What do spoken word poetry, path mulching, and scything all have in common? Keep reading to find out!

Although last night didn’t feel anything like spring with freezing temps and even snow on the ground a few days before, today we are enjoying a beautiful cloudless sunny day and celebrating Earth Day. Carolyn here, Marketing Maven from Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, to share some love of the earth and celebrate our youth in community.

As a way to share our joy and love we spent today doing “Land Clean” here in the village. Villagers gathered this morning for a wonderful circle and divided up tasks to be done to help beautify the land. People signed up for everything including laying some gravel on our internal road, remulching paths, painting beautiful signs, cleaning up recycling and even taking down an old shed structure. As the afternoon hits we are working on cleaning up our warrens around our houses and will finish the day off with a sweet parade around the village to show off our hard work, which will even include some live marching-band style music!

This evening our youngest member Prairie will be part of a discussion with Next GENNA, a youth initiative born out of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), about what it is like to grow up in an ecovillage. You can join Prairie tonight and learn about life here in community and all of the projects she has been up to. How many 18-year-olds do you know that know how to scythe, or even what scything is for that matter? I am personally in awe of this amazing young woman and all of the skills she has acquired since moving to Dancing Rabbit. I can’t wait to hear her talk about her work in the gardens and on natural buildings, and how that inspires and informs her inner personal work, art, and poetry.

Our future and the fate of our world lies in the hands of these young people, coming of age in a generation of zoom and coronavirus. Prairie is one of those young people who, when you hear her speak, causes you to breathe a big sigh of relief and go “whew- maybe the human species will be okay after all!”  Come listen in to hear the wisdom she has gained from exploring the balance between technology and ancient knowledge, and witness a living example of how young people in community thrive, grow and come into adulthood with a toolbox full of skills. If you’re there in time, you’ll even get a chance to hear Prairie’s latest slam poetry masterpiece.

I hope you can join me in supporting Prairie tonight from 7-8:30 CST. Tickets are sold on a sliding scale starting at $2, with proceeds going to Next GENNA and Prairie for her hard work. Let’s celebrate the Earth, and its future, by supporting the next generation together! 

 

Happy Earth Day!