Fungal Teachings on Organizing & Creating New Worlds
It's an exciting month of fungi-inspired events.
Showing kids the tiny worlds of fungi under the microscope at the OEB Library Science Fiction Festival 2024!
Dear Fellow Myconauts,
The Mycoverse is back next week, Monday, to discuss what fungi can teach us about organizing and prepare us for welcoming back Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez, the author of Let’s Become Fungal. Last time with Yasmine left us deeply inspired. Our Mycoverse this next Monday will set the foundations for our conversation with Yasmine later this month. Keep on scrolling for more!
In other news…
I am thrilled to share I will be teaching kids about the wonders of fungi at the upcoming Octavia E. Butler Library Science Fiction Festival 2025. What an honor it’s been teaching at these festivals, it’ll be my third year teaching there this year! Beautiful to witness a space created for envisioning new worlds with children.
“All that you touch
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
is Change.”
— Octavia E. Butler
Upcoming walks and talks:
March 16th - Fungi Walk in Glendale with Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (one of the few fungi walks I’m doing this season!)
March 21st - Octavia E. Butler Library Science Fiction Festival 2025
March 22nd - King’s Roost How to Love a Mushroom & The Arts of Noticing Fungi
Exploring the Mycoverse:
March 10th - The Mycelial Way - Rethinking Organizing
March 26th - Aaron Tupac in Conversation with Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez
Thanks to Descanso Garden for having us roam the gardens with fungi!
Exploring the Mycoverse: The Mycelial Way - Rethinking Organizing
Monday, March 10th, 7pm @ Arlington Garden, Pasadena, CA – Free by donation
Join us as we revisit some of our favorite lessons that fungi can teach us about organizing, or as some Mycoverse myconauts have lovingly called it, “the mycelial way.” This offering is an effort to support us as we expand into new relationships and remain grounded in community.
This is in preparation for our next event on Wednesday, March 26th, where we will continue to expand on this discussion with Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodriguez, the author of Let’s Become Fungal: Mycelium Teachings and the Arts. We are thrilled to have her back.
Topics we will be discussing:
How can the natural world ground our responsibilities and ultimately connect us?
What does composting old ways of organizing look like? (via adrienne maree brown)
The helpful concept of “critical yeasts” – how does change happen in society through “small groups of people in unlikely combinations, in a new quality of relationship?”
Before the discussion, we invite you to read and listen to a few short readings and interviews included in the Eventbrite from On Being and adrienne maree brown.
Aaron Tupac in Conversation with Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez
Wednesday, March 26th, 7pm @ Arlington Garden, Pasadena, CA – Free by donation
We are thrilled to welcome back Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez, the author of Let's Become Fungal! Mycelium Teachings and the Arts! Yasmine will be in conversation with Exploring the Mycoverse founder Aaron Tupac.
We will be in conversation about mycelial organizing, what fungi can teach us about grief, Yasmine's new oracle card deck, and much more. Last year's workshop with Yasmine was a favorite amongst the Mycoverse myconauts!
Yasmine is visiting Los Angeles thanks to programing hosted by Active Cultures, which you can learn more about here.
Spores That Caught Our Attention
Orion Magazine - All Ecology is Queer - a stellar lineup of writers in this season’s issue
Electric Fungi: The Bio Battery That Digests Itself
SoCal has been experiencing a drought so I’ve been experimenting taking pictures of my native plant container garden. Can’t get over how stunning Lewis cotyledon, aka Cliff Maids, look close up!
Looking sporeward,
Aaron