Building in Public - Awakening Lands and Regenerating Stories Workshop
...also a bit of weaving between Erie Niagara and the Copper Corridor, Sonoran Desert, Arizona
This article’s companion Awakening Lands podcast episode (4 mins):
Awakening Lands is embarking on a new phase of development. We are now learning how to invite regenerative storytellers, artists, leaders, and weavers into the creative process we have so far formed. We sense a lot of potential in this. Exciting and daunting times!
Inspired by a mentor of ours, we are now learning how to “build it in public.” So here goes…
We already held our first humble storytelling workshop with a couple of storytelling/artist friends of ours. We will host our second workshop next week bringing lessons learned from the first. We are also picking up insights and guidance from people more experienced in regenerative storytelling along the way. Looking ahead, we now aspire to create exciting and dynamically creative learning spaces for evermore regenerative storytellers and artists.
Our plan is to first recruit storytellers and artists we’ve met in the regenerative movement and build some momentum with them in learning how to co-create awakening and regenerating stories.
Once we’ve learned a thing or two, we’ll explore ways to bring proven workshop and jam session formats onto the ground in Erie Niagara and the Copper Corridor, Sonoran Desert, Arizona.
We already have some stories to share.
From Erie Niagara
Anna made this video and it’s a real beauty…
It’s a compilation of clips from our interviews with Erie Niagara leaders and weavers, showing the various locations and projects coming together. Included are Jay Burney, Marcus Rosten, Margaret Wooster, and Lynda Schneekloth.
You can also check out our Youtube channel to watch past episodes and Anna has created playlists of clips that explore specific themes.
A lot has happened since these interviews. Birds on the Niagara was February 16-19, and despite white out conditions, sub freezing temperatures, and winds over 30 mph, the 6 outdoor guided birding walks on Sunday were all well attended! Many jokes were made about hosting an outdoor festival in Buffalo in February, but we saw a lot of birds because the weather kept them close to land!
You can watch all of the presentations from Birds on the Niagara here.
As part of the indoor speaking programs, the Western New York Environmental Alliance hosted their third community discussion around the 30x30 campaign to solicit input from community members around land and water preservation. Marcus Rosten presented on the Western New York Land Conservancy’s project to connect wildlife corridors as part of the Western New York Wildway. Catherine Landis from the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment out of SUNY-ESF (State University of New York - Environmental Science and Forestry) spoke about the environmental and ecological injustice coming from the STAMP (Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park) project in Genesee county, which is being built immediately adjacent to the National Iroquois Wildlife Refuge and the Tonawanda Seneca Nation. You can learn more about this project and the fight to prevent further damage and injustice to the Tonawanda Seneca at the Allies of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation.
Adding to the publicity around this development, Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass and Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, came to Buffalo to speak at Canisius College on March 5. She also spoke out about STAMP, which is unanimously opposed by the Tonawanda Seneca Nation.
From the Copper Corridor, Sonoran Desert, Arizona
The Copper Corridor is south of the Arizona Divide, part of the Sonoran Desert and Gila River watershed. The small towns that populate this region have a history of mining and boom and bust cycles that have left both the land and the people here thirsting for change from the status quo. While the landscapes and ecosystems are drastically different than the rust belt cities of the Great Lakes, both are facing similar economic and ecological challenges.
Enter Miracle Martinez, a multimedia artist, community organizer, and storyteller of places like Superior, Globe, Miami, and Kearny, Arizona. Not only does she hold a central role in Regenerating Sonora, a dynamic group of scrappy people learning to lift up their communities and places, but she is also part of the Copper Corridor Co-Lab, a cooperative of community members working together to make this region thrive. At Awakening Lands, we hope to lift up Miracle’s voice, along with other voices from the region to spread the inspiration and the specific pathways of regenerating community unfolding there. What might Erie Niagara and the Copper Corridor learn from one another if some of their regenerative stories are seen in parallel?
Here’s a short reel that Miracle created last week:
One of the many things Miracle has been doing lately is hosting the RegenNews, giving updates on the many events and projects that Regenerating Sonora and their partners work on throughout the Copper Corridor. Check out this video covering what happened in February alone!
Be on the lookout for some stories to drop next week when Anna Purpera visits Chris Casillas (Episode 1) and Miracle Martinez, in the Copper Corridor, Sonoran Desert, Arizona for a party celebrating the birthday of Regeneratoring Sonora. These two regions are doing some weaving…
That’s it for now. Subscribe here to best follow along.
…and please, tell your landscape, we said hello…
What David said 🌱
I love this new direction, and I've devoured everything you've posted here. I can't wait to see more!