Rad Herb 2014

March 7th-9th, 2014
Outside Tucson, Arizona

You are cordially invited to a gathering of herbalists and plant enthusiasts of an anti-oppressive or otherwise community-minded persuasion.

As the number of radical herbalists grows we see Rad Herb as a space to explore together how our work with plants & healing fit into our political work and how these can intersect and support the work we are doing to build the world in which we want to live.

This gathering will provide an opportunity for radical and community minded herbalists to meet each other and share skills, resources, knowledge and experiences. To share time and space, food and medicine, our ideas and our selves, and to talk about how and why we are doing this work. To explore how we could do it better and hear about what others are doing. To build networks of support and inspiration for each other.

As we come together to build and learn, we also recognize a simultaneous ‘unlearning’ process we participate in by calling ourselves radicals. This can take on different forms where certain people “get” some specific language, terms or social signifiers that are indicators of knowledge ( cultural capital ) in radical, herbal and other niche circles. it happens.

Rad Herb welcomes folks from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences in their work with both plants and radical politics, and in that vein, we ultimately want to hold one another accountable at this gathering by committing to co-creating a safer space for all of us to share, learn, network and to interrelate across differences in ways that build our connectivity and community. That doesn’t mean that we avoid conflicts or pave over differences in an attempt to keep it safe, but rather that we are committed to knowing ourselves, our boundaries, our needs and that we all make mistakes. We can recognize that by participating in this gathering, we are attempting to co-create a container and safer space to share, learn, ask and be vulnerable, to build our radical rhizomatous networks and seek to better understand ourselves, our histories, communities and connections to the land and to the plants.

We begin by recognizing that we as organizers come from a colonial settler history in the continued occupation of native and indigenous lands by the US government and with this in mind, all are invited to come together to be accountable to our histories, unearned privileges, relations to power, people and land.

With these recognitions as a foundation, all peoples are welcome as we recognize where we are coming from in order to dream together where we are going.

Read more at http://radherbsw.wordpress.com/

Rad Herb South West

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Radical Herbalists Gathering Southwest

March 1st-3rd, 2013

Two hours outside Tucson, AZ

You are cordially invited to a gathering of herbalists and plant enthusiasts of anti-oppressive or otherwise community-minded persuasion.

As the number of radical herbalists grows, we feel the need to explore how our work as herbalists and plant lovers fits into the rest of our resistance work and the work we are doing to build the world in which we want to live.

This gathering will provide an opportunity for radical and community minded herbalists to get together and talk about how and why we are doing this work. To explore how we could do it better and hear about what others are doing. To build networks of support and inspiration for each other. To share skills, knowledge and experiences with one another.

There will be space for folks with varying degrees of experience and skill in herbalism and holistic healthcare: from folks newly interested in herbs and looking for ways to support their own or their community’s health with affordable/accessible practices, to those who are looking to share and deepen their skill sets and build stronger networks.

The weekend will be full of informative workshops, rousing discussions, and opportunities to share our skills and make new connections!

That said, we need folks to step up and make these things happen. If you would like to offer a workshop, teach a skill share or facilitate a discussion or other activity, please email us with your ideas so that we know we have our bases covered. If you want to facilitate a workshop or discussion, but aren’t confident about how to do it, let us know and we will hook you up with resources to help.

Here is a list of some workshop ideas that we would like to see at the gathering. Let us know if you or someone you know can facilitate any of these. Feel free to think and share above and beyond this list too!

(For a more detailed and extensive list, see the blog post below this one and check back for a list of scheduled workshops as they come in.)

• Relationship between (herbal/radical) healthcare and systems of oppression – race, class, fatphobia, patriarchy, colonization.
• Issues of cultural appropriation in alternative medicine, and indigenous solidarity.
• Any workshop on a specific condition or disease – diabetes, HIV/AIDS, Lyme, Hepatitis C, cancer, asthma, HPV.
• Herbs for stress and/or trauma.
• Herbal care for sexual and reproductive health.
• Herbs for transgender folks.
• Cultivating deeper relationship with plants, gardening, sustainable harvesting, tending wild plant stands.
• Local and native plants of the southwest and Sonoran desert.
• Energetic plant medicine, flower essences, plant spirit medicine.
• Learning from and integrating different systems of herbal medicine (Western, Chinese, Ayurvedic).
• Alternative models to radical healthcare – how to run a free clinic, healing outside of clinical spaces, project reportbacks.
• The AHG and the standardization of herbal medicine.
• Integrative medicine, how to deal with doctors/medical industrial complex, medical advocacy.
• Historical perspectives on health justice and herbalism.
• Herbal first aid for protests, wilderness, desert.
• Harm reduction.
• Expanding your skill set – resources to learn minor surgical procedures, to get prescription medications, and to access lab tests.
• Herbal care for animals.
• What’s going on in the Southwest!- report-backs, networking, what we want to see happen, how to support folks who are already doing stuff here
• Case studies and building intake skills – multi-lingual consultations, setting good boundaries.

If you want to facilitate any of these or have other ideas (even if you are unable to facilitate a workshop but there’s something you feel is missing from this list), let us know!

Email us at radherbsw@gmail.com

radherbsw.wordpress.com