SKILLSHARES + DISCUSSIONS
More added soon!
Sunshine Scouts - Nature Weaving (ALL AGES)
Please join us for an all ages nature weaving! We will be using cardboard and rubber bands to build our looms, then going on an adventure through the pines to find nature treasures to weave into our craft. We will also sing songs, and read a story or two to fit the theme.
Hello, my name is Izaria Bearman, a mother of two who is passionate about children getting outside and connecting with nature. My husband, Charles and I facilitate a playgroup in the Irish Hills named Sunshine Scouts. In this group we spend time connecting and exploring nature as well as fostering a sense of community and belonging to not only the children but the caregivers as well. When I’m not at playgroup you’ll find me enjoying each day life has to offer with my children.
Poetry In Motion with Dominique Linden
Dominique spent her life in Michigan up until Summer 2022 when she moved to Maui. After a lot of trial and error, and learning a lot she did not know about Hawaiian Culture and how to respect it - she has found a good groove on the island. Working with children with autism, learning to farm, harvest and feed community, and founding a company called "Poetry In Motion Maui" have become her main endeavors. She is very excited to share Poetry In Motion with her Michigan community!
In this work/play shop we will be partaking in group writing prompts. After each prompt we will have time to write in silence. After the period of silence people will have an opportunity to share what they wrote, free of any feedback besides some encouraging snaps and claps! The prompts are just a jumping off point and the best thing about this format is seeing how different yet similar we all can be. You are never obligated to share, but it is very empowering to listen and share deeply with one another. Everything that is shared stays in the moment. The intention of this workshop is to nurture our freedom of expression and foster community care. It is called Poetry In Motion but no rhyming or specific format is required. Please bring a journal and something to write with.
Mushroom Identification with Carley Kratz
This class will introduce students to commonly foraged mushrooms and their toxic look-alikes. Mycology is a field that is notorious for being difficult to study. Albeit unintentional, there is some degree of gatekeeping in the mycological community. This workshop aims to help make mycology more accessible to a broad audience. In addition to identification, we will cover the life cycles of fungi and the habitats in which mushrooms can be found. Mushroom identification is a multisensory experience, so we will incorporate visual cues, smell, touch, and taste into the discussion. Best practices for harvesting and storing mushrooms will be addressed with examples of guidebooks and tools.
Carley has been rambling around the hills and headwaters of the Irish Hills area for most of her life. She is passionate about conservation and environmental science education. Carley has a doctorate in soil science with a focus on mycology, and recently published a curriculum on wild-foraged mushrooms. She loves teaching people about the fascinating lifestyles of fungi and how they can be used as a nutritious food resource.
Michigan's Medicinal Mushrooms: Therapeutic Use & Foraging
Michigan’s Medicinal Mushrooms is a deep dive into the therapeutic use, identification, and foraging of seven key species with clinically studied benefits growing right here in Michigan and throughout the Midwest.
You’ll also learn important safety considerations, contraindications, and pregnancy safety. All research is cited, with resources provided if you want to keep going deeper on your own. Throughout the class, you’ll get hands-on exposure to real specimens to engage your senses and build confidence in identification.
Tyler also shares how Indigenous cultures throughout the world have historically used these fungi, along with practical applications in wilderness survival and bushcraft. Ample space is created for Q&A as well!
Tyler Davidson is a board-certified holistic health coach and nutritional therapist with over a decade of experience helping people reverse chronic disease. Specializing in the therapeutic use of functional mushrooms, he combines modern research, hands-on foraging experience, and practical strategies to restore health and vitality.
He is the founder of Elden Medicinals, where he crafts small-batch, wild-foraged mushroom extracts, and the author of Wild Healing with Medicinal Mushrooms, a comprehensive guide to foraging and therapeutic use in the Midwest and Northeastern United States.
Native Pollinator Medicine Gardens
An exploration of medicinal native plants we can bring into our gardens that benefit our pollinators while sharing their medicine with us. These plants give us the opportunity to nurture a reciprocal connection by stewarding the land around us and supporting the more than human families, while also nourishing ourselves. A symbiotic and cyclical way of being as we give to the land and kin gives back to us. Site conditions for planting and suggestions for best growing practices will be discussed, and there will be limited pollinator friendly medicinal native plants available for purchase.
This class is led by Cody Westendorf - bioregional herbalist, forager, beekeeper, kitchen experimentalist, and England Avis - flora & fungi enthusiast, bioregional herbalist, forager, and wildcrafting creatrix.
The Microbiome Connection - Soil & Gut Health
Jordan will be discussing how microbes and human & soil health are inextricably interconnected; the importance of microbial diversity, as well as, what can be done to improve microbiomes, and minimize negative exposure. This class will offer free samples of fermented foods and drinks, such as; sauerkraut, gluten free bread, kombucha, ginger beer. Donations are welcome :)
Rewilding 101
In this workshop, we will explore how skills gatherings such as Divine Pine are a "gateway" into a larger rewilding movement. Together, we will situate the origins of rewilding, unpack critiques of civilization, introduce theories of cultural trauma, deconstruct concepts of domestication, captivity, and wildness, discuss the parallel emergences of human, cultural, and conservation rewilding, and envision rewilding futurisms. Participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of the environment of our human evolutionary adaptation and where a subset of humans lost their way, as well as how we can begin to re-embody our human ecological niche as tenders of the wild working together to regenerate cultures based on place-based subsistence lifeways.
Hunting as Sacred Practice: exploring our human place in the life/death/life cycle
As human beings, our connection to nature runs more deeply than most of us admit in our daily lives. A sacred connection with natural rhythm is something of a birthright. I've found more value in celebrating the cycles of nature than a mythical sky person. This is an important conversation about ancestry, connecting to nature, sustainability, and bridging the hunting and non-hunting worlds. I will share with you the power, peace, and sacredness that I have found in the journey of becoming a hunter. Full immersion in wild spaces and wild cycles is a spiritual and deeply healing experience. Being an active participant in the mysteries of life and death has the power to transform a mundane act like eating into a profoundly reverent experience. Taking any life form into our bodies, to literally become our bodies, is maybe the most sacred and intimate act we can participate in. From our past and into our future, hunting is a sacred practice that is a healing and reintegrating experience of nature.
Born and raised in southeast Michigan, Jen Davis loves to spend time in the natural world. With the help of her husband, Jason, she has raised a gentle and curious daughter to adulthood. Jen now spends most of her free time outside, hunting, hiking, boating, trapping, foraging, wrangling dogs, pulling invasive species, planting trees, shooting bows, shooting guns, mentoring others, and generally having a great time. “Having put down a deep taproot here, the more I learn about the place I am from, the more I fall in love with it. I work for the National Wild Turkey Federation as the Hunting and Shooting R3 Coordinator in Michigan.
Heart Songs :: Soul Beats
Let's join our voices together to attune to the omnipresent life force that nurtures and sustains us all. With community singing, vocal improvisation and body percussion as our muse, we will offer our gift of song to the benefit of all beings. This style of singing is easy to learn, participatory and non-performative. Simple songs & rhythms that honor the wisdom of the heart will be taught through the oral tradition- line by line and beat by beat. All levels are welcome.
atianah Thunberg, LMSW (she/hers) is somatic psychotherapist, singer, song catcher, expressive and improvisational artist, and a seasoned experiential facilitator with more than thirty years of experience guiding transformative group spaces. Her work centers the voice as a path to belonging—an embodied, relational practice rooted in presence, creativity, and communal care. She is the founder of her healing arts practice, Spirit Moves LLC, and the co-founder of the Vocal Wilds Collective, Supper & Sing Community Jam, Ensemble Night, Vocal Lab and Creatrix Lab, circles of artists dedicated to the art of embodied improvisation in Ann Arbor. www.VocalWilds.com
Julie Kouyate (she/hers) is the founder of Kouyate Healing Arts in Ann Arbor, where she weaves touch, sound, drumming, breath, dance and song into her healing sessions, ceremonies, classes and retreats. Devoted teacher, facilitator, singer, song catcher, intuitive bodyworker, somatic experiencing practitioner, Bodymind and Sacred Living coach and dance teacher, she welcomes you to join us in exploring the power of the voice. https://kouyatehealingartsllc.com/
Asia Sikkila (she/hers) is the founder of Awanya. Fiber artist, clothing designer, weaver, body worker, drummer, yogini and dancer, Asia will accompany this workshop on percussion. You can also find her gorgeous clothing in the vending area. https://www.asiasikkila.com/events
Birding for All - How to find and appreciate our feathered friends
You probably see birds every day, but how much are you really noticing? Join John and Sydney of Leaf and Feather Farms in exploring the wondrous world of birds. Their colors, sounds, and behaviors speak to our hearts and our minds. They are an integral part of the environment, a linchpin in our ecosystems, and indicators of the health of our natural and human-made habitats. The act of birdwatching is one that engages all of our senses and is scientifically proven to expand our neural pathways and benefit our day to day life. Walk the trails of Divine Pine with us and listen to the call of the yellow warbler, or see the bright flash of a cardinal. All you need are your eyes and ears, though if you have some binoculars, bring them along! We'll have some pairs to share, along with helpful guidebooks and other information.
Before meeting, John and Sydney both fell in love with birding during their college ornithology classes. Their passion for wildlife and conservation led them both to zookeeping, where they met and had rewarding careers working with a variety of species at multiple zoos across the country. In 2021, they left the zoo world to start Leaf and Feather Farms, a nature-based bed and breakfast and environmental education project. They provide guided nature walks and activities with a focus on birds on their 12 acres of woods, wetland, and prairie in Southern Michigan, as well as other local parks and preserves. John and Sydney are also heavily involved in their local Parks and Recreation committee that helps to manage the historical McCourtie Park, Jackson Audubon Society, and other environmental organizations.
