye Holbrook is a yoga teacher, space-holder, and lover of movement as medicine. With over 15 years of personal practice and training in trauma-informed and somatic approaches, she guides classes that invite presence, self-awareness, and grounded embodiment. Hollye is currently pursuing a graduate degree in mental health counseling and volunteers with a national psychedelic support line, offering compassionate care in altered states. She’s passionate about community, healing, and creating spaces where people can reconnect with themselves and the wisdom of the body. Workshop Title: Awaken & Align: Morning Flow Yoga Workshop Description: Start your day with an intentional, energizing flow that awakens the body and aligns you with your inner wisdom. This morning practice weaves breath with movement to gently open, strengthen, and ground you. All are welcome—come as you are and leave feeling centered, uplifted, and ready to meet the day.
A Liberatory Journey
Through Breath
Led by Adina Eggen, Aaron Overstreet, & Chaz Pro, this is an immersive experience designed around the theme of *Liberation* ~ integrating breathwork, brainwave entrainment frequencies, sound, and both guided and free-form movement. Participants will be guided through intentional breathing techniques to regulate and activate the nervous system, creating conditions for heightened awareness and emotional release. Immersive soundscapes and geometrically designed frequencies support deep brainwave entrainment, while movement—both structured and intuitive—encourages somatic expression and the release of stored tension. Toning and vocal work further enhance vibrational alignment and help unlock the voice as a tool for freedom. Together, these practices create a grounded and meaningful space to release limitations and experience a deeper sense of embodied liberation.
morgan Vanderpool
Tending the Fire of
Our Body’s Survival
Lydia Violet
Maite La Muse
Morgan Vanderpool, LICSW, (they/he) is a queer, trans, neurospicy, and ecologically- grounded: collective neuro-mechanic, regenerative-practice facilitator, neuro-sensitive movement specialist, drag king, poet, and community builder- with 15+ years experience as a global complex trauma specialist. They facilitate mycelially-grounded, and somatically abolitionist, embodiment practices- that strengthen our collective capacity to healthfully move with every layer of our badass survivor selves. So we may co-build thriving nervous and eco-systems - ONE BREATH AT A TIME. Workshop Title: Tending the Fire of Our Body’s Survival Workshop Description: Our collective survival is a HOT 🥵 topic. Our Mother is getting hotter, and our bodies & relationships get INFLAMED, right along with Her. This workshop provides a skill & wisdom building space too: 1) Cultivate our embodied skills, to move with the heat our intersecting survival responses; 2) Fuel & nurture our neurosomatic capacity for connection & collaboration; 3) Explore getting turned on by & for our shared survival. Together, we’ll tend the fire that makes us more skillful stewards of our survival responses, and explore the question: “How can our collective survival become the *hottest* thing we’ve EVER done together?” 🔥
Tending the Bones
Lydia Violet is a modern-day renaissance woman—a musician, educator, and activist weaving together social justice, spiritual ecology, and ancestral wisdom. She is the founder of the School for the Great Turning, based on her 14 years of study with Joanna Macy. Her soulful fiddle playing and voice carry the spirit of her Persian-Armenian roots and her commitment to music as a force for healing and transformation. Lydia will be joined by her ensemble Singing the Bones—a participatory folk project featuring Kele Nitoto and Mgilvry Allen. Together, they lead audiences in ancestral songs from, blending performance and sing-along to summon the joy of shared remembrance. This offering explores what it means to reclaim cultural legacy as Americans, inviting us to turn consciously toward our roots and listen for what still lives in the bones.
Vocal Activation for Healing
As a writer and composer, Maité draws on her multi-ethnic background to craft songs that blend languages, cultures, and styles, capturing a growing international audience of devoted listeners. With a signature voice that stirs the soul and lyrics that touch the heart, she creates a space where beauty and truth meet in an organic fusion of RnB, folk, ceremonial, and global influences. Maité has performed around the world, sharing the stage with the likes of Rising Appalachia, Mike Love, and Porangui. She has been the opener in Europe for Curawaka, FIA, and Carrie Tree. She also holds her signature voice workshop around the world, & works 1:1 as a coach for leaders who have a powerful message to share. Workshop Title: Vocal Activation for Healing Workshop Description: Explore the depth of your true voice in a welcoming & powerful space where you can let go of self-doubt and open up to your natural expression. Together, we’ll play with sound, loosen blocks that hold you back, & find more ease and confidence in sharing your voice. This workshop is about feeling free, authentic, & connected with yourself and others so that you can shine your light in the world.
MARISA HOPE BENSON
Song & Sound Bath
Rachel Duthler
Sara Tone
Nature Kinship & Stability
During Chaotic Times
Eco-Rhythms of Cascadia
Marisa Hope Benson is a somatic facilitator, an intuitive song catcher, a sacred space tender, and an embodied leader who loves to bring the power of ritual & presence into the world. Marisa is currently pursuing her Masters degree in Mindfulness-based Transpersonal Counseling at Naropa University. She is excited to see how this radical education can deepen her service to healing and liberation for all. She will be joined by Steve Hancock, a Sound Healer, Reiki Master, and multi-instrumentalist who has been playing music for over 25 years. He has a passion for creating therapeutic soundscapes that soothe the soul. His musical offerings inspire energetic release and emotional alchemy. Workshop Title: Song & Sound Bath Workshop Description: Come dip your toes into a cauldron of soothing sound. Let your body soften into deep relaxation. Rest and receive or offer your voice in a collaborative sound experience. This is a moment to be guided and held in a sacred channel of music, song and poetry.
Rachel (she/they) is a mental health therapist who takes people outdoors to heal from trauma and regain a sense of mental stability. Their past eras have also included being a wilderness guide for rite of passage backcountry trips as well as an outdoor educator on community farms and gardens. She is a life enthusiast and deep griever. These seemingly opposing ways of existing have been their foundation for building a life of openness amongst a world that holds both suffering and joy. She freaking loves dancing. And deeply misses Lake Michigan. Workshop Title: Nature Kinship & Stability During Chaotic Times Workshop Description: During this workshop, we will explore how a deepening relationship with nature can calm our nervous systems and provide stability when it feels like our world is falling into chaos. We will utilize hands-on activities and conversation to explore a sense of grounding, kinship with nature, belonging in nature, understanding our beliefs about our connection to nature, developing a stronger attachment bond, and promoting integration of opposing internal stories. Hands on activities will include guided meditations, breath exercises, reflective walking, partner games and play. There will also be some interactive teaching components about the nervous system & other therapeutic interventions for stability.
Portland’s very own Sara Tone brings New Roots music in the current now — songs for living and loving, passionately sung out in deep harmony. Lyrics pulsing with reverence and profound reminders, choruses to sing our hearts out. A ship of songs for the big waves of life. Raw, vulnerable, real, beautiful, intense and unabashed. Rooted in the heart of Cascadia, these songs of land cry out for intact forests and watersheds, hyphal tips of old memory and new ways of being. Come be moved, lifted, reinspired, and reminded why breathe here now. Workshop Title: Eco-Rhythms of Cascadia Workshop Description: Let us gather at the confluence of polyrhythm, sound, and song, where ecology and music swirl in the reverent harmony of watersheds cascading their return to sea. On a watercourse way we’ll dive deep into the many ecoregions and waterways that feed the Big River/Nchi’wana watershed, with a heart focus emanating from our gathering location near the small local creek that feeds into the early reaches of the Willamette river. Song and rhythm will be our vessel in collaborative presence, remembering, geolocating (hydrolocating?) ourselves here and now in the long song of what we call the Cascadia bioregion. Bring drums, shakers, voices, open hearts and minds as we sing and play the watershed way, cascading and flowing from mountain to sea and everything in between.
Reishi Strauss
Homegrown Herbalism
Nick Canino
Ben Rosen
Homegrown Herbalism
QiGong: Calm in the Face of Chaos
Reishi Strauss is an Appalachian-born herbalist, mycologist, medicine-maker, and microdose coach now based in the Pacific Northwest. She graduated from Bastyr University in 2019 and received her Bachelor’s of Science in Herbal Science. A lover of the intersections between science and spirit, Reishi has taken courses in pharmacology, ethnobotany, herb/drug interactions, disease processes, and more. In 2022 Reishi completed her studies from the Columbines School of Botanical Studies where she studied ecological stewardship, clinical herbalism, and botany. She owns and operates a non-alcoholic elixir bar business – Earth & Spirit Elixirs – and seeks to be in symbiotic interspecies relationships with the plants, fungi, insects, bacteria, animals, humans, minerals, and many other lifeforms whom we co-habitate with this beautiful planet Earth. Workshop Title: Homegrown Herbalism: Growing & Making Magic with Medicinal Plants Workshop Description: This workshop will be a deep dive into how to grow medicinal plants and make magical, delicious, healing preparations with them -- elixirs, tinctures, infused oils, salves, juices, baths, syrups, and other recipes. Learn how to grow and utilize your own natural Farmacy (hehe) to build accessible earth-based healthcare systems to support you and your community's health. We will explore growing conditions, medicinal qualities, and recipes with Tulsi, Lemon Balm, Milky Oats, Yarrow, Anise Hyssop, Skullcap, Fennel, Lemon Verbena, Chamomile, Marshmallow, Mugwort, Mint, Lemongrass, Miner's Lettuce, Chickweed, Ashwagandha, and more. Nick will share tips on saving seeds and Reishi will sample various elixirs and potions throughout the class. Come with your own medicines to share, your questions, plant stories and lore, and come make magic with us!
Nick Canino is a regenerative land tender based in Portland Oregon. He is the founder and executive Director of Rhythm Seed farm a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Urban Farm dedicated growing and saving Seeds and educating about seed sovereignty. Nick works closely with black brown and indigenous farmers in the Portland area along with Food Banks and Farms that grow to support marginalized communities. He brings 10 years of land tending experience, specializing in urban edible landscaping, and lawn-garden conversion. Nick is a systems thinker, revolutionary minded changemaker, and artist. He has access to millions of locally Adapted Seeds through his organization and the knowledge of how to convert abandoned lots into lush food gardens in a single season. He is an intergenerational garden educator with experience in youth leadership development, and loves to teach and share his passions. Workshop Title: Homegrown Herbalism: Growing & Making Magic with Medicinal Plants Workshop Description: This workshop will be a deep dive into how to grow medicinal plants and make magical, delicious, healing preparations with them -- elixirs, tinctures, infused oils, salves, juices, baths, syrups, and other recipes. Learn how to grow and utilize your own natural Farmacy (hehe) to build accessible earth-based healthcare systems to support you and your community's health. We will explore growing conditions, medicinal qualities, and recipes with Tulsi, Lemon Balm, Milky Oats, Yarrow, Anise Hyssop, Skullcap, Fennel, Lemon Verbena, Chamomile, Marshmallow, Mugwort, Mint, Lemongrass, Miner's Lettuce, Chickweed, Ashwagandha, and more. Nick will share tips on saving seeds and Reishi will sample various elixirs and potions throughout the class. Come with your own medicines to share, your questions, plant stories and lore, and come make magic with us!
Ben has over 10 years experience teaching qigong from the Stillness Movement lineage. In 2015, Ben completed his 5 year Qigong Certification program with Lineage Holder Michael Lomax. Ben teaches qigong from a place of deep passion, purpose and a dedication to preserving the authentic ancestral traditions of this practice as passed down from teacher to student throughout the generations. Michael Lomax’s main teacher was Master Wang Juemin, past Stillness Movement lineage holder and director of the Baoding Qigong Healing Hospital in Hubei, China. Workshop Title: QiGong: Calm in the Face of Chaos Workshop Description: Qigong is an ancient embodiment practice for connecting us with our innate internal energy body. Through breath, movement and meditative awareness, qigong offers a profound ancestrally refined approach to cultivating calm in the face of chaos. This translates to deeper harmony, health and happiness in our mind, body and spirit. The practice of qigong supports our ability to achieve calmness of our nervous system even in the face of chaos around us. A healing practice so important in our changing times of current history.
Sara & Paula
Contact Improvisation
SEA THORPE & JESSE
Rooted Deep: Stewarding Soil &
Remembering Kinship with Oak
Sara Zolbrod Fouché has a background in dance education, theater, and arts event production including ecstatic dances, community-building, emceeing, dance access for people with disabilities, and bringing out-of-town contact improvisation teachers to Eugene. She has taught contact improvisation at the Oregon Country Fair, Breitenbush Hot Springs, and at the 2024 Conscious Growth Convergence. She helps run the weekly Friday evening contact improvisation jams and classes in Eugene. Paula Renée Rashkow is a long time dance explorer with her embodiment practice rooted in yoga and qigong. She fell in love with contact improvisation practice in 2010 in Portland and has studied at jams far and wide including SF, NYC, Vienna and more extensively at residential retreats in Port Townsend WA, Earthdance, and in Thailand. She had her debut teaching contact improvisation in Chiang Mai, Thailand and has assisted Paul Deering at Oregon Country Fair for many years. Paula is a licensed acupuncturist and sound healer as well, and finds dancing contact improvisation cultivates her ability to show up with deep presence and awareness as a healer. Workshop Title: Contact Improvisation: A Dance of Convergence Workshop Description: In contact improvisation, physical contact with deep listening provides the focus for movement improvisation that can only arise when two or more people converge. Dancing can range from slow and meditative to playful, acrobatic, and vigorous. Guided exercises and explorations will include some of the following skills: increasing sensitivity to oneself and one's partners, falling or moving floorward, rolling, exploring our tree-like ability to support weight, lifting and being lifted comfortably and safely, tuning into the speed of our reflexes, & responsive co-creation with our partners and surroundings.
Sea Thorpe invites us to root deeper into our lived relationships with the Earth, with the tools of ritual, story, sound, movement and witness. An animist, artist, and lifelong student of plant teachers, Sea guides a journey of exploring the edge of our own bodies and that of Oak, exploring cycles of Life/Death/Life. Weaving humor, rhythm, and play alongside grounded practices to revitalize soil, we practice being in togetherness with the whole web of life, and heeding Oak’s call to our highest presence and purpose. Jesse Herzog brings his lifelong relationship to Oak and his training in Natural Farming to an activity participants can take home to their own ecologies: working with keystones species like Oak and Indigenous micro-organisms to create Microbial Solutions: a way to easily return diversity to soils. Through the act of giving back to the Earth, we can deeply root our intentions and introduce microbial diversity while restoring ecologies, gardening, medicine-making and more. Workshop Title: Rooted Deep: Stewarding Soil & Remembering Kinship with Oak Workshop Description: In this wild-edged workshop lead by Rising Oak co-farmers Sea Thorpe and Jesse Herzog, we re-member our roles as Earth stewards and keystone species by the example of Oak and its ecology. Join us on a journey of giving back to the Earth as we receive guidance from plantcestors and unseen soil guides, woven with ritual, story, guided group play and hands-on contact with the ones who orchestrate this landed Life: indigenous soil microbes.
SERAPHINA CANHAM
Mushroom Spore Printing: An Artistic Connection to Fungi
Seraphina began foraging at a young age and their love of mushrooms was amplified upon moving to the PNW in 2016. They have been spore printing for the past 8 years; their art evolving as their relationship with the mushroom spirit deepens and evolves. Workshop Title: Mushroom Spore Printing: An Artistic Connection to Fungi Workshop Description: Come venture into the woods around Lost Valley to learn about both the art and practicality of mushroom spore printing. During this workshop, we will combine our knowledge of identifying fungi species with our artistic creativity. The spore printing process will also allow us to connect with the spirit of the mushroom, seeing them through all of their cycles. Fungi beginners welcome!
Sisters of the One Drum
Universal Heartbeat:
Sacred Medicine of the Drum
WYLD LEE
My Animal Body:
5Rhythms Moving Meditation
Yiyetta Love
Founded by drum carrier and storyteller Sewa M. Valencia, Sisters Of The One Drum is an intertribal, intercultural circle of women who gather around the Grandmother Drum for the soul purpose healing, ceremony, and ancestral remembrance. Rooted in Indigenous teachings, their mission is to restore balance and connection through the Medicine of the Drum. With circles, workshops, and gatherings across Turtle Island and beyond, Sisters Of The One Drum lifts voices in unity — one prayer, one voice, one heartbeat. Workshop Title: Universal Heartbeat: Sacred Medicine of the Drum Workshop Description: Step into a sacred circle where the Grandmother Drum calls us back to the original heartbeat of creation. Sisters Of The One Drum invites you to remember who you are through song, prayer, rhythm, and collective healing. In this gathering, voices weave together as medicine — lifting prayers for ourselves, for one another, and for the Earth. This is not performance; it is a living ceremony where all who enter are welcomed, held, and transformed. Come as you are, and leave with the heartbeat echoing inside you.
Wyld Lee is a sensitive and awkward animal whose native tongue is dance. Her work is designed to reignite instinct and intuition, giving permission to feel and move whatever needs moving so more freedom is felt. Workshop Title: My Animal Body: 5Rhythms Moving Meditation Description: My Animal Body is a 5Rhythms Moving Meditation - an opportunity to reconnect with the wilderness beneath your skin, the knowing within your bones & the natural patterns of release your body already understands. We will explore using a conscious movement practice as a way to relinquish old wounds, traumas & patterns by listening full hearted & giving the animal body space to do what they are designed to do. Offering ourselves to the dance, we can release the past to make space within to respond honestly in the present with clean instincts & clear intuition.
Sound Bath Experience
Yiyetta Love is a multi-faceted healer, yoga teacher, sound Oracle, and musician based near Eugene, Oregon, and a devoted mother of two. Known for her captivating voice that transports listeners to other realms, Yiyetta’s life experiences have deepened her understanding of the human condition, fostering genuine empathy and connection with others. Her mission is to spread love, peace, and unity through music, community, and healing practices, believing in the intrinsic divinity that connects all beings. As a channel for angelic healing vibrations, Yiyetta facilitates transformation on deep levels, opening hearts and raising awareness. Through her music, Yiyetta sings for unity, world peace, and the beauty of nature, reminding each being of their precious essence. She is a beacon of kindness and compassion, always ready to support and uplift those around her. Workshop Title: Sound Bath Experience
Bruce Horowitz
Regenerative DesigN Mastermind
Bryan Burnoski
Earthen Arts: Clay, Cob and Plaster
CASSIDY BRISTOL
Blissed Out Yoga
Bruce Horowitz teaches regenerative and ecovillage design with Gaia Education, and is long time permaculture teacher. Bruce brings a collaborative ethos to all his endeavors which have included co-founding a coop, a land trust, a political troupe and skillshare festival. Workshop Title: Regenerative Design Mastermind Workshop Description: Bring your dream project, purpose, personality, or pondering to this deep dive into co-creation. In the workshop we will go over the principles of regenerative design, offer tools to make it manifest and break into small groups to workshop into form. Let’s birth new earth ecosystems together!
Bryan Burnoski has been playing in the mud ever since he was a kid. Over the past two decades, Bryan started building homes and teaching cob workshops using natural materials. He began building yurts in the midwest where he grew up, and has since been fascinated with how to create a place of his own with all natural materials. Bryan is continuously learning, experimenting, and refining wha he knows, and enjoys teaching others. Workshop Title: Earthen Arts: Clay, Cob and Plaster Workshop Description: The ancient art of earthen building has been around for millennia. So whether you've built with cob or not, beginners and advanced students alike will get an opportunity to experience the ancient practice of earthen building. In this workshop, Bryan will teach the fundamentals of cob (and a few advanced techniques too). You'll learn how to source clay soil, make and mix cob, make adobe blocks, build a cob archway, as well as make and apply an earthen plaster to cob.
Cassidy Bristol is a yoga teaching flow artist who encourages giggles and comfort in the world around her. She follows her bliss by creating mindful, medicinal containers to journey closer to the self. With the power of consent, yoga, somatic listening, humor, and music, she offers guided opportunities to tune in to body wisdom through authentic movement. You can find her leading workshops and teaching classes at studios, dance spaces, and festivals. She’s based out of Seattle and travels often to share these offerings. Workshop Title: Blissed Out Yoga Workshop Description: Join Cassidy for a dreamy movement journey that weaves teachings of yoga into the bliss of being at a transformational event. With slow intentional sequencing and full permission to melt into body wisdom, you’ll be invited to let your breath lead your experience. This is an accessible offering to anyone with a body. Together we’ll create a safe and loving space to nourish the beautiful, blissed out creature that you are. All experiences are welcome, show up in your truth.
ERIKA MERZ
Energy Dance Ceremony
FIONA MAURA
ISAAC COTEC
Erika Merz is a Seattle-based visionary artist, Energy Dancer, facilitator, and activist, and the founder of Rise Up with H’ART. With 25+ years of holistic embodiment experience, she helps changemakers reclaim dance as a spiritual practice for deep healing, soul activation, and clarity of purpose. Inspired by her experiences channeling energy on the dance floor, Erika’s Energy Dance Ceremonies catalyze tangible, lasting transformation in people’s lives. Rooted in the vision of a liberatory world, her work is guided by a decolonial lens, honoring divine wisdom and power as key to radical culture change. Workshop Title: Energy Dance Ceremony Workshop Description: For millennia, humans have danced as embodied prayer—to access expanded states of consciousness, divine wisdom, and deep healing…and you can too! Energy Dance awakens your body’s innate intelligence to channel Source energy, move stuck emotions, and reconnect you with your higher purpose and power. More than dance—this is a meditative, cathartic, and empowering ceremony to transform limiting beliefs, reset your nervous system, and embody your true, radiant self. If you’re feeling the call to rise & catalyze real, tangible change in your life & the world, this workshop is not to be missed!
Voice of Breath Sound Healing
Archetypes in Motion: A Dance
through Universal Symbols
Fiona Maura is an ethereal Nashville-based sound healer and vocal alchemist whose music enchants listeners by blending soulful melodies, spiritual lyricism, and dreamy sound healing. A Reiki practitioner and musician, she weaves crystal bowls, acoustic strings and ambient vocals into her performances, guiding listeners through a whimsical journey of metamorphosis. Fiona’s sound bath was featured on American Idol, and she was awarded runner-up for Best Singer-Songwriter in the Best of Nashville 2022. Her reiki-infused offerings incorporate flow chimes, ocean drum, and sacred voice to create immersive spaces for deep healing, release, and transformation. Workshop Title: Voice of Breath Sound Healing Workshop Description: Voice of Breath Sound Healing blends breathwork, voice activation, and sound healing to awaken the authentic voice as a tool for alignment, grounding and ancestral connection. Dropping in with conscious breath sequences, we enter our internal sound bath—humming. We open through intuitive singing and mantra, allowing the voice to flow freely. As we deepen inward, crystal sound bowls, flow chimes, and healing frequencies guide us through a rejuvenating, reiki-infused sound journey.
Isaac Cotec (a.k.a. Subaqueous) has been immersed in the ecstatic dance world for over a decade, DJing and facilitating conscious movement across the globe. As the creator of the Masculine Archetype Deck — a unique tool for exploring Jungian archetypes through embodiment and reflection — Isaac bridges music, movement, and myth. His events invite participants to journey through both light and shadow, discovering deeper self-awareness through story, sound, and dance. Workshop Title: Archetypes in Motion: A Dance through Universal Symbols Workshop Description: Step into a living myth. In this immersive dance workshop, we’ll explore the timeless archetypes described by Carl Jung — the universal symbols that live in every culture, and in each of us. Through guided movement, free-form expression, and mindful embodiment, you’ll inhabit both the radiant gifts and the hidden shadows of these archetypes. No dance experience is necessary — just curiosity, openness, and a willingness to embody the many stories of your soul.
Kavana Tree Bressen
Making Your Group Dynamics Better
Kelson Gorman
KIERSTEN, QUINN, & KELSON
Seed To Harvest farm to Table
Bioregional Storytelling & Organizing
Kelson is a local community activist focused on planting the seeds for new systems of alternative economics and food sovereignty that can support a future that sustains all life and diverse human and more-than-human relations for future generations. Kelson lives and works at Lost Valley Education Center as an educator researcher and manager of the farms/gardens on site. He has a degree in sociology and philosophy from the University of Oregon as well as a strong foundation in Central and Latin American Indigenous movements. He brings experience in facilitation, models of community governance, alternative systems of economics, and agroecological food sovereignty movements. In his organizing role with Regenerate Cascadia, he stands in solidarity with the Cascadian bioregional and global agroecological movements advocating for just, sustainable food systems that prioritize the well-being of local communities and their ecological context over profit. Workshop: Seed to Harvest Farm to Table Workshop Description: We will be planting crops to overwinter and Harvesting food for the CGC meals. We will ground into the space and introduce ourselves to the garden inviting song while we work. We will see the full cycle of planting and harvesting and talk about food sovereignty in the Willamette valley and how we can all play a part in the web of resilience in our “ecoregion.”
Kavana Tree Bressen has been blessed with a calling to help groups function well. In the past few decades she has served a wide variety of 200+ organizations, including nonprofits, small businesses, residential intentional communities, activists, educational institutions, government agencies, faith-based congregations, and more. She is also the founder of the nonprofit collective that produced the deck Group Works: A Pattern Language for Bringing Life to Meetings and Other Gatherings, currently in use by thousands of people in dozens of countries around the world. Workshop Title: Making Your Group Dynamics Better Workshop Description: Why is it that some meetings bring life to your soul, while others leave you wishing you'd never stepped in the room? What happens at the best ones, that makes them productive, fulfilling, sometimes even magic? Come with your stories and dilemmas in hand, ready to share and learn. We'll use the Group Works deck (free download available) as our lens into the core wisdom of facilitation and group convening. A beautiful example of collective creation, this pattern language has wide application in designing and running meetings and other events; founded locally, it is presently in use by people in 20+ countries around the world.
We’ll explore patterns of bioregional organizing; specifically focusing on storytelling, weaving networks of learning and healing across identities, positionalities, and communities, and cultivating place based consciousness. We’ll explore these threads through group conversation centered on the role reclaiming imagination in this work, as well as exploring movement and other embodied creative expression. These focuses are some of the many essential patterns we orient toward in our efforts to reconnect to place. Bring your presence, curiosity and possibly funky hat. (Funky hats help with all of these processes, trust.)