Welcoming St John’s Wort, Rising Yang Energy, and New Presenters: An Update from All of Us at the Northwest Herbal Fair
Hello all! We are feeling the buzzing energy of summer as we work behind the scenes to prepare for our beloved Northwest Herbal Fair community. The St John’s Wort is in full bloom, the gardens are bursting with yang energy, and our excitement for this gathering is building.
Recently we added a couple new presenters to our line up including Paul Chiyokten Wagner who is from the Saanich First Nations, historically from the southeast corner of Vancouver Island. He is the founder of the organization Protectors of the Salish Sea. Chiyokten has spoken eloquently at past Northwest Herbal Fairs. He will be one of our keynote speakers in 2024. Laurie Lava-Books is also joining us to lead our Gratitude Talking Circle for youth ages 11-18. They are a member of the Karuk Nation in Northern California. They have been practicing the herbal arts for 35 years. They were the birth Mother of Clary Sage Herbarium in Portland, OR. Their most recent work is a home-based wholesale/retail business called Two Spirit Medicinals. Heyona Cho is also joining us for sound healing and movement meditation. Other additions include Eva Endrikhovska, Emmy Joy, David Hoover, Jay Cusker, and more. You can read more about our presenters here: https://www.nwherbalfair.com/presenters
We are currently at about half of our ticket sales goal, and we’d love to get the word out about the herbal fair to new communities. One way our fair community can help with this is to let us know on the actual event page here, if you are interested, or attending. This helps Facebook push it out to new people! And of course, letting your friends know about the fair in your circles is always a great way to get the word out.
We also have a few back-end needs that we’d love to let you all know about. We are still looking for a new staff member to help with a BIPOC Caucus. We’d love to have someone come on the team for a few weeks prior to the event and during the event to help with setting up a BIPOC cohort space, and leading a BIPOC Caucus. This position is open to existing BIPOC presenters, previous BIPOC fair goers, and other members of the Pacific Northwest BIPOC herbalism or earth-based event production community. We are still a small organization, but we’ve allocated a small budget for this work and are more than willing to open up a conversation about working together based on your rates and expectations for this work!
Lastly, if anyone knows of any physical structures, we are in still need of a few more for the fair, from 10x10 pop-ups to 10x20 canopies to 20x20 and larger. Tipis, skylodges, yurts, wall tents, etc. The Northwest Herbal Fair is a temporary village. It will have a public square, a stage, a school, a downtown area (vendor village) and residential areas. We need 10 canopy structures for the workshops (school) . Some of them are large. We currently have 6 lined up. We need these structures for the registration area, lounge, kitchens, stage lounge, diversity lounge, tool shed, children’s area, first aid and more. If you have a structure you can loan or rent, please contact us.
In the spirit of summer, we are so looking forward to connecting with you all.
(Image by Caleb Jack)