Prairie Roots: Growing a Sustainable Future
30th Anniversary KAW Council Gathering
Schedule * Co-Sponsors * Register Workshops & Events
May 4 – 6, 2012, Camp Hammond, Deer Creek Watershed of the Wakarusa River (Located between Lawrence & Topeka)
featuring Stephanie Mills, author of Epicurean Simplicity, In Gandhi’s Path and Whatever Happened to Ecology?
The Event: The weekend event explores and celebrates life in the Kansas Area Watershed, Prairie Bioregion and Planet Earth, and how to live artfully and soulfully with ecological integrity. The event features a dozen workshops focused on crafting a life in balance with this bioregion, plus children’s activities, an open mic, storytelling and singing around the fire, a display on seed saving (and chance to swap plant starts), and information on and networking with over a dozen ecological organizations and businesses. Most of all, this event is a chance to make more friends, find ideas and inspiration, and learn more ways to reinhabit our prairie bioregion. All of this takes place at Camp Hammond, located between Lawrence and Topeka, and featuring 175 acres of native prairie, native woodlands, a beautiful lake, indoor meeting space, and lots of trails and open areas for outdoor explorations and meetings.
Schedule (in progress)
Kids of all ages are welcome to the children’s workshops; kids’ workshops and events highlighted in green are especially kid-friendly; in addition to these workshops, we will have a childcare person present to help kids who need more support.
Friday, May 4th:
4-6 p.m. – arrival, check-in, tent or cabin set-up
6 p.m. – Welcome circle and three Kaws
6-7 p.m. – dinner
7-9 – Prairie Roots: A Bioregional Homecoming – keynote event with Stephanie Mills, Ken Lassman and Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, “Still Including: Gender + Equalities” with Shannon Gorres, plus introductions and a chance to get to know one another
7-9 – Childcare (although all children are welcome at the opening session)
9:30-10:30 – Nighttime Spider Hunt – Hank Guarisco
9:30 -10:30 p.m. – Storytelling, Singing, Poetry & Sharing Around the Fire
Saturday, May 5th:
7-8 a.m. – Bird Song Walk — Stephen Figgins
7:30-8:30a.m. – Breakfast
8:45-9:30 a.m. – Talking Circles (small groups to meet in each morning to get to know other people and integrate what you’re learning)
8:45-9:30 – Kids of all ages workshop: New Games – Stephen Figgins
9:45-11:15 – Workshop session#1: (90-minute sessions)
- Biochar: The Growing Edge – Ruth Lewis
- Bees Are My Muse: The Art of Pollinator Awareness – Laura Ramberg
- Kids of all ages workshops:
- Primitive Skills for Kids – Wade Myslivy (children’s workshop): 9:45-10:11:15
11:30-12:30 – Lunch
12:45-2:15 – Workshop session#2: (90-minute sessions)
- Grafting Fruit Trees – Skyler Adamson and Wade Myslivy
- Write from the Earth – Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
- Kids of all ages workshops:
- Eco-Song Sing-along – Stan Slaughter: 12:45-1:30
- Red Wigglers & Worms – Stan Slaughter: 1:30-2:15
2:30-4 -Workshop session #3: (90-minute sessions)
- Bodies in Nature Sculpture – Susan Rieger
- Medicinal and Edible Plants in Your Yard, Woods, and Prairie – Frank Norman
- Kids of all ages workshops: Environmental Art – Angie Babbit (children’s workshop)
4:15-5:45 -Workshop session #4:
- A Poor Person’s Guide to Living Green – Rachel Myslivy
- Transition to a Sustainable Local Economy – Michael Almon, Amber Lehrman, Ralph Bauer
- Kids of all ages workshops:
- Spiders – Hank Guarisco: 4:15-5
6-7 – Dinner
7 – Still Including: Gender + Equalities – follow-up with Shannon Gorres
7:15 – How Bioregionalism Changed Our Lives: A Round-Robin Discussion with Kelly Kindscher, Dan Bentley, Stephanie Mills, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ken Lassman, Daniel Lassman, Joy DeMaranville, Jerry Sipe
7-8 – Childcare available
8-9:30 – Open Mic on the Prairie: share stories, songs, poems, skits, dances and other creative expressions of who we are and how we live.
9:30-10:30 – Singing, storytelling and more around the campfire
9:30 – Star walk with David Neuenschwander
Sunday, May 6th:
6:30-7:30 – Photography Walkabout- Jerry Sipe
7:30-8:30a.m. – Breakfast
8:45-9:30a.m. – Talking Circles
8:45-9:30 a.m. – Kids’ workshop (tba)
9:30-11a.m. – Workshop session #5: (90-minute sessions)
- Urban Permaculture – Steve Moring and Amber Lehrman
- Edible/Medicinal Prairie Plant Walk – Kelly Kindscher with Dan Bentley, Ken Lassman and Frank Norman (for adults and kids of all ages)
10:45-11:30–Water Ritual (please bring water from your home or travels to pour into the center of a circle we make together on the prairie)
12–Lunch and brief Kaw Council meeting
1:30–Closing circle, clean-up, breaking camp
Learn About Other Groups: We will have displays from many of our co-sponsors, including lots of information and chances to network on organic gardening, permaculture, fruit trees, native plants, animals of this bioregion, land formations, weather and climate, seasonal patterns, poetry and stories, and much more.
Seed Saving & Sharing: Sponsored by the Kaw Valley Seed Saving project, there will be an opportunity to learn much more about seed saving and sharing, and to swap seed starts with each other at the event. Please bring any extra seeds and seed starts to share, and please take home what you can use in your garden.
Become a Co-Sponsor: We invite your organization to become a co-sponsor. In exchange for $30 and helping us get out the word on this event, we will list your organization with a short description, logo and link on our website, and on much of our publicity. Please send a check payable to Kaw Council for $30 to P.O. Box 1512, Lawrence, KS 66046. Please also email us — via Kspoetlaureate@gmail.com — a 50-word description of your organization, a URL for your website, blog and/or facebook page, and if you wish, a jpeg of your logo. Co-sponsors include: Kaw Valley Seeds Project, Seeds from Italy, The Light Center, Grassland Heritage Foundation, Kansas Land Trust, Planet Drum Foundation, The Community Mercantile, Kansas Academy of Science, Sustainability Action Network, Crater Critters, Lawrence Sustainability Network, Lawrence Fruit Tree Project, the Blissful Bite, Kaw Valley Herbs Study Group, Films for Action, Ozark Area Community Congress, Kansas Rural Center, Kansas Natural Resource Council, Cosmic Beauty School, Learning for Life Center, and Ecumenical Christian Ministries.
Registration: Registration (including on-line registration option) will be up by Feb. 14th. We anticipate a fee of $40-$45/ adult and $20-$25/child for the weekend with a special family rate. To keep costs low, everyone is encouraged to also bring a bag or two of groceries, home-grown or canned or produced food, etc. to donate to the kitchen, and we ask all participants to volunteer at each one shift preparing and serving a meal, or cleaning up after a meal.
