TEACHERS + TOPICS

Huitlacoche is a fungus that grows in community with Maize and Teosinte grasses, and has for tens of thousands of years. It is also entangled in complex webs of social relations—to the Mexica people and many Indigenous communities today, it is an ancestral food; to plant pathologists and industrial agricultural institutions it is Ustilago maydis, a pathogen of corn; to restaurateurs and ‘exotic food’ enthusiasts, it is Mexican truffle or corn caviar, an edible delicacy and cultural food of ‘the other’. In this teaching, we will talk about the complicated entanglements between the fungus and these communities, and the role of language in transforming the fungus, humans, and their relationships. We will then present the educational work that POC Fungi Community has been doing toward reclaiming Huitlacoche, as well as the implications of this work for Indigenous food sovereignty and cultural revitalization. This will also include a viewing of POC Fungi Community’s short documentary film about this work, titled “Flor de Maiz”. Participants will get to meet (smell, touch, see, taste) the fungus through a cooking demonstration led by Mario.

Mario Ceballos he/they is a parent of three and an Indigenous scientist. Vice chair of the Yaqui band of Southern California and co-founder of the POC Fungi Community (POCFC), Mario has dedicated their life to healing land and people from hundreds of years of colonization through indigenous foods and land sovereignty. Along with facilitating nature walks and education for youth programs, Mario has been researching fungi and their ecology with a focus on Huitlacoche as it pertains to the US agricultural industry and indigenous food systems. Mario will present on the various intersections of the ancestral food Huitlacoche and show how access to indigenous foods is vital to land restoration and generational healing.

Doğa is an artist, musician, and teacher who creates and builds her work around her relationships with fungi. She is currently a visitor of Tovaangar (so-called Los Angeles), unceded homelands of Tongva peoples, doing a PhD in linguistic anthropology at UCLA where she focuses on interspecies meaning-making and the circulation of colonial ideologies about land and nature relations. Carried out in collaboration with POC Fungi Community (POCFC), Doğa’s research focuses on the ideological systems and linguistic processes through which Huitlacoche comes to take on different identities, and the decolonizing mechanisms in POCFC’s work toward regenerating ancestral food systems.

You can find her music and art at https://woodear-mycena.com ~

This presentation delves into the fascinating relationship between truffles and mammals, and how this connection may have played a key role in the evolution of intelligent life on Earth. We start with the K-Pg extinction event, which wiped out the dinosaurs and created an ecological void that was filled by the rapid diversification of mammals. The speculation during this time is that, truffles, with their high nutritional content and unique chemical composition, would have been a vital food source for surviving mammals. In fact, researchers suggest that truffles may have been one of the first foods that triggered the development of the endocannabinoid system in early mammals, and that this may have led to increased cognitive function and the evolution of more intelligent mammals. Moving on to modern history, we explore how the farming of truffles in Europe has revolutionized the way we think about this elusive and valuable fungi. We discuss the different types of truffles, their distribution, and their unique culinary and cultural significance. We also explore the science behind truffle cultivation, and how modern techniques are enabling us to grow truffles in new and unexpected places. Finally, we turn our attention to the undervalued truffle industry in North America. Despite the abundance of truffle species and favorable growing conditions, the truffle industry in North America has yet to reach its full potential. We discuss the challenges and opportunities facing truffle growers in North America, and explore the potential for this industry to create new economic and ecological benefits for local communities.

Founder of MycoSymbiotics, William Padilla-Brown is a multiDisciplinary citizen scientist practicing social science, mycology, phycology, molecular biology, and additive manufacturing. William is passionate about the myriad uses of cannabis, especially its psychoactive resin. William is constantly in the mix of contemporary ritual, spending his time vlogging for social media, writing, contributing for Fungi mag, researching, rapping, singing, and loving his beautiful partner Lydia, their son Leo, and daughter Xara. William holds Permaculture Design Certificates acquired through Susquehanna Permaculture and NGOZI, and a Certificate from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences for completing their Algal Culturing Techniques Course. William wrote the first books in English on Cordyceps cultivation. William regularly teaches k-12 classes around the United States, for universities including Cornell’s Small Farms Program, private clubs, and events, as well as offers private consultations. In 2021 William’s research has been sponsored by MUDwtr, and affiliated with Mydecine, Oxford Nanopore, MiniPCR, ExtractCraft, and OmegaBiotek. William and his work have been featured on Fantastic Fungi, VICE, Buzzfeed, The Verge, Outside Magazine, Civil Eats, Public Goods, The Book “One Earth” , and much more.

Workshop participants will gain a deeper understanding of false solutions to climate change, including who actually benefits and what the “solutions” mean in terms of biodiversity loss and impacts to indigenous and marginalized communities globally. Solutions discussed will include, but not be limited to, carbon trading & capture, geoengineering, “fake meat”, and releasing genetically engineered plants and animals into the wild. The workshop will also review undertakings around the globe that are building a greener future through understanding ecosystems and supporting indigenous communities.

Poplar Trees are being genetically engineered (GE) to resist fungal decomposition and proponents are eager to plant millions of them. Poplars have dozens of native wild relatives in North America and it is almost impossible to prevent GE poplars from contaminating other poplars and spreading into wild forests. American Chestnut Trees have been genetically engineered to resist a fungal blight and proponents want to release them into the wild. This workshop will review the status of these two GE trees and the unknowns to forest ecosystems including impacts on mycorrhizal fungi in the soil.

Heather Lee works for the Global Justice Ecology Project (GJEP) on their STOP GE Trees Campaign. She focused her master’s theses on decision-making behind Canada's GE food polices and has spent the last decade collaborating with food sovereignty groups across Canada. She also sits on the Steering Committee of GJEP's ally, the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network.

GJEP explores and exposes the intertwined root causes of social injustice, ecological destruction, and economic domination, and envisions a world in which all societies are justly and equitably governed with full participation by an engaged and informed populace living in harmony with the natural world and one another.

In this Workshop, we will share lessons that we have learned through trial and error in the sacred business, and offer solutions on how you can protect yourself.

Reggie AKA Oakland Hyphae has consulted with the largest mushroom cultivators in the world. He has worked with the largest cultivators in The Netherlands and has recently advised in the establishment of the largest commercial mushroom farm and state of the art testing lab in Jamaica. ​ Over the past 3.5 years, Reggie has established Oakland Hyphae which hosted the Psilocybin Cup now known as the Hyphae Cup and a number of Psychedelic Conferences across the country, which were the most impactful psychedelic events in the space. He is a co-founder of Hyphae Labs which is leading the industry in psychedelic mushroom potency testing. Reggie has also founded Hyphae Nootropics offering adaptogenic medicinal fungi from Cordyceps to Lion’s Mane. Reggie is a strong advocate for who he calls, “the little guy” or the “legacy plant medicine workers” whose perspective he uplifts through his publication HyphaeLeaks. It is Reggie’s goal to create barriers of entry to prevent big money interest groups from the same industry take over they did in cannabis. Ultimately he aims to protect the legacy plant medicine workers from corporate vultures.

Queer Ecology is the exploration of biological systems using a queer and feminist theoretical lens. This interdisciplinary framework looks critically at knowledge formation, pushing back against long held perspectives in the sciences. While queer theory most directly interrogates the normative structure of heterosexuality both in humans and in biology more broadly, these studies include analyses of hierarchy, power, and value. Queer Ecology can be used to examine phenomena such as climate change, extinction, pollution, species hierarchies, agricultural practices, resource extraction, and human population debates – all of which are deeply tied to cultural valuations of the natural world. In this talk, we will the realms of queer theory, ecofeminsim, philosophy of science, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Starting from the adage, “nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution” (Theodosius Dobzhansky), this talk will focus on taxonomy and systematics and the embedded evolutionary concepts therein. What is a species? How are they named? Who gets to decide? How do you interpret a phylogenetic tree? This talk will explore how species emerge and how scientists name, classify, and organize species. From the molecular level to the global scale, we will explore the methodological and theoretical underpinnings of taxonomy/systematics/ and phylogenetic biology, all of which will be rooted in the fundamentals of evolutionary theory.

Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian is a mycologist and faculty with the Bard Prison Initiative. Her research focuses on fungal taxonomy, diversity, evolution, symbiosis, and ecology, particularly of the less studied fungal groups, such as the insect-associated Laboulbeniales. She is a co-founder of the International Congress of Armenian Mycologists, which seeks to jointly protect Armenian sovereignty and biodiversity. Patricia also studies philosophy of science, feminist bioscience, and queer theory, exploring how mycology and other scientific disciplines are situated in and informed by our sociopolitical landscape. Her work The science underground: mycology as a queer discipline appears in Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience. Her forthcoming book, Forest Euphoria, will be published by Spiegel & Grau.

The Aromatic Wheel of Fungi is an immersive art installation which lists and categorizes 300 smells found in fungi and invites chemical dialogue with real, live mushrooms by offering an analytic tool to interpret the olfactory messages they send out into their worlds. It encourages engagement with our own sensing, animal selves, and connection to memory & personal experience. In this workshop, the wheel will serve as a point of entry to experiencing the realm of fungal smells and in turn expressing our impressions through words and imagery. Created and facilitated by Willoughby Arévalo & Isabelle Kirouac of the Art & Fungi Project.

A participatory, field-based workshop geared towards all levels of experience, focused on encounters with the fungi of the here and now.

The conversation will include:

• Skills for Observation and Identification • Mushroom Names and Meanings • Fungal Biology & Ecology • Culinary and Medicinal Applications • Ethical Harvesting Practices • Traditional & Contemporary Uses • Cultivation and Mycoremediation

Potential Participants will observe the mushrooms holistically, work towards building personal relationships with them, and come to understand the active roles that fungi play in symbiosis, succession and regeneration in both the forest and our own lives.

With hands of an artist, eyes of an ecologist, and the heart of a deeply connected human, Willoughby Arevalo brings the practical and the joyful together through the science and wonder of mycology, interdisciplinary visual and performing arts, and education. In his lifelong relationship with fungi, he has spent over decade sharing mycology in his home communities and across North America. Together with life partner and collaborator Isabelle Kirouac, he facilitates the Art & Fungi Project, which offers collaborative artistic workshops and residencies in schools, community centers, art spaces and parks around Western Canada and beyond. These experiences invite community participants to not only learn from fungi, but to grow their true earthy relationships. He is the author of DIY Mushroom Cultivation, a book that decomposes barriers to small scale mushroom growing. Raised by parents of Jewish, Peruvian and Western European ancestry in Arcata, California, on Wiyot and Yurok Territories, he lives and strives to be a good guest on Coast Salish Territory in Vancouver, BC, and wherever he goes. When not hanging out in the forest with his mushroom friends, he can be found cooking up magic in his kitchen, playing out imaginary scenarios with his kid, drumming in the neighborhood brass band, or weaving giant sculptures out of living willow.

Isabelle Kirouac is an interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, and educator living in Vancouver, on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations. Informed by over twenty years of extensive studies in dance improvisation and somatic practices, as well as recent explorations into the realm of olfactory art, her artistic research is inspired by sensory inquiries and ecological relationships, connecting humans and more-than-humans. In collaboration with mycologist/artist Willoughby Arevalo, she created the Art & Fungi Project, developing artistic work and experiential activities inspired by fungi and how they help to shape and connect our world. Isabelle performed and facilitated workshops extensively across Canada, the USA, Mexico, Colombia and Europe, and holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University. She plays music in her living room and is the proud mother of Uma Echo.

This workshop will go through some different approaches to working with fungi as part of contaminated site cleanup, including how to ID and include native fungi and fungal volunteers vs introducing known remediator fungi, what to consider for different contaminants, how to responsibly and respectfully manage the cleanup, ways to include native plants and other microbes and more!

This workshop will introduce the mycorrhizal fungi that form relationships with plants in soils all around the world and play many important roles in ecosystems. We will walk through the process of sampling plant roots, staining them, and preparing slides to look for mycorrhizal fungi under the microscope. We will also show how to extract spores from soil. We'll talk through methods to cultivate and amplify regionally-adapted Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi to support ecological restoration efforts.

Danielle Stevenson is an applied scientist, mycologist and environmental problem-solver who works with soils, fungi, plants and people to address wastes and pollution in creative and circular ways. Currently a PhD candidate in Environmental Toxicology at the University of California Riverside where she studies sustainable remediation of brownfields with fungi and plants. She also founded and runs D.I.Y. Fungi (est. 2012) for research, education and action around fungal food, medicine, waste management and remediation, and Healing City Soils (est. 2015) with the Compost Education Centre to provide soil metal testing, resources, and community bioremediation for people growing food. She is involved in many projects supporting regeneration ohttps://www.danielle-stevenson.com/ f lands and waters, environmental education and community-capacity building.

Learn more about her work here:

https://www.danielle-stevenson.com/

https://diyfungi.blog/

linkedin.com/in/danielle-stevenson

Sacred ritual arts is a visual exhibition and educational lecture that will support people in establishing a solid practice for Entheogenic journeying with mushrooms. It is through the rituals in our life that nurture us by merging the mental and physical realms of intent and action. In this manner, we become whole to command the energy within ourselves and the earth. While pairing ritual with the entheogenic mushrooms, one is able to activate their divine essence. Tune into this lecture to begin integrating the exciting and traumatic moments of life.

Mariam Kouyate is a Djely Mousso from Mali and Kenya. Mariam has recently relocated to the Americas where she’s nurturing the indigenous mind for universal harmony on Earth. Her role as a Djely grows from a profound belief that all life is spiritual and respecting this fact we can understand our Cosmic Roots.

In this workshop we will review the molecular underpinings of sexual recombination in eukaryotes, covering the basics of transcription, translation, mitosis, and meiosis. From there, we will explore the evolutionary history of the eukaryotic branch of the tree of life, discussing how eukaryotes evolved as an endosymbiotic merging of archea and bacteria, and how that contributed to the evolution of chromosomes, and sexual recombination. Finally, we will look at the reproductive cycles of the major fungal phyla, Basidiomycota, Ascoycota, Zygomycota, and Glomeromycota, and in order to imagine all the kinky, queer, body swapping sex that fungi have evolved.

Dr. Theresa Kadish is a science communicator and film maker. She lives at Glomus Commune, an income sharing agricultural community. Her TikTok channel https://www.tiktok.com/@teiresiaskadish covers mycology and evolutionary mythology.

Unearthing and uplifting stories is heavy work. This workshop will share ways in which reishi can support with deep memory work, from gathering oral histories from elders, to researching the buried legacies of colonialism and enslavement, to facilitating more intimate connections with buried ancestors. Participants will be invited (but not required!) to connect with reishi in meditation and ceremony.

kale is a story holder and memory worker based in nyc who seeks to repair our relationships to this hypersettled land on which we've experienced both bondage and freedom, greeting the spirits who peer out from the cracks in the concrete. they draw knowledge of territory from both ecosystem and archives - diving deep into the realm of traditional research, then pulling out to ask elements, ancestors, and more-than-human kin which stories are

Introduction To Medicinal Mushrooms: In this class we will discuss a number of medicinal mushrooms, their history, and how they can assist you to benefit your health and well being. We will also be discussing how to make a double extract tincture at home.

Jim Furey is a Clinical Herbalist, Traditional Naturopath, enthusiastic Forager, and avid gardener. With 4+ years of clinical herbal school and over a decade of foraging and gardening experience, he has always had a deep connection with the rhythm of the planet. He hopes to further reconnect people with the web of life surrounding them. Jim forages and consults clients in Northern New Jersey out of his herbal apothecary, “Integrative Herbalism”, located in forest savvy Kinnelon, NJ. He is affiliated with professional organizations such as: the American Herbalist Guild, the International Alchemist Guild, the Herb Research Foundation, United Plant Savers, and The American Botanical Council.

How do mushrooms, and the mycelial network that sustain them, reveal the possibilities of (re)sculpting our understanding of sexual and social practices? What is unveiled in considering fungi’s practices and relationships to sex, death, and desire? As intelligent life forms that are decentralized, inclusive, and constantly (re)imagining new queer modes of potentiality, mushrooms offer us a lens into the entanglement of queer theory and mycology. Through discussion, writing, and participatory embodied exercises, this workshop invites participants to materially and theoretically explore biologically exuberant interconnectivity and (interspecies) intimacy as a form of resistance to violent structures of oppression. Themes and topics include: reconsiderations of (queer) sexual education by way of hyphal fusion, schizophyllum commune, and circlusion; decompositional possibility and the material trace, the inside-outside manifold, material entanglement, biological exuberance and interspecies intimacies (lichen), amongst others.

lydon frank lettuce is an artist, writer, and all-around goon from rural Pennsylvania. They plant poems in your garden and dig diagrams into the sand. Using transdisciplinary modes of performance and play, psycholinguistic subversion, and new forms of embodied writing, their practice interrogates the tensions within language — seeking to destabilize the boundaries of belonging inherent in social structures of violence while maintaining the (im)possibilities of pleasure (physics), always. They hold an MFA from California Institute of the Arts and a BFA from The New School. They are always speaking frankly.

val ray king is a decentralized human-mushroom hybrid sporing in Philadelphia, PA. Their fungal practice centers around hybrid forms of healing, harm-reduction, and lubricating imminent doom. Their mushroom business, Impending Doom Relief, is not a brand. It is a response to the current ethos of the Anthropocene.

A visual journey followed by discussion about common wild "Cordyceps"/Carnivorous Fungi and surviving indigenous knowledge that recognizes them. Cordyceps tea will be served.

Hello! I'm Robert I live in Morelos, Mexico and I am fascinated by carnivorous fungi. I've been studying them in the wild closely for over 5 years. I've also been fortunate enough to grow/sell Cordyceps militaris as well as spread knowledge about their existence within Mexico. I collaborate with as many interested people and organizations as I can. I recently published a zine-like pamphlet: Carnivorous Fungi and the Obsidian Butterfly to help spread knowledge about these tiny organisms.

In this workshop, participants will receive an overview of how to harvest and process wild medicinal herbs. We will go over how to address, thank, and build reciprocal relationship with the plant communities around us, including how to identify plants and their histories, growth habits, and endangered status, all the while addressing and integrating our positionality with regards to settler colonialism / indigeneity. We will then go over practical methods and ethical standards for harvesting sustainably, and finally different traditional folk methods for processing those herbs into medicinal remedies - drying, tincturing, infusing etc. - and how to discern which method to use for a given plant. Throughout the workshop, we will be grounding this information through the harvesting and processing of a a few available and abundant herbs, and participants will leave with a small amount of tincture, infusion, or fresh herbs to take home.

Andie Hope is a queer nonbinary vegetable farmer, artist, and community herbalist of european descent, a member of Glomus commune and worker-owner of East Brook Community Farm. Andie has been growing food and making medicine for the past 3 years, and creating art my whole life. Farming, wildcrafting, and art are all interconnected, Andie makes inks from foraged materials, paint the living world around me, and harvest and process medicinal herbs in creative ways. Building community, both human and nonhuman, is at the center of all these practices.

Visual Poetry is a workshop centered on uses of text and visual poetics in art. We will look at some examples from artists past and present and then use a variety of materials and methods to create our own pieces of visual poetry, such as artist books, collages, mixed media, art/book objects, concrete poems, etc. Supplies for collage, painting, drawing, typewriting, mono-printing, sewing, book binding will be available. All are welcome to experiment and collaborate in a playful and fun setting.

Alex Patrick Dyck is a multimedia poet, splosh artist, frog man, storyteller, performer & medicine maker; a romantic hoarder of sentimental trash and trampled roses, an altar builder, memory gatherer, a seeker seeking. They work with the interaction of plants, dye, resin, textiles, refuse, movement, bodily fluids, text & hardware as a way to explore the life-death-life cycle of the natural world. They see art-making as a devotional act before the divine, imbued with the interlocking arms of desire and grief. They live, work and grow in Hudson, New York on occupied Mohican land

Hyperion Çaca Yvaire of the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust and Ben Kessler of the Little Bluestem Collective invite you to a conversation about the ways in which people of all species endure and proliferate in a time of many changes. Novel ecological communities, revolutionary biology, refugia, mutants, disaster taxa, and other manifestations of the world that will not die.

Hyperion Çaca Yvaire is an Atakapa Ishak and Sea Kréyòl father, Field Cosmologist, sovereign poet, and kinmaker. His sculptural and sonic work explores the afterlives and aftershocks of collision through investigating administrative, legislative, and wave phenomena. As a territorial researcher, he is interested in the matter resulting from the collision of materials, practices, and claims. When this matter is spatial and tangible, he refers to it as a ruin, when it is spatial and intangible, he refers to it as an afterlife. As a {forensic performance} artist, he is interested in what material effect is possible when a collective practice of alternative claim making is brought to a planetary scale. His practice is aimed at the eradication of Indigenous-settler divisions, White Supremacy, and Christian personhood’s grip over humans and nonhumans alike. He currently serves as the Community Conservation Co-Director at Northeast Farmers of Color, is an Artistic Associate at the Meaning Institute, and is the founder of the Lak Yapùhne Center for Multispecies Jurisprudence. Çaca holds an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University.

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”Can art-making and storytelling, informed by queer, scientific inquiry, provide methodologies for creating a fungal ontology?” (Kaitlin Bryson and Saša Spačal)

In this workshop Kaitlin Bryson will discuss her collaborative and community-engaged mycological art practice, and will lead participants through different forms of myco-making. Participants will be given a simple assignment, or set of instructions, and will be invited to explore the assignment through a variety of visual media, ranging from fiber art, collage, performance and drawing.

Kaitlin Bryson is a queer, ecological/bio artist concerned with environmental and social justice. She primarily works with fungi, plants, microbes, and biodegradable materials to engage more-than-human audiences, while also facilitating human communities through social practice and environmental stewardship. Her practice is research-based and most often collaborative, highlighting the potency of working like lichens to realize radical change and justice. In 2019, Bryson co-founded The Submergence Collective, an environmental arts collective focused on multidisciplinary projects that imagine more collaborative, creative, hopeful, and ecologically connected futures for our human species and the rest of the living world.

Bryson received an MFA in Art & Ecology from the University of New Mexico in 2018, where she concurrently studied art and mycology with research in ecotoxicology. Currently she works as a practicing artist, land-steward, and radical educator. Bryson has worked on multiple land and bioremediation projects with Tewa Women United and Communities for Clean Water in New Mexico, USA. She has received support from the Lannan and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation(s) to create ecologically remediative artworks nationally and internationally. She is a recipient of the 2022 Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Arts Grant, as well as the 2022 Future Art Award: Ecosystem X from Mozaik Philanthropy, and a 2022 Fulcrum Fund from 516 Arts. Bryson has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe, and in Mexico, Ireland, and Nepal as well as in notable festivals such as Ars Electronica (AT) and Politics of the Machine (DE). Her artwork and activism have been featured in books such as “In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics, and the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms”, by Doug Bierend and The New Farmer’s Almanac “The Grand Land Plan” and in the Autumn 2022 Edition of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture.

Insight into the community of fungi associated with plant roots, why knowledge about the fungal microbiome is important, methods involved in determining fungal composition and abundance as well as understanding possible links to aboveground plant traits.

I am Sandra Nnadi, a Nigerian who joined the University of Vermont to study for a PhD degree in Plant Biology. I work in the Harris Lab at the Plant Biology Dept. where I examine the link between the root fungal microbiome and aboveground traits (flower number, bud count, and anthocyanin content) of Northern Highbush Blueberry. My research is in partnership with Waterman Orchards, Johnson VT where I obtain experimental samples and is funded by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE).

At UVM, I have served as a Graduate Student Senate (GSS) Secretary, GSS Senator and member of the plant biology Diversity, Equity & Inclusion committee. Currently, I am a member of the Plant Biology social media team and President of the Graduate Student Parents Club. For fun, I love cooking, sewing, and painting with my 6-year-old son.

This is a mushroom walk meant to help us discover common(and not so common) species. Among these we hope to make some not so common discoveries. All levels welcome.

Often turned to for field expertise regarding fungi, Zaac Chaves guides people through realms in which the details matter. This is critical work because most fungi are unknown while others are rare or disappearing. Zaac's field skills are actively requested by Harvard University, the National Parks Service, and the New York Botanical Gardens.

In this class, we will cover how to make potent medicinal extractions with various mushrooms and various solvents. The goal of this class is to demystify some basic chemistry that will help you build your potion making foundation so you can support yourself, friends and family with mushroom medicine!

Nina O’Malley (she/her) is a medicine maker constantly building relationships with plants and fungi. Nina’s background is in soil, environmental and wetland science. Post college she pursued self-study in mycology and studied herbalism at Sacred Plant Traditions. Nina handcrafts local medicinal products for an apothecary in Afton, VA and her business Mush Luv. Connecting to the land where she lives in the Blue Ridge (Monacan territory) and connecting to her Irish, Lebanese and Swiss ancestral roots in the kitchen are central to her life. She teaches workshops to the community in central VA and wherever the fungi and plants call her. Nina is passionate about helping connect people to the land through direct experience.

Make a mushroom with wool! Needle-felting is a fun and easy way to make art and learn to turn locally produced fiber (wool) into three dimensional fabric (felt). This workshop will teach students to make a three dimensional mushroom sculpture. This workshop is very kid-friendly and approachable!

Renee is a Catskills-based chef and designer who specializes in working with wild plants and fungi. She rediscovered her childhood love for basketry when she was unhappy with the sourdough bread baskets she could buy, and decided to make them herself instead. She works in many media, builds cob ovens, bakes bread and pastries and obsesses over finding and eating wild mushrooms. You can see more of her work on instagram @renee_makes_things

An interactive workshop and discussion on security culture, maintaining digital boundaries, general digital wellness, and safety/privacy practices on the internet. This workshop is geared towards environmental activists, people with criminalized forms of income or anyone who is targeted by state repression and vulnerable to state violence. Using an improvisational learning model, attendees at skill-levels learn security tools tailored to their specific interests and needs. A greater understanding of technology help protect and arm us with both the deeply-felt sense of autonomy and transformative tools for both our social and collective liberation.

io> a hacker and tech angel, started building computers from spare parts as a child. They have hosted many security workshops geared toward sex workers. They facilitated the security portion of the first round of Cyborg Support in 2021, attended Deep May in 2019 learning Web Development and again in 2022 studying Hardware & Micro-controllers where they co-built a robot puppy. They are currently helping to build the Tucson Mesh Network, organizing Deep May camp 2023 in Montreal, and brewing up Cyborg Support Club 3!

This class will be an examination of HOW people figure out how to work with plants. What is the Doctrine of Signatures, and how does it work? Where is that knowledge indigenous to? What are energetics and why do they matter? How do these principles show up across modalities? In this class we examine these questions, and apply them to a plant walk and an herb tasting, coming together to discuss how a plant is showing up for us. Participants, bring a notebook and something to sketch with.

Growing up in Ithaca, NY, Natalia began farming in high school. A decade later, she was still at it and always looking to expand her knowledge of herbal medicine. She completed Amanda David’s People’s Medicine School in 2018 and was a part of their We Care for Us cohort in 2020. She now works as a community herbalist for We Care for Us, a project of medicine access. In 2023 she started an herb farm which carries the name used by her ancestors to refer to their own herbal remedies, Che Pohã.

Come draw living live mushroom specimens from direct observation, locally foraged and DIY home cultivated in NYC. All ages/ family and kid friendly! Lindsay Robbins is an Artist based in Queens, NYC Art Teacher and member of The New York Mycological Society. Hands-on observational drawing is a great art educational way to learn more about mushrooms while building awareness and identification knowledge. Plus you can create an artwork on site in conversation and comradery with other artists.

Lindsay Robbins (b. 1986, she/her) is a Visual Artist based in Queens, NYC Art Teacher and member of The New York Mycological Society.

We will share about a Myco-Phytoremediation research pilot project involving 4 years of data in which a degraded riparian buffer on an organic farm is restored via mycorrhizae fungi and native plant polycultures for water quality, pollinator habitat, ecoliteracy and in support of rematriation of the Abenaki . We will track how the ecological and socio-cultural devastation resulted from colonial land tending practices and how efforts to ethically rewild both the landscape green infrastructure and orientation to land access can foster earth repair synchronicity throughout trophic networks. Preliminary data will be shared along with how this project is evolving.

Carol Billings McGranaghan

I am an Abenaki Grandmother, a member of a State recognized tribe and I live in Orange, VT. I am retired from the State of Vermont and currently present to schools, libraries and other organizations on how to honor plants and pollinators. I was a member of the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs for 6 years, 5 1/2 of those as Chair. I was appointed to the Friends of the State House board last November and part of our mission is to bring more inclusivity to the State House. I am an advocate for Abenaki, but also for teaching others about the interconnections between human people and non-human people. I have worked with Jess Rubin on the phosphate mitigation project at the Shelburne Farms by assisting with the identification of indigenous plants to reintroduce.

Jess Rubin (Yepeth Perla) is a Kohenet living on unceded Abenaki Territory who offers earthworks, education and research through local ecological resilience service, MycoEvolve and as a Myco-Phytoremediation research technician in the UVM Plant Soil Science Department. As an avid gardener, folk herbalist, botanical and mycological enthusiast, naturalist, outdoor educator, permaculture consultant, and wilderness devotee, Jess served as a nature mentor, wilderness guide, farm co-manager, earth crafts educator, public school science teacher, environmental studies college adjunct, university guest lecturer, scientific researcher, conservation crew leader, mushroom cultivator, and corridor monitor. Her formal education of a BA from Cornell University in Ecological Literature with Native American Studies minor, MS in Environmental Studies with VT middle & high school science teaching licenses from Antioch NE, and MS from UVM's Plant Soil Science Department with a concentration in Ecological Landscape Design oriented her to bring radical mycology into academia to nurture the ecological restoration field. Through working with mycorrhizae and native plants on farms, gathering ecological inventory and restoring urban wilds, she aims to: rehabilitate degraded ecosystems, rejuvenate recovering habitats, educate and train the next generation in ecological literacy & earth repair skills, guide institutions in regenerative approaches aligned with remediation science collaborating with the land's Original Peoples, and facilitate ecological reconciliation rooted in equity for all.

The popularity of wild food grows with each passing year, but it often comes without any grounding or caveats beyond those involving safety and toxicity. There are many more factors to understand and acknowledge when approaching foraging from an ethical standpoint. Many celebrated wild plants and mushrooms have crucial roles in native ecosystems and cultures which must be understood and respected. Some are imperiled by threats far more complex than the forager’s knife, be they environmental stresses or diseases, habitat loss, pressure from large scale farming or overharvest and commodification by restaurant foragers. Understanding these issues is the most important step in gathering wild food ethically and sustainably, both now and in the face of an unstable future. The very first question to ask ourselves is not “can I eat this,” but should I eat this.” Luckily, this is a much simpler question than one might think. Mallory will help make this process simpler, and steer those new or old to using wild plants to abundant and sustainable resources, some of which may surprise you.

Wild food, be it in plant or mushroom form, very often arrives in sudden abundance, within a very narrow window of availability. Delicacies like wild vegetables, edible flowers, and many mushrooms are here today and gone tomorrow, often quite literally. There are a number of quite simple preservation techniques that can be employed to save these ephemeral foods so that they may be enjoyed all year long, even for many years to come. Mallory will touch briefly on many various techniques, discussing which to employ with different common wild foods. Topics addressed will include dehydration, freezing, infusing, fermentation, pickling, etc. A brief handout will be provided for future reference, and examples some preserved wild foods will be shared and explained. If time and space allows, we will make an infused vinegar or wild greens kimchi on site for all participants to take home.

Mallory O’Donnell is a wild food gatherer, grower, cook and writer who focuses on sustainable and responsible foraging, working with wild food all four seasons and creating simple and adaptable recipes and techniques for everyday cooks to prepare and preserve the wild harvest.

The Earth provides us the food we need during each season of the year. Chinese medicine gives us a food therapy framework highlighting the best foods to eat during each season of the year. Ailin incorporates her knowledge of foraging and seasonally available produce in this workshop on basic food nutrition through the lens of Chinese medicine.

Ailin Lu is a practicing astrologer with an interest in herbalism and plant magic, currently residing in Kiikaapoi, Kaw, Osage, Lakota territory. She uses modern and traditional astrological approaches in her consultation sessions to offer clarity and grounding for her clients. In addition to client consultations, Ailin enjoys facilitating astrological team building activities and teaching. Their astrological journey began in 2015 as a self-taught psychological astrologer before they went on to complete the two-year professional curriculum at the Oraculos School of Astrology (OSA) in 2023. She is currently president of the Aquarian Organization of Astrologers (AOA) and studying herbalism at Sacred Earth Arts.

Circle round. I've brought the markers and snacks. Color along as I read Everything Dies, A Coloring Book About Life. I made it for you! Meditate on your connection to the earth. Contemplate your own mortality. Let's talk about death and why we don't talk about death. Have fun! Do good! Our time here is fleeting.

Bri Barton is an artist and educator committed to our planetary collective healing.

They are the writer and illustrator of Everything Dies! A Coloring Book About Life! The book explores death cultures from around the world, grief, loss, soil biology, decomposition, and the legacies of social and environmental justice leaders.

They are the co-creator of Water Ways, a large-scale drawing and role-play game that tells the story of our region’s fight against fracking.

Bri was a lead artist on a 140’ mural installed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of Philadelphia Assembled, an expansive project that told the stories of radical community building and active resistance throughout Philadelphia’s changing urban fabric.

They also co-illustrated Aqua Marooned!, a free nature-based card game designed to build connections between players and the more-than-human world.

Bri is a queer adopted witch, and mama to a one year old.

They also drew + painted this years New Moon Mycology Summit poster.

Humans spend a 1/3 of their lives asleep. In that time, we have the ability to receive dreams. The dreams we are gifted with are honored cross culturally as medicine and messages, for the individual, their community, and collectively. Reconnecting to dream-weaving is a powerful act of remembrance, and life affirming/enhancing.

There are many ways and reasons for dream-weaving. This particular workshop will focus on expanding our means of communication to the more than human world through the astral. Taking place in the forest, Cai will lead a guided journey, through a meditation with a tree, a mark making exercise, and an EFT tapping exercise working with our meridians to set the intention of receiving a dream (that same night) connected to the tree we sit with. The mark making exercise is based off a practice Cai utilizes to access "another way of seeing" in the waking world that will help with dream recall/retention.

We will also discuss foundation for a consistent dream practice, dream recall, and briefly discuss plant kin allies that support dream-weaving.

This practice is informed by the teachings Cai has learned with Manari Ushigua, leader and healer of the Sapara Nation, of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and through her own lifelong love of and practice with dreaming.

Cai Diluvio hales from the shores of the brave blood people, isug og dugô, Kawasan Falls + Bohol, in the Visayas of the so called Philippines. Her work and life is informed by her animist inheritance that prioritizes relational living and kinship with the mora than human world. She is in love with life, with all our relations, and is devoted to "walking each other home."

She is a mama, land and plant tender, art historian, artist, designer, teaching artist, and arts education program developer focusing on bridging media, science and art through the lens of social / eco justice frameworks - her favorite program is running a youth led community food garden located in the food desert of Hartford, CT. She designs and illustrates for orgs and collectives working towards liberation and planetary healing. She is also a fire-keeper apprentice for purification lodges and powwow drum and song Tekina at Taino Woods Sanctuary NY (an Indigenous Church) and is passionate about getting BIPOC into the woods for elemental remembrance and healing.

Experience different ways we can enjoy mushrooms in your food! Dont be shy with them spices, squeeze some lemon and take your tastebuds on a culinary journey through flavor country! Food is medicine!

This is a demo and folks will be sampling a variety of different preparations.

BRING YOUR OWN PLATES + FLATWARE PLEASE

Olga Tzogas has been cooking her whole life, the daughter of Greek immigrants who still to this day run a diner in upstate New York, food has been a core part of her life experience.

Olga runs Smugtown Mushrooms and leads small groups of earth lovers to her homeland of Greece in the Fall seasons to forage mushrooms, herbs and learn the sacred ecology of the Eastern Mediterraean.

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As aco- learner, YahNé will facilitate a discussion that identifies the ways we are not only socialized but also systematized to colonize and dehumanize, discusses ways we can reidentify to embody as healers, and explores approaches to breaking the program by establishing a new praxis of the self and community.

YahNé Ndgo, a writer, singer and mother, is one of a nation of Freedom Builders in Ubuntu Freedom, supporting the development a global network of free communities based on the Principles of Freedom inspired by Ubuntu – “I am because you are.” She is organizing with land for liberation through Landing Freedom, and has launched and works on several projects of Landing Freedom, that align with the Principles of Freedom including Homegrown Maroons, The Care Space Project, Curbfest, and the Annual Maroon Legacy Prisoners’ Families Brunch. She is a member of the Black Alliance for Peace.

YahNé is working to Free Mumia Abu Jamal, Free Kamau Sadiki, Imam Jamil Al-Amin and other Political Prisoners, and has already helped bring home and continues to support and work with many liberated Political Prisoners. She works in partnership with other organizers to imagine and build a completely new world paradigm, and on social justice issues including Black and Indigenous solidarity, abolition of police, prison, and all carceral systems, housing justice, food justice, and environmental harmony.

As a Globalist and Pan Africanist YahNé organizesand works directly with organizers on the ground in nations around the world. YahNé loves you and she fights for you.

Take a moment to regulate and come back to center during this guided somatic activity. We will seek to calm the nervous system by lying on the earth to breathe deeply and create an energetic bridge between the body’s connective tissue with the connective tissue of the planet—the mycelium underground.

Teachers who inspire and inform this work include Sophie Strand, adrienne maree brown, Octavia Butler, Donna Haraway, Maya Elson, and Taye Bright.

I am an ecologically curious and highly sensitive mycophile devoted to the practices of relational mycology, food sovereignty, creative pleasure, and nervous system healing. I have 2 years of experience co-creating community cultivation and soil building workshops for folks of all ages. As an artist and a kitchen witch, I enjoy drawing, singing, writing, growing small batches of oyster mushrooms, wandering the woods, and preparing medicinal foods with loved ones. I am also a Volunteer Coordinator for this year's summit--and so humbled to share this experience with you all!

As we uncover ancestral ways of managing our health, it is supportive to our bodies to feed food that is nourishing to the body. However, every body has different needs and it can be overwhelming to navigate what energetics we can cultivate for our well being. This workshop will introduce the concept of energetics to support our goals, and share an approach to intuitive eating that is beyond diet culture. In this workshop we will make preparations that connect us with the duality & energetics of warming, cooling, moistening, and drying. We will start with a brief intro to energetics in food, spices, and herbs then cook some dishes and teas . At the end we will have a short meditation, check in on what energetics we need, and intuitively cultivate a plate that is nourishing to participants.

Nazanin is a community organizer, Public Health consultant, and healer in training. They are the founder of Reviving Origins Wellness, a project that aims to help people find autonomy with their health & connecting with their lineages. They provide nourishing meals and cooking classes that help people connect with their ancestral ways. They are also an herbalist and bodyworker in training and hopes to incorporate this into a whole body health healing modality.

Have you ever wanted to make your own medicinal mushroom tincture? Join herbalist, Tanya Donatelli, for a workshop and presentation all about mushroom tincture making. Tanya will demonstrate the steps necessary to make a double-extracted tincture, and participants will also get the chance to start their own jar of medicinal mushroom tincture to take away and finish at home. Other topics discussed will be medicinal properties, tincture safety, storage, ratios, and dosage.

Tanya currently works at North Spore making medicinal tinctures, packing dried mushrooms, and managing online inventory. She has been formally studying herbalism since 2018, and has since earned over 700+ hours of study through coursework and apprenticeships. Tanya also runs a small business called Oak Fairy Apothecary, which focuses on providing community with locally sourced herbs, mushrooms, & educational content. She finds immense joy in foraging, and loves to share her knowledge of medicinal plants and fungi with others.Tanya graduated from NYU in 2009, and formerly worked as a location scout for film and television shows in NYC.

A family friendly chat covering the basics of what lichens are and their morphology, or physical characteristics. We will cover a range of common lichens to encounter, field tools and tips to get folks IDentifying lichens on their next foray! Isaiah will also cover some lichen DNA barcoding techniques for PCR-based identification. Let us no longer overlook our symbiotic friends, let's truly learn “What the Mush are Lichen?!”

Isaiah seeks to bring academia back to the real world, driven from a background in community activism. He is a passionate educator who believes knowledge must be accessible and presented in a way that’s understood. Zay is an Identifier for the Mycological Association of Washington (MAW) DC as well as a DNA Sequence Validator for the Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS). Most of his attention is applied to small, overlooked fungi such as lichens, rusts, & Pyrenomycetes. Zay can also be found preaching food security through mycology based cultivation courses. Isaiah believes that education paired with sustainable practices will equip the people of the world to heal themselves and fight the avenues of biopiracy that threaten our existence.

Landscape microclimates are infinitely unique, especially in this part of the northeast. Let’s get up close and personal with the ecology of this region. “Everything is connected” (a cliche statement?), and in many cases this connection is facilitated by a group of organisms that are largely unseen. Join us, as we pull back the curtain and peer through a Fungal lens at the organisms and interactions that form the intricate, beautiful ecosystems we find ourselves in. We’ll also discuss the effects of habitat destruction and things we can do to play our part in conservation.

Luke Sarrantonio grew up in the Hudson Valley/Catskill region of NY and spent much of his childhood exploring the local landscape. It wasn't until college at SUNY ESF that he truly discovered Fungi. Discouraged by the lack of non-academic learning resources for people looking to pursue this field, he has been working to develop financially accessible programing based around Fungi and Ecology. In the field or the lab, Luke's other focuses include a line of medicinal mushroom supplements, cultivating log grown mushrooms and producing For the Love of Fungi Annual Mushroom and Arts Festival in the Hudson Valley/Catskills Region.

Sometimes we happen upon a large quantity of mushrooms and want to preserve them for future enjoyment, but dehydration isn’t appropriate for the variety. In this workshop we will sample and explore brine-based methods for preserving edible mushrooms. Techniques include: salt brine, vinegar brine, and kimchi.

Ginger Brooks Takahashi is a transdisciplinary artist and educator. Her performance, installation, and site responsive works examine our relationships to the mediums that connect us. These public projects are platforms for intimate interaction, an extension of feminist and queer praxis. Ginger’s work in foodways, foraging, and other folk traditions inform her practice of being rooted in place. Recently she created Drip, Seep, Run, a permanent public artwork for Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She received her BA from Oberlin College, 1999; and attended the Whitney Independent Study Program, 2007.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) takes an in-depth look at how political and legal structures have been set up to protect the interests of an elite minority, at the expense of the majority of people and Nature. We’ll look at how our current system of government and law have evolved to protect wealth and privilege over community self-government and biodiverse ecosystems; we’ll look at how corporations have received more rights and protections than those of you living in your community; and we’ll look at how communities have pushed back against these oppressive structures to reclaim democratic self-government and recognize Rights of Nature in their communities.

Michelle co-led an effort to successfully protect the Newfound Lake communities of New Hampshire, located in the Abanaki region, from ridgeline removal for industrial wind turbines through a Right to Sustainable Energy Ordinance in 2014. She joined CELDF as a community organizer in 2015. Michelle has nurtured relationships with state representatives, helping New Hampshire to become the first state in the nation to move Community Rights amendments three times. She has continued to expand the Community Rights Movement throughout New England by assisting local lawmaking efforts, including the first New Hampshire Right to a Healthy Climate law in Exeter, and Barnstead’s first-in-the-nation law securing freedom from religious identification. Michelle is also a lecturer for CELDF’s Democracy School and spends her free time creating music, and communing with Nature.

DescriptMen and male-identified people are welcome to a sharing and healing circle/workshop. Through honest communication, mindfulness, and embodiment activities we will explore our potential to co-create positive masculinity. Activities will be highly participatory and may address some of the unique expectations, traumas, and joys that men often grapple with in our world. Dimensions of our spiritual, ecological, and community responsibility as men will be explored.

The workshop will run 2 hours, it will be a confidential space, where honesty, bravery, and every emotion will be held tenderly and fiercely.

Eric Blasco grew up on a farm in central New England, exploring and imagining in the woods. He has been a generalist (gardener, farmer, poet, builder, chef and educator) for most of his life. For the last 7 years he has led and participated in 50+ workshops and gatherings dedicated to men's work and building positive, generative masculinity. He is also a certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide via the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, and leads immersive, embodied walks in the woods to connect humans to the other-than-human-world.

In this workshop we will draw our individual body outline and begin labeling and filling in the areas where we feel the values system of white supremacy (how it shows up in our body) with a juxtapose mapping of where liberation shows up for us. Utilizing our individual body charts we can give more awareness and attention to our somatic process of the dominating culture and how it informs our day to day and how we can shift this into an intentional daily liberated practice.

I look to encapsulate this offering by weaving in how we can take this body wisdom into our entheogenic experiences.

Soma is a queer identifying daughter of the diaspora, a mother and birth worker. Soma has been serving families as a Full Spectrum Community Doula since 2013 a Reproductive Justice Advocate since 2016, serving pregnant women at Rikers Island Prison. Soma is also a Licensed Massage Therapist in NYC and adjunct instructor of massage at Pacific College of Health and Science. A self-proclaimed Psychonaut and facilitator Soma sits at the intersection of reproductive and psychedelic justice as a path to liberation.

Join us as we meet some of the native plants that herbalists have traditionally used for food and medicine. We will discuss the apothecary botanicals that grow in the wilds of our wild spaces and landscapes, spending time looking at the seasonal changes, learning plant id and the medicinal benefits of our weedy friends.

Dawn Petter is a clinical herbalist and flower essence practitioner based in New York City. She is a graduate of Arbor Vitae School of Traditional Herbalism and is trained as a flower essence practitioner with Delta Gardens and Findhorn Essences. Dawn offers in depth health consults and custom formulated remedies to her clients. She teaches classes and retreats at corporations and institutions including, the NY, Brooklyn and Chicago Botanic Gardens, to name a few. She is also a regular instructor at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico. Her classes are imaginative, accessible, and encourage students to use herbal medicine in everyday life. Dawn is the owner of Petalune Herbals which specializes in wild and organic herbal skincare. Visit www.petaluneherbals.com to learn more about her offerings, and follow her on social media @petaluneherbals.

A Collaborative Discussion towards an Aesthetic of Interspecies Thriving, with io and Shanhuan

In this workshop, we will question and reorient our conception of arts and artmaking to include our more-than-human kin. What does art look like outside the context of the human-nature dichotomy? What can we learn from and contribute to cross-species collaborations?

shanhuan manton> shanhuan is a filmmaker focused on composting extractive methods of cinematic storytelling into regenerative rituals, and making the possibilities of speculative worlds real by utilizing collective storytelling as a transformative cultural practice. They are currently in production on a documentary about mycoremediation and other eco-centric regenerative projects centering the more-than-human world, and an anthology series collaboratively crafting contemporary myths as essential stories for navigating the convergent crises and unknowns of our time. They facilitate conversations on interspecies arts and regenerative relationship, most recently as a fellow at School of the Alternative in 2023. They are currently a fellow in Emergence Magazine's Seeds of Radical Renewal Spiritual Ecology leadership course.

io> a hacker and tech angel, started building computers from spare parts as a child. They have hosted many security workshops geared toward sex workers. They facilitated the security portion of the first round of Cyborg Support in 2021, attended Deep May in 2019 learning Web Development and again in 2022 studying Hardware & Micro-controllers where they co-built a robot puppy. They are currently helping to build the Tucson Mesh Network, organizing Deep May camp 2023 in Montreal, and brewing up Cyborg Support Club 3!

Learn how to draw mushrooms and other foliage in a casual, round table-esque drawing workshop. This is an all-ages space for everyone to slow down and release some creativity. While this workshop is specifically intended to create a comfortable space for hobby doodlers and folks who don’t usually consider themselves artists, professional or experienced illustrators are welcome to join and teach styles or techniques of their own!

Art has been proven to strengthen the health of the mind-body. So both mentally and physically, human beings (of all talent levels) need to be artistic in order to live more happy and fulfilled lives. As activists and radicals, we know that the world can be a cruel and ugly place, but we fight for a better future because we know it can be beautiful too.

Yves is a queer community organizer in the DC/Maryland/Virginia region, who got their start in mushrooms only a few years ago after first foraging with their mycologist partner. With a background in drug policy and philosophy, Yves strives to bring radical ideals for ecology and community engagement to a broader audience by centering essential human behaviors that bind us all together–like art.

A guided somatic meditation and movement exploration that brings us through the life cycle of fungi. A alchemical dance journey that guides us through the many layers of growth and decomposition.

Kaitlyn Cronin

My work lives in the intersection of spirituality, mycology, creativity, and the integration of Death in the sacred cycle of life. The more that I dive into each of these avenues the more I recognize they are all languages describing the same phenomenon. By weaving these philosophies into visual art I hope to inspire others to take a deeper look into the ecosystem that holds us.

The more we are able to come to terms and honor the cycles of nature, the more we can map these cyclical processes of growth and decay into our own lives. With mycelium as my greatest teacher and creation as my devotional practice, I have found a meaningful and much needed devotion by weaving together visual art and community death care.

This will be an opportunity for grievers to come together for a hands-on, group project so we can reckon with how our collective and individual grief practices keep us connected. We are going to lay down what is seen and not seen about our grieving practices.

Avery Cerulean is an aspiring Death Doula and all-around creative type. They also tend to pop up where conditions are right.

Sharing the practice of proper storage, and preserving of mushrooms and other foods. Learn how to prepare meals in a survival situation.

Charnaya Intuitive has built a reputation in her Atlanta community as a survivalist and a Mycologists. Over the past 4 years she has committed herself to the land and has allowed it to teach her. She studied under trained medical professionals and has had real time experiences. Wild Mushroom cooking, preservations, and foraging have became a delicious and beneficial pastime when Charnaya isn’t booked with catering and meal prep orders. Chef Charnaya plans to spend more time teaching and perfecting the craft; not only for herself but also her community!

Breaking down different Go Bag (survival bag) systems and the philosophy behind their contents. Differentiating team roles. Field and base camp tactics

My name is Chisom "Ziggy" Onwumere-Amadi from SUYA Tactical. Executive Protection Agent, champion kickboxer, youth coach, competition shooter. Farmer, and survivalist. Born from two Nigerian immigrants and raised in Riverdale, GA.

Emily will give a presentation on what was accomplished in the inaugural Center for Mycological Analytics certification course and talk about an application of mushroom potency testing and substrate research.

Emily has been learning within the mycology community since 2019 and holds a master’s degree in environmental science. They have studied topics from soil science and agriculture to mycology. Most recently, their work has involved co-founding the Center for Mycological Analytics which offers in-person lab trainings in mushroom extraction, testing and data analysis, supplemented by virtual community learning spaces. Emily is also the creator of the Community Agriculture Project, which highlights food sovereignty work and stories around the country.

Soil microbes — and a variety of fungi — are critical to ecosystem function by serving as primary agents of decomposition, nutrient cycling, and plant symbiosis. In fire-affected and degraded ecosystems, fungal and complex microbial amendments might be key to restoring native plants and ecosystem health. As wildfires increase in frequency and severity, management methods are being implemented to reduce fuel loads and restore native plant communities, especially in systems where vegetation type conversion has been due, in part, to increased fire frequency. Following a wild- and prescribed fires, we added native soil, saprotrophic fungi, and arbuscular mycorrhizal spores from a local unburned reference ecosystem and monitored microbial communities and ecosystem functions. Learn about our approaches as we interpret our data on nutrient cycling, pollination, soil fungal and bacterial communities, and more within the context of well replicated experiments from Southern California to Oregon. Join us as we consider the role of mycoloops and fungal ecophysiology to address locally relevant issues across a range of disturbances, ecosystems, and biomes.

MIA R MALTZ- I am a, mycologist, fungal ecologist, and new tenure-track professor in soil microbial ecology and soil health at UConn. In the University of California system, I received my PhD student at UC Irvine in Fungi and Ecological restoration (Ecology and Evolutionary Bio) and am a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Riverside linking environmental Mycology, environmental Justice, and biomedical science. My research overall focuses on fungal communities and functional ecology in novel ecosystems, including pumice plains, drying lakebeds, and the lung mycobiome. As Cofounder of CoRenewal, I’m primary investigator of the Fire Ecology Network in Cross-site Studies (FENiXS) exploring post-fire microbial inoculation and C cycling across a western US climate gradient.