Fall 2024 News and Announcements
"Let Tender Tenacity Walk with Fierce Patience" - John Paul Lederach
Hello Everyone! We’ve had a fully engaged Autumn at the Center, with a wildly successful Pizza Night fundraiser, Preschool Coop, Arts camps, abundant harvests, new weekly classes and ceremonial gatherings, space transformations and arts amplification.
The trees are bare, the nights are chilled, the carrots are pulled from the soil. The children are bundled, the stoves are lit, and we gather together with power. Many circles, practices and connections are alive and well!
As we write this newsletter, we know our world is in great turmoil. We wish to reflect coherence and welcome in our daily practice. All of this is inspired by change: to be in the unknown together, to weave more closely than ever.
ONGOING PROGRAMS
Teachers are excited to welcome you to these classes. Please contact them directly to sign up. Teacher leaders will update you on cancellations and changes by teachers directly.
Quaker Meeting Sundays, 9:30 - 10:30 am
Radiance Yoga with Elizabeth Bunker Tuesdays, 4:15pm
Walking Tree Zen Meditation Tuesdays, 6:30pm
Shapenote Sing 2nd and 4th Wednesdays, 6:30 pm
Orisha Inspired Dance Class Thursdays 6:30 pm
Orisha Dance continues on and hopes to grow as Elemental Rhythm and Flow, led by Kamala Burden. To contact Kamala to join the contact list, email kamaladance@gmail.com.
Fall Review
PRESCHOOL CO-OP
From the Preschool Co-op Newsletter, by Jules Brooks, Lead Teacher: “Beginning our school day outside has been wonderful. We are in the forest for the majority of our morning and the outdoor start gives the children the opportunity to engage with the playground space and set the precedent for their play for the day.
At this point in the year we have settled into our daily rhythm and are fully engaged in the important work of playing and creating.”
“The beauty of spending time in the same forest space everyday is that the children have created a magical world for themselves.”- Jules
Now in its 3rd year, teacher Jules Brooks and co-teacher Gia have created an outdoor program that continues a long history of early childhood education on this land and in this building. If you are interested in openings for your children, please contact mtinlaurel@gmail.com.
COMMUNITY GARDEN
15 members of the community garden harvested vegetables and made sauerkraut, in a joyful celebration of the community growing food together. For more information, or to become a part of this food network, email Anton a_elbers@mac.com and/or Laurel mtinlaurel@gmail.com
FIRE IS THE HEARTBEAT
We welcomed 50 participants, youth to elders, for a collaborative blessing and gathering organized by Community Village Indigenous Pathways and the Ajanku Brothers’ Love Peace Project in collaboration with the Center at Orchard Hill. We brought prayer, hearts, and ceremony together to anchor us. The djembes connected our bodies in a circle that pulled our hearts into harmony. Fire and ceremony at the center carried our prayers toward the world. Freedom songs woke our spirits to fight for what is right. The peace pipe was generously offered to amplify our prayer. The collaboration confirmed it takes a village.
This event was the last of three events involving the Ajanku Brothers at the Center focused on amplifying youth voices and is part of a larger project to transcend barriers and create community at Orchard Hill.
ARTS
Art is for everyone! New arts workshops are happening, offering expressive outlets and skill building for adults and older teens. This fall, Sammy offered drawing and printmaking classes on Saturdays at 10:30. Interested in taking or leading an arts class? Check out our upcoming winter offerings! Email sam@theorchardschool.org for questions or proposals.
TEEN OPEN STUDIO
This season, the foundations of a new arts after school program for teens got underway! Every Thursday, Sammy led students in Open Studio, co-creating artistic projects and inquiries both in the studio and with the land. We explored printmaking, photography, tool making, and much more. Know someone who might be interested in a supportive, challenging, and creative after school community? Email Sammy at sam@theorchardschool.org
Photography by Dominic, Open Studio student
ARTS ALIVE FIELD TRIP
On November 9th, Arts Alive hosted a Field Trip event at The Center, welcoming artists, educators and creative individuals to tour our building, the land, try workshops and imagine possibilities for inter-generational arts learning at Orchard Hill. Sammy Burhoe and potter extraordinaire Barb Davis of Old Settlers Pottery led drawing and ceramics workshops. Thank you to Nina Taylor Dunn, Orchard Hill Breadworks and East Alstead Roasting Co., for helping make this event a reality.
Pastries and coffee
Clay Harvesting
Forest Drawing
Free zines!
ZINE LIBRARY
At the end of the summer, our friend Alissa Schwartz came up from Brooklyn and worked with Sammy to transform the Center’s entrance and lobby into our Zine Library, stocked with free zines (self-published artist books and magazines), stickers, and cheap art for people to read and take home with them. We also now have an area where people can get materials and information to make their own zines and a designated area on our bulletin board where they can broadcast their needs or things they can offer the larger community. Coming up next: a free store with gently used items (books, clothes, etc.) Come by any time and check out the Zine Library!
Gratitudes
Our Center is unique in that gifts, contributions, in-kind donations, and generosity in fact create us. We thank you.
To Laurel, Jules, Sammy, Andrea, and Eleanor for mega post-camp clean up and preschool coop setup.
To Ty Elliston for hanging the shelves for the preschool classroom.
To Hans Mayer for all manner of earth moving, clearing and care, and a good mood.
To Preschool Coop parents for brush clearing, major pruning and clearing on our green-up day.
To all the community gardeners for an abundance of cooperative community food growing.
To the counselors Akil, Ayende, River, Sparrow, Asher, and Salvador for carrying it on: long hours of driving and bringing music and friendship between the City and Orchard Hill.
To the Ajanku Brothers for their ongoing gifts of energy and commitment to build a world of liberation, and a lifetime of carrying forward the Sankofa mission of promoting healing and understanding through African dance, music, and folkways.
To Marcella, Kate, and Brighid of Community Village for building networks and voices of indigenous people on these lands and across the world.
To Grandmother Nancy Andre for presence and leadership throughout of ceremony, Fire is the Heartbeat. Nancy is of Algonquin and French heritage and has followed the Red Road since childhood. A Sundancer and a Sacred Pipe carrier, she is acknowledged as an elder and a grandmother in her communities in Canada.
To Sammy Burhoe and Alissa Schwartz for amplifying art as a vehicle for collective liberation at the Center and beyond.
To Orchard Hill Breadworks and Noah for your continued sweat and efforts to nourish and find the good that energizes and feeds our world now and in times ahead.
To the Women’s Group for supporting the Center’s evolving identity, recognizing the value of a place with spirit to gather.
To Todd Watson and Walking Tree Zen for bringing mindfulness teachings for all to the Center.
To the chickens for eggs, egg-u-cation, and inspiration!
With love, towards the future,
Eleanor, Andrea, Sammy
