November 1st-3rd, marks the dates of the Inaugural Michigan Permaculture Convergence, with an invitation to people of all ages and interest levels invited to come together in a weekend gathering that will take place at Camp Talahi, in South Eastern Michigan.

The level of interest in Michigan for permaculture has been hugely increasing, especially in the last 5 years.  From people who were doing homesteading--to what seems like a two-fold trend in increased permaculture outreach in the state. 

A number of permaculture design courses and workshops and permaculture groups, or guilds, have sprung up in a number of communities in Michigan.  Groups of people who are long-time, local environmental justice and food activists in Michigan like Little Artshram, ISLAND and the Neahtawanta Research Center in Traverse City, and the Allen Street Neighborhood, Hunter Park Gardenhouse and Urbandale Farm in Lansing, have been doing a lot more permaculture outreach and education.

There are people who have moved back to Michigan from other places and have become active in promoting permaculture in the state. Travis Childs and Megan Kellepourey moved back home and have settled with their family at Red Feather Farm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after travels and study out east and out west.    Dave Jacke, Monica Ibacache, Stephen DeGoosh, Stephanie Mills, Toby Hemenway, Peter Bane, Keith Johnson, and Larry Santoyo, have all mentored, taught and collaborated with many of us in Michigan, offering their expertise as permaculture educators and designers.  

Coming out of many of the classes, people have started local permaculture guilds. All the major cities in Michigan are beginning to form active permaculture groups. Jesse Tack took a design course in Detroit in 2011 and started the AMPY, Abundant Michigan Permaculture Ypsilanti group.  Jesse's AMPY group has been very active, setting up a Facebook group and getting together once  or twice a month for permaculture presentations and to work on projects in people’s homes and yards. 

In the Traverse City area, quietly emerging in the winter of 2006,  Little Artshram began hosting introductory permaculture workshops, bringing guest speakers to NW Michigan, organizing and offering design courses, as well as, permaculture intern programs and teacher trainings. Spring through fall, Little Artshram and O'k CSA has offered community and neighborhood garden projects and work parties almost every month, expanding permaculture beyond food production by pairing it with a people and permaculture educational approach through the LLOOF Learning Local on Organic Farms project. 

 

Our Inaugural Michigan Permaculture Convergence offers an opportunity for even more state-wide permaculture happenings to be made known and for active permaculture guilds to spring up with a supportive network spreading across Michigan and our Great Lakes Bio-Region.

 

Permaculture is an AMAZING tool-box, a necessary resilient skill-sharing opportunity to re-learn natural systems and apply it in our lives.  Practicing and learning what permaculture has to offer will help us navigate back to where we know we need to be and bringing balance back into our shared home-place like an old growth culture, gratefully respecting those before us and those in our future. 

 

Let's get together, share our work and plan for more!

The convergence fee is $50, which includes a choice of overnight accommodations in a cabin or tent-camping. An additional $30 will cover all meals on Saturday and Sunday. The convergence sessions will be offered in both indoor and outdoor setting, weather permitting. All meals served will be primarily organic, locally grown food.  

 

TO REGISTER go to: <a>http://michiganpermacultureconvergence.com/forms/registration.php</a>

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For more information or questions, see <a>www.michiganpermacultureconvergence.com</a> 

 

or, contact Bryan Mets via email for registration information at <a>[email protected]</a> 

 

In addition to the MANY volunteers who have been organizing and planning this event over the past 9 months, we also send out grateful THANKS to our sponsors so far:  Yoga Spirit Moves, K M Kraimer/”Moving Body Ecology”, O’k CSA, and Little Artshram.

To become a 2013 MPC Sponsor go to this link: <a>http://www.littleartshram.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/MPC-SponsorDonation-2013.pdf</a>

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To view the 2013 MPC  press/media kit: <a>http://www.littleartshram.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/MI-Permaculture-Convergence-Press-KitRelease-2013.pdf

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For general information about the convergence:

Penny Krebiehl
<a>(231) 922-2014</a>
<a>[email protected]</a>