The RēMind, No. 015: Thanks for the LOVE!
The RēMind, No. 015: Thanks for the LOVE!
LOVE Garden Fundraiser Update / March 2022 Retreat / Remembering bell hooks / Climate Feminism / Land Advocacy Fellowship
“Belonging is about acceptance, deep and profound acceptance of reality, of what is,” proclaimed bell hooks in conversation with john a. powell in 2015. Belonging is about being “able to be vigilant in our lives of where do we enter into that… [asking] what am I doing, where are my resources going, where do I enter into this.”
In this week’s newsletter, we recap our LOVE Garden fundraiser, announce a March 2022 Rē revitalizing retreat, and pay homage to pioneering feminist scholar, bell hooks. We also explore climate feminism, promote the National Young Farmers Coalition’s Land Advocacy Fellowship, and highlight some important organizations in the American South to support.
As this will be our last newsletter of 2021, we at Rē: The Regenerative School wish you and yours peace, joy, care, strength and health this holiday season and in the coming new year!
See you in 2022!
Updates from Rē:
Our LOVE Garden Fundraiser was a Success!
Thank you so much to ALL who donated to the LOVE garden campaign through SeedMoney.org! We exceeded our goal of $600, raising $775 in four weeks! We are so excited to put your contributions to work as we increase community engagement and access in the garden. We are hoping to install outdoor lighting, add an upgraded water catchment system, build cold frames for winter food production, and hopefully put up a small raised platform for our musician friends to perform in this awesome urban space! STAY TUNED AND THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN!
‘Blossom Into Spring: A Restorative Retreat’ Announced
SAVE THE DATE: March 25-27, 2022
Join us for a weekend of self-care in Fayetteville, Tennessee
The focus of this event will be to clear the accumulated energy that no longer serves us and to create space for new revitalized energies.
Thana Nu of Nourish Me Wellness, Caitlin Smith of Within Wellness,and Ashlei Laing of Rē : The Regenerative school will be facilitating the weekend, holding space, and helping us bloom. Consider our invitation and lean into a beautiful, practice for you.
Full weekend, day pass, and scholarship registration available! Registration details coming soon.
Regenerative News RēCap
Remembering bell hooks
“What am I doing in the service of that which I say I believe and hope for?”
This week we lost acclaimed Appalachian American author, professor, cultural critic, poet, feminist, and social activist, bell hooks. The trailblazer died at her home in Berea, Kentucky, at the age of 69. hooks wrote more than forty books over the course of her life, making her one of the most influential Black feminist scholars of the last century. She has shaped multiple generations of thinkers. hooks bridged critical theory and daily life as she examined the intersection of race, politics and gender with a passion and intellectual boldness that will be profoundly missed.
In a 2015 conversation with john a. powell titled “Belonging Through Connection, Connecting Through Love: Oneself, the Other, and the Earth," hooks sermonizes on love, community, belonging, and service. Its an insightful hour-long conversation, but we have highlighted a couple minutes of the conversation where she speaks on the importance of local work, local service, local change, and local conversations.
What Is Climate Feminism?
Although the climate crisis is a collective problem, its burdens — displacement, homelessness, poverty, sexual violence, disease — disproportionately impact women and girls. Storms, droughts, and other natural disasters render women more vulnerable than men to income loss, food insecurity, water scarcity, and related health complications.
The United Nations estimates that 80 percent of people displaced by climate change are women.
In the face of this reality, the world needs to embrace a feminist approach to tackling the climate crisis... That includes a collective mission to shift who is leading the way on solutions to the crisis, and what the approach will be. Research shows that women’s leadership and equal participation result in better outcomes for climate policy, reducing emissions, and protecting land.
To read more, check out this article published by the National Resource Defense Council earlier this year.
National Young Farmers Coalition Announces BIPOC-Centered Land Advocacy Fellowship
The Land Advocacy Fellowship is a two-year advocacy and leadership fellowship for current and aspiring young farmers and ranchers. This fellowship is part of the National Young Farmers Coalition’s One Million Acres for the Future Campaign which seeks to ensure that land is equitably transitioned to the next generation of farmers by changing policy in the 2023 Farm Bill.
The fellowship will be a majority BIPOC space and includes mentorship, professional development, advocacy training, co-created opportunities, independent and group work, a November 2022 fly-in to Washington, D.C., and a stipend of $3,000 per year.
One hundred fellows will be selected to join this two-year program. Participants should expect to spend an average of 10 hours on this fellowship each month, with a smaller commitment during the summer. All sessions will be held online via Zoom.
Applications accepted through January 15, 2022.
Please spread the word to young farmers and ranchers you know!
For more information visit https://www.youngfarmers.org/land-advocacy-fellowship/
Supporting the South
The American South has been my home for my entire life. It is also a region that has suffered terribly from industrial exploitation and political perfidy, a region that stands to suffer even more terribly from the effects of climate change.
This week, Margaret Renkl, a Nashville-based American writer, penned a New York Times opinion article explaining why we need to support and donate to conservation nonprofits just as much as we must vote for conservation candidates.
Renkl highlighted three environmental nonprofits working in the American South we could all consider supporting this holiday season and in the coming new year:
Southerly magazine is a nonprofit media organization dedicated to reporting rigorously fact-checked environmental news that other news organizations ignore. Southerly is especially committed to covering how pollution and climate change affect Black and brown communities in the American South.
The Southern Environmental Law Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan legal advocacy organization for conservation and environmental justice. SELC is the the South’s largest and most effective environmental advocate and protector. “Demanding justice requires resources, and resources are what too many Southern communities lack,” explains Renkl.
The Land Trust for Tennessee, like other land trusts around the country, offers one of the simplest, least contentious and most effective ways to preserve the privately held fields and forests that serve as wildlife ecosystems and carbon sinks: Convince landowners to save them.
As always, we at Rē are grateful for your attention and support. If you liked this newsletter, consider donating at https://regenerativeschool.org/redonate/
THANK YOU!