No. 047: April Showers

Here's a sprinkling of reading recommendations and organizational updates to start your week

Happy Monday Rē School Community,

How is everyone’s week shaping up?

We are currently leaning into Sequoia Samanvaya’s land acknowledgement course, in which Rev. Sara Jolena Wolcott and Kristine Marie Hill leads our cohort of restorative justice practitioners in an exploration of the real possibilities, deep truths, and performative harm of land acknowledgments. We cannot recommend this important skill-building and reflective course enough… Sara and Kristine will be offering another cohort in June. If you are interested in more information, please email admin@regenerativeschool.org

Last Friday, thanks to an invitation from our friends at the Upstander Project and Imagine Studios, our director, Ashlei Laing, attended the UNH Dunfey/Sidore 2023 Symposium. Roundtables and panels of practitioners and academics reviewed the ethical, collaborative, and reparative aspects of social scientists’ research and teaching in restorative justice spaces. We, at Rē, do not believe in extractive research. Nor do we believe in top-down education. We are proud to approach learning and teaching differently. We are a community-based micro-university, borderless and boundless. Our students, teachers, and community members engage and grow together, while learning how to better steward our lands and resources in relation to the larger world and in collaboration with each other. In order to rēmember our histories and rēpair our pasts we need to rēimagine community: and that only happens by creating safe spaces where we can come together and listen to each other.

We hope to see you in class soon.

Keep scrolling for some organizational updates and some reading recommendations!

HUGE NEWS

We are thrilled to share that our organization received a generous donation of $200,000.00 from an anonymous donor in March. This remarkable donation comes at a crucial time, following a big transition from our hometown in Fayetteville, TN to our new community in Amesbury, MA.

We are deeply grateful for this support, kindness, and confidence as we continue to work towards transforming and opening up education for all. Since 2018, the Rē School has been dedicated to promoting regenerative processes and paradigms for ecological, social, and economic betterment. This incredible donation covers our immediate financial needs to pursue our mission with renewed vigor. We are constantly growing, innovating, reconciling and building out course offerings, educational tours, revitalizing retreats, and our library of work.

We are truly humbled and thankful for your continued support. You make our work possible.

In deep gratitude,
Ashlei, Bethany, and Adar

RēAwaken: A Day RēTreat

Join us for a SPRING day in nature filled with YOGA, MEDITATION, HIKING, ART, reflection and more! Surrounded by Alnoba NH’s ancestral forests, we will gather in community to breathe, move, and reset for the summer season. Curious about the Regenerative School Community? Interested in exploring your inner landscape? Join us May 20th, 2023 from 11:00 am – 7:00 pm ET!

Click here to sign up: https://regenerativeschool.org/dayretreat/

Visit our Facebook group here: https://fb.me/e/NtnTadMZ

Email us at admin@regenerativeschool.org for more info.

RēTour: Puerto Rico

This 10-day educational trip is a unique window into the diverse landscapes and culture of Puerto Rico, a beautiful island rich in history. Delve into and honor its indigenous roots by discussing the island’s continuously complex relationship to its colonizers. Circle the island, exploring the colorful and historic streets of San Juan in the north and the artistry of the southern city of Ponce. Join like minded others on a journey that encompasses adventure, nourishing relaxation, experiential learning, working alongside locals, and connection. Help support important ecological work and cultural practices while thoughtfully touring this gorgeous island. 

Rē is an environmental and social justice organization. All of our educational tours and programming are designed to accommodate individuals from diverse backgrounds and abilities, and prioritize the preservation and regeneration of local ecosystems and communities. We are teachers and students interested in ethical, sustainable tourism and regenerative education.

Program Dates: August 2-12, 2023

RēTour includes: accommodations for program duration, local transportation, field trips, excursions, and group meals.

Coming soon: Pricing details, itinerary, and meet the teaching team!

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• “The Thread that Ties the Recent Chemical Spills Together” by Rebecca Leber for Vox. There have already been 50 chemical spills or fires in the U.S. this year, and it's only March. Also on the topic: “A spill outside Philadelphia adds to the growing list of chemical accidents this year” by Max Graham for Grist.

• “Cleaner Air Helps Everyone. It Helps Black Communities a Lot” by Elena Shao for The New York Times. A new study quantified the benefits of pollution reduction in terms of race and class.

• “The Willow Project Would Be a Public Health Crisis for Alaska” by Yessenia Funes for Atmos. The Willow project proposal would expand oil infrastructure on Alaska’s North Slope, an Iñupiaq leader who shares their public health concerns.

• “Cruise Ship Invasion” by Andrew Engelson for Hakai Magazine. This interactive feature takes you on a typical Alaska cruise and see the damage in its wake. The evidence is clear: the industry needs an overhaul.

• “The Fraught Negotiations Behind the New IPCC Report” by Ajit Niranjan for Heatmap. How Saudi Arabia, China, and the U.S. tried to weaken language in the climate report.

• “Scientists deliver ‘final warning’ on climate crisis: act now or it’s too late” by Fiona Harvey for The Guardian. Latest IPCC report says only swift and drastic action can avert irrevocable damage to world.

• “Rewilding Parts of the Planet Could Have Big Climate Benefits” by Bob Berwyn for Inside Climate News. Restoring fish, bison, gray wolves and other animals in key regions is possible without risking food supplies, and could remove nearly 500 gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere by 2100.

• “Can Nations Be Sued for Weak Climate Action? We’ll Soon Get an Answer” by Somini Sengupta for The New York Times. Vanuatu, a disaster-prone Pacific country, has secured United Nations approval to take that question to the International Court of Justice.

• “Why climate ‘doomers’ are replacing climate ‘deniers’” by Shannon Osaka for The Washington Post. How U.N. reports and confusing headlines created a generation of people who believe climate change can’t be stopped

• “In Historic Move, UN Asks World Court to Weigh in on Climate Change”by Molly Quell for Courthouse News Service. Requests for advisory opinions are rare: The court has been asked to provide a nonbinding opinion fewer than 30 times in its nearly 80-year existence.

• “American cities want to recycle their plastic trash in Mexico. Critics call it waste colonialism” by Joseph Winters for Grist. A new recycling plant in Mexicali raises legal and ethical concerns.

What have you been reading? What have you been listening to? Write to us at admin@regenerativeschool.org and let us know.

Thank you and see you soon!

The Rē Team