community blog
Learning to Thrive: Survival & Outdoor Living Skills with Jason Drevenak
Meet instructor Jason Drevanak, joining us for his 8th year at the Gathering this summer. Inspired by the joy of figuring out how our ancestors learned to thrive in their perspective environments, Jason is here to share survival and outdoor living skills for beginners and experts alike!
Wild Edible Plants: A Few of Firefly’s Springtime Favorites
Spring is the perfect time for clearing our livers of winter’s heavier foods and hibernating energies. We’ve gathered for your enjoyment and exploration a list of some of our favorite wild edible plants to get you started!
Earthskills for Everybody: Firefly Gathering’s Equity Fund, Committee, and Growth
With exciting expansions in our Equity Committee, Equity Fund, and plans for what this work looks like at the Annual Gathering itself, we invite you to read more about our current equity work and how to support these efforts.
Making Bone Tools: Craft and Kinship with Instructor Josh Barnwell
“As people who value life and feel the weight of responsibility for every life taken to continue our own, learning how to utilize every part we can of these animal bodies draws us deeper into ties of kinship with the more than human world.”
Communication, Equity, and Inclusion for Community : Firefly Gathering Instructor Makeda Meeks
“As long as white supremacy goes unchecked in our cultural communication and educational systems, the dream of community will evade us.”
Finding Love; Finding Freedom
Every morning we have the opportunity to bravely face a new day and choose love. Despite the obstacles, we can work to remain filled with that mysterious love that wells up from deep within and fills every part of us. This is the love that heals and changes the world.
The Sacred Ritual of Everyday Tasks: An Interview with Emily Bell
“What a miracle all aspects of life are if we are able to just slow down and look through the eyes of a child. There is so much to be joyful for – so much to delight in. When I teach classes, I set the container by creating these moments for pause and reflection. I ask my students to create an intention that they can weave into their broom that will help to anchor them in presence as they sweep every day.” – Emily Bell
Hide Fever: Instructor Feature with Rain Hall
“We are countering waste culture and consumerism by using the often discarded deer hides to make something beautiful, with our own hands, that was not bought in a store or mass produced. When we are learning, sharing and using these hide sewing skills, we are re-learning connection to the wilderness, the earth and that which provides and sustains us.” – Rain Hall
Winter Solstice: Musings On the Underworld, Being a Humanimal, and the Sacredness of Celebration From Our Director
Firefly’s Director Marissa Percoco dives deep into the ideas of voluntary simplicity, and of emphasizing the animal in humanimal in daily life, to sew into your own musings for the year to come.
Finding Solace: An Interview with Jessica Kaufman
“When all feels chaotic around me and inside me, I seek solace in my quiet time single-tasking on a craft that requires me to do nothing but the same movement over and over, building something that didn’t exist before.” – Jessica Kaufman
The Wild World of Willows: Natural History, Ecology and more!
As a community, let’s intertwine our root masses of relationships so that soil and soul can stay in place, in the same way that willows prevent stream erosion. Let’s collectively create flexible stems and skills that help us weave baskets of inclusivity and resilience. And may we cultivate adaptability so that we are able to re-root even if we’re torn away by the floodwaters and lost for some time…
Mushroom Foraging in Fall – Firefly’s Favorite Five Fungi
Our favorite mycelial friends are back in action, and we’ve put together our top 5 favorite fall mushrooms in the Southern Appalachians, with ID tips, how to cook them and where to find them.
Living Relationally: An Exploration with Nastassja Noell
How do we live relationally when we are surrounded by polarization; when fulfilling our basic needs of food, water, and shelter are often in direct opposition to our intention to live with integrity and cause no harm? Explore the new publications from Firefly’s Registration Coordinator and resident lichenologist, Nastassja Noell, which explore what humans might learn from fungus about living relationally.
Why Covid Test? A Response from the Director
As our experience with Covid-19 continues to unfold and change, we feel called to speak to why The Firefly Gathering has chosen to require covid testing to come to our annual gathering in June.
Meet Tod Kershaw, The Pre/Post Apocalyptic Blacksmith
As a returning Perennial Workshops and long-time Annual Gathering Instructor, we thought it high time to celebrate this beloved instructor and close Firefly friend. Learn about his winding toward blacksmithing, dumpster diving, and the heart of the Earthskills community, and join him at his upcoming workshops this year!
An ode to Doug Elliott, Appalachian storyteller, herbalist and naturalist
One of Firefly’s treasured elders, Doug Elliott, brings his story and song year after year to the Firefly Gathering. In this most recent episode of the Ground Shots Podcast, Doug and Firefly’s own Kelly Moody sit down in his home to reflect on life close to the land, reasons for telling stories, and his curiosity about nature through the years. Blending interview with clips of past performances, this personal and detailed look into Doug Elliott’s life and exploration of his storytelling is not to be missed!
