Recipes & Rituals for Community Care: Nourishing Traditions

In this session we’ll investigate and define self and community preservation. We’ll look at two common ancestral tools -to share food and tea- and the power in these in nourishing ourselves and our community. We’ll dive into herbal allies (plantitas) that can strengthen our potions (rich in minerals, vitamins and nervous system building). You’ll leave with our own mineral rich or nervous system support herbal blend to add to your daily toolbox.

Nestled in the intersections of decolonization, immigration, youth work, healing justice, land and herbalism, Jasmín’s work seeks to uplift, celebrate and preserve the legacy of ancestral healing, wisdom, and technologies in the diaspora. As a child of immigrants, Jasmín embodies a deep understanding of the challenges and joys of the migrant experience in the US. As an educator, her work is participatory, culturally aware, youth centered and trauma informed. Today, she continues to support youth in NYC, working in an anti-violence organization where she co-creates brave spaces with young people to unpack, question, dream and decolonize.Jasmín has a B.A. in International Relations & Food Studies from Syracuse University (2015). In 2020, she completed a Spiritual Herbalism Apprenticeship under the guidance of Master Herbalist Karen Rose at Sacred Vibes Apothecary in Brooklyn, NY. Today she is a Clinical Herbalism Year 2 student at Arbor Vitae School of Traditional Herbalism. She has worked extensively at local community gardens and in organic farm projects abroad. Today, you can find her communing with plants at her local community garden, vending her herbal line meztli medicinals, organizing mutual aid herbal efforts and healing clinics for her communities and developing community care and healing justice curriculum - all efforts working towards a new world rooted in radical hope, love and true reciprocity with the land and each other.

Photos courtesey of Jasmín Durán.
Find out more about Jasmín: @meztlimedicinals / @jasduran

Weave in rituals and recipes into your own self-care and community care practices through weekly explorations in herbal arts, somatic movement in the greenhouse and garden, folk remedies, and other wild-crafts and meditative activities that foster a deeper connection to plants to care for the body, mental health, and the people you move with.

Each week, be guided by a guest herbalist, healing artist, or wellness practitioner who will help you create your own toolkit and apothecary for self and communal care.

Workshops are rain or shine.When inside the greenhouse and kitchen we will open our double-doors and windows to vent the space and encourage masking and social distancing when in more closed-in spaces.

Accessibility: Our kitchen/classroom space is wheelchair accessible. With prior planning, we can add a few small mats onto the pebbled ground of greenhouse to make a small wheel-chair accessible path. Our learning garden has grass paths, and the entrance is through a gate with a small, raised entrance. Our tables can be lowered/raised, and we have several backless benches or stools. Our kitchen is in regular use, and while we try to cook without peanuts, much of our cookware is shared and we cannot guarantee a nut-free environment. We have a first aid kit, and the closest AED is in another building several yards away. Drinking water is made available in refillable pitchers.Our closest bathrooms are a building away, about a one-minute walk. A gender neutral bathroom is also available, and this is accessible by key which you can request from staff. We are not a scent-free zone, and because herbalism classes take place here, cannot guarantee that the site will be clear of any essential oil smells. If you have needs not addressed here, please reach out to [email protected]

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Greenhouse and Education Center at Denny Farrell Riverbank State Park, 679 Riverside Dr, New York, United States