Saturday, June 21 & Sunday, June 2, 11AM–4PM
At FCCW & On Zoom
3053 Rosslyn St, Los Angeles, CA 90065
Info on our space
What is possible when we honor Black, Indigenous, neurodiverse, queer, and creative expressions of embodied Earth knowledge?
This Saturday, June 21 & Sunday, June 22, School for the Ecocene Cooperative is hosting their 2nd Annual Confluence in collaboration with and celebration of the Feminist Center for Creative Work’s 10-year Anniversary. A Confluence re-imagines the academic conference through Earth, body, community, and ancestors. Join the Ecocene and FCCW in coming together to celebrate all that we have been cultivating in the movement toward planetary liberation.
This year’s Confluence features…
Opening Altar and Ritual
Bring offerings and reverence to contribute to our community altar and dip into Solstice ritual for planetary liberation.
Earth Workshops
Ecocene Stewards share skills to strengthen our collective eco-resilience in changing times. Workshops include: Everything is Medicine with Olivia Chumacero, Growing Ecooperatives with Leyanne Oliveira and Sarita Doe, Vaga Sin Midero: Wilderness Preparedness with Johanna Iraheta, EcoSomatic Healing Modalities with Sapito, Reindigenizing Homeschool Education with Chayo Rosario, and Plant Fiber Cordage-making with Dongyi.
Mycelia Market
The Mycelia Market is where Science Fair meets tianguis. We invite artists, healers, educators, and activists to share their works, wares, and offerings in our outdoor market.
Research Presentations, virtual and In-person
Connect to the living pedagogies, practices, and creations of our DIY PhD scholars, here and abroad. The DIY PhD presentations will be shared in-person and virtually by: Jasmine Nyende, Eden Hakimzadeh, Sar, Joy A. Anderson, Lyn Pacificar, Alma Cielo Livingstone, Greg Grano, Forest Lin, Meredith Hackleman, Marybelle Bustos, Quetza Ramirez, and j nyla ink mcneill.
RSVP for DIY PhD Presentations on Zoom
Children’s Village
Community reindigenizing homeschooling collective ‘Ooxor ‘Aweeshko will offer a spot for children’s activities, creative expression, and play.
EcoRadio
Wander over to our sonic capsule (recording table) for a moment to record your thoughts, dreams, songs, incantations, and art through self-guided prompts with Stepfanie Anne of Memoriver Radio. Bring a friend if you’d like to record a conversation. Pull out your journal and perform a poem. Make us giggle with jokes. Guide a meditation for the future listener. Whisper what the soil beneath the concrete might say. Add to a Sonic Capsule of School for the Ecocene, Confluence 2025. *An online version will be available for virtual guests.
Schedule: Saturday, June 21
11:00AM – 4:00PM PST
11:00–11:30 Community Altar Build (Outside)
11:30–12 Opening Circle with Leyanne and Sarita: Creating Ecooperatives: Intro to School for the Ecocene and how to grow Earth-centered co-ops for abundant economies (inside, 40-50 capacity).
12–12:30 Mycelia Market and Lunch Peruse the creations and offerings from ecommunities of abundance. Food available for purchase.
12:30 –1:00 Vaga Sin Miedo: Wilderness Preparedness and Survival with Jo from LA Rooted. Learn what necessities to pack, how to train, and tips for living on the go in changing times. (inside, 40-50 capacity).
1:00 – 1:30 EcoSomatic Healing Modalities with Sapito: nervous system support for your heart and spirit in hard times. Learn healing modalities to soothe and center with the elements. (inside, 40-50 capacity).
2:00 – 3:00 DIY PhD presentations Part 1 Day One with Jasmine Nyende, Greg Grano, mer, Lyn Pacificar, Alma Cielo Livingstone, and Marybelle Bustos (inside, 40-50 capacity).
RSVP for DIY PhD Presentations on Zoom
3:00 – 4:00 Dance Party!
Schedule: Sunday, June 22
11:00AM – 4:00PM PST
11:00 –12:00 eim: Everything is Medicine with Olivia Chumacero. Immerse yourself in the senses, plant relations, and sink into breath with elder and culture bearer of Raramuri/Chirikawa ancestry (inside, 40-50 capacity).
12:00 – 12:30 Reindigenizing Homeschool Education with Chayo Rosario of ‘Ooxor ‘Aweeshko. A charla on how to structure rhythms for child-led learning within and around home habitat + tips for reparenting ourselves as we guide children in our lives (inside, 20 capacity).
12:30 – 1:30 Plant Fiber Cordage-Making with Dongyi. Learn to work with plant relative yucca to make cordage. (outside, 10 capacity)
please RSVP separately for this workshop
1:00 – 2:00 Mycelia Market and Lunch: Peruse the creations and offerings from ecommunities of abundance. Food available for purchase.
2:00 – 3:00 DIY PhD Presentations Part 2 with Eden Hakimzadeh, Joy A. Anderson, Quetza Ramirez, Sar Artoonian, Forest Lin, and j nyla ink mcneill(inside, 40-50 capacity)
RSVP for DIY PhD Presentations on Zoom
3:00 – 4:00 Closing Circle and Dance Party!
ABOUT THE ECOCENE & PRESENTERS
The Ecocene is made up of artists, teachers, activists, healers, parents, youth, elders, cultural workers, scientists, authors, farmers, researchers, students, and habitat stewards. Our 2025 confluence is for curious and seasoned Earthworkers, alike. @ecocene.school The School is run by a team of six worker-owners, uplifted by community member-owners.
Alma Cielo is a Filipino-American artist/educator who expresses through music, dance, acting, storytelling, visual art and ceramics. The violin, ancient Indian instrument sarangi and vocal chant are her musical expressions, clay is her preferred artistic medium, and her favorite dance partner is Bigote, a 7-foot boa constrictor. She is featured in two films releasing this year, “Small Town Stories” and “Sick-Amour: A Love Story”.
Chayo (she/her), is a first generation Binnizá (Zapoteca) indigenous mujer and mother to 3 children. She began her unschooling/homeschooling journey in 2018 marking the beginning to decolonizing education and recentering on what it truly means to raise free children. Her homeschooling cooperative Ooxor Aweeshko will run a Children’s Village during the 2025 Confluence. @xnana_binizaa
Dongyi (they/any) has roots in the subtropics of the Pearl River Delta, transplanted and blossoming first Ohlone lands and now in Cuyama Valley. Their art/life practice is informed by the cyclical nature of all beings, kinship, and growing relationship to the earth body/land. @wuwei.world
Eden Hakimzadeh (she/they) is the voice of the lavender orange, an audio newsletter that centers Black ecology, eco-somatics, earth-centered literature and the grief work of moving through heartbreak. Currently living & working in Tampa, FL as a beach babe, professional book club host and intentional gathering event manager. @edenhakimzadeh @thelavenderorange
forest Lin (they/them( is a Yang Earth Dragon meets Yin Wood Goat Mycelial connector, BaZi Chinese Astrolgoy practitioner, intuitive bodyworker, Asian diaspora community organizer and ritual performance artist. They enjoy building community and fostering cultures of authentic expression and belonging, helping connect people’s gifts with their deeper calling, exploring relational edges with touch and all things intimacy. @forestxrei
Greg Grano facilitates experiences of connection and creativity as a writer, educator, filmmaker, and musician. He is currently writing a memoir of creative nonfiction about walking across the US in 2023, from southern California to eastern Maine — from a wall to a lighthouse. @thegregariouscondor
j. nyla ink mcneill (they/them), or dr. ink, is a trans and nonbinary mixed Nigerian-Visayan-Hispanic+-american polymath (artist, author, zinemaker, scientist, musician, semi-pro skater). As a poet first and foremost, they are also trained as an action-and-community-based researcher in the fields of liberation and transgender health psychology. In their day-to-day, they support major life changes via coaching, and serve vocationally as a systems transformation consultant to the City of Long Beach and Los Angeles County. @inkmcneill @j.nylamcneill
Jasmine Nyende is a textile artist, herbalist and musician from Los Angeles, CA. Her visual art practice is rooted in Black abstraction through a decolonial and ecological lens and as a musician, she was lead singer of punk FUCK U PAY US (FUPU!) for 8 years. Currently, she is developing a workshop series on what punk can teach us about somatic awareness of rage and finding the inner scream.
Jenny, also known as Sapito, (she/her) is here to guide awakening hearts. As a Central American alchemical artist, creativity doula, Earth visionary, energy healer, medicine woman, and embodiment of Love, she’s dedicated to helping sensitive and creative souls illuminate their path on this planet, acknowledging their gifts, and honoring their unique story with courage. @sapito.studio
Johanna Iraheta (she/her) is a multidisciplinary and multicultural educator who is passionate about developing innovative, somatic, and creative experiences to cultivate intergenerational empowerment, healing, and community resilience. Johanna is an indigenius artivist for unveiling and upholding marginalized communities’ intellect, identity, and ancestral knowledge. Her collaborations come through art, movement, theater, and storytelling. @moonrizng
Leyanne Oliveira (she/her) is a mother, multidimensional healing artist, Afrikan revolutionary, yogini, full-spectrum doula, and community ceremonialist with a passion for liberation, root-level healing, redistribution of power, and co-creation. @LeyanneOliveira
A multifaceted being, Lyn Pacificar is a mother, wife, ritualist, sacred arts practitioner, chief alchemist & formulator of Herbalaria LLC, fine artist, author, citizen scientist, and high priestess of Mama Guava. She is currently working on her Philippine Shamanic Oracle Deck while also completing her DiyPhD book exploring her lifelong journey with Mama Guava, uncovering the healing messages, spiritual meanings, and transformative powers of the guava tree to heal ancestors, the self, and guide the future of humanity and the planet. Contact info: lynpacificar.com, herbalaria.com IG: @iamherbalaria @lynpacificar_art
Olivia Chumcaero (Raramuri, Apache) draws from her indigenous collective knowledge, weaving oral traditions, coyote stories, anecdotes, ceremonies, spirit runs, and observing the unspoken, the unwritten, the intangible. Learn more about her class Everything is Medicine and immerse in her poetry here.
Quetza (they/them) is an Indigenous two spirit Earth steward, educator, danzante, Buddhist, and curandere (in training). They are reclaiming their Mexica ancestry and building communities throughout Turtle Island and Abya Yala. They have an MA in Educational Leadership, which has shaped their DIY PhD work on education for the transition into liberation on Mother Earth.
Sar (Սար) is a diasporic artist, healer and fieldworker of spirit-time, whose practice flows from Iranian Armenian lineages into rivers, rituals, and reverent movement. Their DIY PhD path is a sacred weaving of spirituality, embodiment, storytelling, herbalism, and the mystical work of collective liberation. @sporebecomingrain
Sarita Doe (she/they) is a parent, painter, author, and Earthworker. She co-founded the DIY PhD to legitimize learning in body, mind, spirit, emotion, and habitat for our deep callings and fulfillment in this life. Textbook for the Ecocene is published through Co-Conspirator Press as her dissertation. She is a cross-pollinating steward at School for the Ecocene Cooperative to nurturing ecopedagogías and pathways of repair as a planet. @saritadoe
Stepfanie Anne is a memory weaver working at the intersection of audio storytelling, DIY art books, and social practice to explore personal and collective memory. She carries Memoriver Radio from place to place, while her broader container for memory-based, socially engaged art is Shapeless Clouds. Her favorite method of research is hands-on: trying, making, and learning through the creative process itself. @shapelessclouds.x