Cultivating Community & Fungi – Loving Together With
Join us in reflecting on and dreaming of the Mycoverse.
Dear Fellow Myconauts,
Take the time today to cultivate love and hope by communing with your-more-than-human neighbors. To re-member who we are. To ground ourselves. To not lose focus. To continue to ferment our critical yeast we’ve been cultivating together.
To model loving together with.
Join us next week to reflect and dream our Mycoverse community together.
Adventures with the Mycoverse at the North American Mycological Associations Annual Foray Gathering in Randle, Washington.
Several of us myconauts traveled up north to commune with the mushrooms and the mushroom lovers. Here are some snap shots.
UV fluorescent dyer’s polypore drawings done by Vanessa and Aaron. They are otherwise invisible to the naked eye.
Halloween festivities ensued with Ötzi, The Red Lady, and some Psilocybe cubensis Spores reunite.
Along with a fluorescent Amanita and Amethyst deceiver (Laccaria).
And so many new fungal encounters (like a Cortinarius truffle that has a stipe, red coral, ascos growing on pine cones, and so many more!!!)
What Have We Learned Exploring the Mycoverse?
Monday, November 11th, 7pm @ Arlington Garden, Pasadena, CA – Free by donation
Over the years, we have traversed the Mycoverse with a diverse group of myconauts from our local community to authors, artists, and scientists from all over. We have learned so much, especially from you! To honor what we have learned, we are working on creating a few projects to showcase the Exploring the Mycoverse community we have cultivated toegher – via publications, a documentary, and more!
This session is dedicated to feeding these projects through sharing our stories, Mycoverse delights, favorite anecdotes, favorite humorous moments, favorite vulnerable moments, favorite mushroom encounter, and favorite moments where we felt deeply connected. How has your relationships with fungi and the more than human world evolved through our community?
Come along to share and listen to what spores we've spread, and what stories we’ve felt the need to share with our friends, family, coworkers, and the occasional stranger.
We are excited to reflect on what we have learned so far in exploring the Mycoverse, from the far reaches of the Mycoverse in the matsutake forests of Yunnan, the yeasty relationships that founded human civilization in the Middle East, the multitude of myco-inspired gatherings at New Moon, Telluride, Radical Mycology, NAMA, and many more we’ve explored across the United States, to the Mycoverse that is near, inside us, and under our very own feet.
Before our discussion, we invite you to think about:
What is something you share with others that you have learned from this community? Or something you feel vitally important to share from this community?
Do you have a specific story about the Mycoverse, or experience, a moment from the Mycoverse that changed the way you see the world or enhanced your understanding of fungi?
What does building a better relationship with the more-than-human worlds of fungi look like to you?
Fermentation Workshop by Pacific Coast Cultures
Monday, November 25th, 7pm @ Arlington Garden, Pasadena, CA – Free by donation
Pacific Coast Cultures is an open ended gathering that explores relationship and work between microbes and humans to create and preserve food. We share a fascination of the breadth and depth of fermentation and its ability to cross between scientific processes and folk knowledge. We exploreprocess to hone practice and ferments, while also learning to work with other living organisms and broaden our understanding of symbiotic relationships.
Presenting for the Mycoverse are it’s three founding member, a mix of creatives and scientists: Zenji Oguri, Michael O’dell and James Oliver. The presentation includes a brief history of our practice and small community, a tasting of different styles and microbes of fermentation we’ve explored in the short and long term, a review of cost and accessibility of fermentation, and a reflection on relationship and inspiration with our microbial partners.
Spread the spores,
Aaron