Years: 2022

ExplO+re Class: Just Transition Primer

Our entrenched political divides are laced with conflict and create a sense of insecurity. No longer in the eye of the pandemic storm, we continue to navigate the uncertainty of a landscape in which soaring housing prices have displaced community members and extreme weather conditions are becoming the norm. How do we make sense of these realities? Where can we glimpse the kind of possibility worth coming together to work for? This workshop provides an opportunity to connect, explore a shared vision of Just Transition, and consider the question: What will it take to build systems centered on care for each other and our shared home? What would it mean for many of us in the Mahicantuck (Hudson) Valley to be focused on social and ecological well-being?

Micah (he/him) is of mixed race (black and white) and mixed religion, and grew up in two different socio-economic homes. He is a cisgendered, working/middle class parent of two living on Munsee/Lenape land in the Mahicantuck Valley, commonly referred today as Kingston, NY, working to prove possibility and to liberate the imagination in order to see a Just Transition.

goodworkinstitute.org

ExplO+re Class: Homecoming

A meditative sound bath of dreaming the future through an Afrocentric sound scape. Attendees are encouraged to assume positions of comfort while attending.

Ben Brown is a sound practitioner, visual artist, and bodyworker. Much of his work comes from the impulse to create more space in the nervous system and body through vibrational frequencies that connect us to our ancestral wisdom and being.

He is the co-creator of HOME and E L I X I R, two monthly sound practices and provided sound experience at Columbia Teacher’s College, Innisfree Garden, You Can Thrive, Dharmakaya, and Lululemon.

www.handandtemple.com

ExplO+re Class: Vegan Chocolate Making Class

Learn to make delicious chocolate and chocolatey treats from Federico Fridman, the founder of Cacao Lab. This tasty experience is for anyone ready to discover the magic of the world’s most beloved treat. Learn how to make chocolate bars and bonbons. No cooking experience required.

Brand Bio:
Cacao Laboratory is a New York-based social good company that honors the tradition and integrity of ceremonial grade cacao. Through proprietary blends, cacao ceremonies and educational offerings, Cacao Laboratory aims to restructure the industry by changing the way we see cacao.

Cacao Laboratory, Cacao Lab for short, is the co-creation of Argentine siblings Federico and Florencia Fridman. The pair hail from Bariloche, a small Patagonian town known for its delicious artisanal chocolate. In 2016, Florencia journeyed to Guatemala, and after a transformational experience, become a cacao devotee. She quickly shared her passion with Federico in New York, and the pair began their journey.

With Florencia’s background in health and wellness and Federico’s history in finance and entrepreneurship, the two set to work, creating a brand designed to be a new business model- a place to experiment with new ways of doing business. A true laboratory. This model, is based in the Fridmans’ ideas of shared success and the brand pillars of respect, equity, and sustainability. Florencia embodies this through cultural connection and community outreach. Federico exemplifies this by maintaining personal relationships with the farmers and producers, and cultivating Cacao Lab’s social impact enterprise. Together the pair have built a global brand that honors our food systems, cultural differences, and interconnection.

Personal Bio:
Federico Fridman is a social-impact entrepreneur and self-taught chocolate maker dedicated to restructuring our food systems. He believes that connections to who, where and how our food is grown can have a positive ecological and financial impact on the world at large. Federico graduated from Ramapo College in 2008 with a degree in Business and Communications. With a focus on bringing wellness to the Hispanic community, Federico built Ser Saludable, a free magazine dedicated to providing healthy lifestyle alternatives to the mainstream Spanish-speaking populations in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York. In 2009 he developed Just Bee Productions, a brand building and marketing agency. He has traveled to Central and South America and to Europe; creating community, and learning about the nuances of our global food systems. He is the co-Founder of Cacao Laboratory, a Ceremonial Cacao company committed to redefining our relationship with the growers of our food in order to affect positive change.

https://www.cacaolaboratory.com

ExplO+re Class: Access Your Connection + Blossom Your Inner Creativity | guided meditation and music experience

Join Kissey Asplund in a guided meditation where you can experience stillness, deeper connection with self, inner empowerment, and presence—through easy, gentle movements and simple breath techniques. These modalities are used to relax into the body and activate a deeper state of meditation, well-being, and inner creativity. The meditation will oscillate between deeper moments of stillness and release, with moments of building empowerment (inner energy). You can do the class sitting, standing, or lying down. A soundtrack written by Kissey will support your meditation.

Kissey Asplund is a creative consultant specializing in the process of generation & creative subatomic energy. She is the founder of the creative wellness website Generation Watts (generationwatts.com). Asplund has gained international recognition as a music producer, multi-disciplinary artist and DJ. Her journey of researching how to use meditation to enhance creativity began at 17 in Stockholm, Sweden. Today, it’s been 22 years of meditation studies and 34 years of creating. She spends her day teaching others how to optimize their energy so they can perform better, through meditation- & presence classes and private sessions.

ExplO+re Class: Yoga Fundamentals

Are you yoga-curious? Or perhaps, yoga-avoidant? Join us for a light-hearted exploration of how moving and breathing with purpose on your mat can help you to prevent injury, increase range of motion, improve stability, and develop strength. While no yoga poses will be graded, you will earn bonus points if you leave class with a calm mind. This class is designed for beginners, though yogis of all levels are welcome.

Leah Hirsch is a yoga instructor from Shakti Yoga of Woodstock. When she’s not on her mat you can find her in the mountains, strolling with her dog by the reservoir, or being comically bad at making things on a pottery wheel. She once completed a 50-mile ultra marathon and credits yoga with helping her to finish it. She’s also pretty sure it was a one time thing.

ExplO+re Class: Spiral: A Winding Somatic Journey Back to Our Essential Nature

Somewhere along the way, our original essence was muddied by the grit of our circumstances. Our capacity to feel, to really FEEL with our whole body, was diminished. The full breath of our experience was muffled. Because we are wired to survive, even at our own expense. In this Somatic Embodiment class, we will explore and discover our lost essential nature. The children we once were. Through gentle breath work, guided meditation, and Embodiment practices, we will unwind the stories held in our body. We will float in the river of our experience. Revealing our most honest essence and learning to be in relationship with it once again. Getting curious about what it might feel like to move through the world in this state of benevolence and authenticity. How this internal resonance might outwardly transmit hope, change, and radical self love. Tiana, a sound healer, will play crystal bowls and Amadou, a Senegalese drummer, will play live drums – adding richness and depth with these sound elements.

Crysta Bloom (she/her) is a Somatic Embodiment Practitioner Offering Holistic Support for Healing Attachment Wounds and Cultivating Conscious Relationships.

I approach my work with the perspective that…

We have bodily wisdom that holds all the answers we need to self heal. We can tap into this benevolent knowing when we bring loving awareness to our thoughts, our patterns, and ‘the rhythms of you’- breath, pulse, sensations, movements. When we take the time to notice what stirs in the container of our experience, we can honor what we’re holding – slowing it down and slicing it thinner.

When we revere our capacity for resonance and dissonance, our body becomes a shelter to hold it all. We create more safety in ourselves for expansion and deeper access to breath. We find our way back home to our essential nature. We find what feels most settled and rest there. If we choose to. Because choosing is more important than doing.

Over the years I’ve gained a wealth of education in Attachment Trauma, Inner Relationship Focusing, Conscious Love, Space Holding, Birth, Herbalism, and Early Childhood Development. While this training has been invaluable, the wisdom that I’ve inherited from navigating my own healing journey has been my greatest teacher.

I draw from my education and life experiences to offer a heart-centered, integrated approach to healing, love, and birth.

kindcocoamama.com

Explore Class: Ceremony | Self-Reflection and Guided Movement

Through our experiences in this life, we communicate with and teach our bodies how to hold us/protect us and we use our bodies to communicate with others.  In this iteration of our world, the external messages we receive and send to the body can be toxic and cause harm to us and others in our path.

In order to break free from this paradigm, we can welcome in our inner guide, our intuition, and lead with courageous love for ourselves, our flaws, our aspirations, and lessons, so we can be open to information and messages from within. 

In this workshop we will start to disentangle from the ideas of “self” given to us by the oppressive systems we live within and begin to tap into our own gold. 

Through live soundscapes and intuitive movement, we will access our bodies and the information they carry for attunement, our ability to act on purpose, and to joyfully step into the sun.

Rebecca KellyG {she:her} is a Healing Sound Artist and Facilitator. She supports individuals and groups in challenging oppressive conditioned beliefs, embracing accountability, and cultivating self-care for our personal and collective liberation. As a former civil rights attorney, her approach is informed by experience in structural and institutional advocacy and understandings of oppression. As an artist and facilitator, her methods are led by heart, inquiry, and intuitive communication. With over a decade of experience in the arts and social change, she engages in this work through workshops, immersive sound experiences, consulting, and retreats. Her work has been included in publications such as American Theatre Magazine, Rolling Stone, Playbill, and Elia Alba’s book The Supper Club.

www.rebeccakellyg.com

Explore Class: Being (somew)Here – Authentic Movement & Writing

This class will take two common actions: movement and writing, and place them in a new setting outside of everyday life. The participants make agreements and honor guidelines to create an environment of physical and emotional safety, and to nurture true expression and discoveries. The sacred space created by all participants is a field of honesty, honoring the truth of each person and eliminating concepts of right and wrong. We also drop expectations, allowing layers of self to enliven, emerge, express.

Following the principles of Authentic Movement*, in this explorative class we will alternate roles of Witness and Mover, while weaving in time for writing/drawing. These moments of writing will sometimes be free form, other times prompts will inspire focused reflection. Opportunities for verbal sharing will also be dispersed throughout, all within the sacred space.

*Authentic Movement is a practice of a Mover moving with eyes closed and a Witness holding the space and actively observing. It is a deeply personal practice, free from judgement of self and others. The Mover and Witness are equal participants, each having their own experience and making their own meaning from it.

Anneliese has been facilitating exploratory movement and fitness classes since 2008. She is a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist and Pilates instructor in Ulster County; and draws from her experience in Body-Mind Centering, Continuum Movement and Contact Improvisation to enrich the movement experience of her students.

www.anneliesemordhorst.com

ExplO+re Class: Gong Sound Journey to Somewhere

Join practitioners from the area offering an opportunity to be transported to “Somewhere” through the resonance of Gongs, Singing Bowls, Drums, Chimes, Reiki and Voice. Somewhere is wherever you are longing to be; a place of freedom, of refuge, of healing, of peace, of dreams, of love. Let us take you there. Bring a blanket, chair, friends, family, whatever will make you feel supported and comfy.

Heal Well Kingston, part of Live Well Kingston, is comprised of various health and community focused individuals and organizations seeking to cultivate healing and health in Kingston. This offering, spearheaded by Theresa Widmann, will gather sound practitioners from the area to facilitate your transportation to Somewhere.

http://livewellkingston.org/focus-teams/heal-well/