For The Wild - JASMINE FUEGO on Social Permaculture and Harnessing the Power of Festival Culture ⧸48

00:00:00.000 The Silence

00:00:30.000 Somebody wishing for something to happen

00:00:43.140 Wishing to tell, wishing to help

00:00:46.560 Someone was listening, someone who cared

00:00:50.380 Never despaired

00:00:52.260 Someone to lean on and someone to trust

00:00:56.900 Hello and welcome to For the Wild podcast. I'm Ayanna Young. Today we are speaking with Jasmine

00:01:10.460 Fuego. Jasmine is a co-founder of the Permaculture Action Network and Bay Area-based performance

00:01:17.020 artist. Jasmine is an animated mover, shaker, and cross-pollinator dedicated to bridging

00:01:23.000 entertainment, education, and ecology to bring about a just, generative cultural narrative.

00:01:29.680 Jasmine specializes in social permaculture, currently facilitating at the Regenerative

00:01:34.660 Design Institute, and also does mindfulness training with elementary students in Richmond,

00:01:39.160 California. Her nonprofit has hosted more than Permaculture Action Days, but also HUBS hubs

00:01:46.660 and courses nationwide, bringing ecological education and action to thousands of concert

00:01:53.100 and festival goers across the nation. Well, welcome, Jasmine. Thank you so much for being

00:01:58.420 on the show. And I'm so excited about your performances and speaking at the Organ Eclipse

00:02:04.680 Festival later this month. Yes, thank you so much for having me. I'm really, really excited. I live

00:02:11.720 in the Bay Area and everywhere I go in the offices and the coffee shops and at the gardens,

00:02:18.720 there are people talking about this and there are so many different kinds of people. So I'm

00:02:23.820 really excited and very, very curious just to see how it all goes.

00:02:28.980 Yeah, I think this large grouping of people at this festival and festival culture in general

00:02:35.240 is really part of this awakening that's currently unfolding. And it's really heartening to see

00:02:41.320 different groups coming together to celebrate and to pray and to learn from each other.

00:02:47.200 And it's just beautiful to see people who are moving out of the complacency into an eagerness

00:02:53.740 to metamorphose the predicament we find ourselves in as a culture. And so many people are beginning

00:03:01.700 to mobilize. And recently, I have had the joy and honor of speaking with a lot of movement builders

00:03:07.440 through the podcast, but also through the Sisters Bonded in Action webinar series.

00:03:12.720 And in a lot of these conversations, we've begun to delve into what it will take to jolt

00:03:18.500 the masses out of the consumptive and desensitized, conditioned, you know, the screen-bound fog

00:03:27.700 that shackles us and really begin to dissect how to incite tangible action that utilizes

00:03:34.940 the most effective and meaningful tactics, both within and outside the current political framework.

00:03:42.080 And, you know, the Permaculture Action Network is a beautiful embodiment of holistic, innovative

00:03:47.980 grassroots organizing. So I'd love if you could start us off by sharing how the Permaculture

00:03:53.740 Action Network works at the intersection of art, music, and regenerative culture. And I'm also

00:04:00.580 curious of what you find most effective about using music and art as tools to engender meaningful

00:04:07.800 action and empowerment within local communities. Well, I would love to start off by just sharing

00:04:14.660 a little bit about the origin story of the Permaculture Action Network, because it feels

00:04:18.740 really important to what makes our work so unique. Myself and the other co-founders and

00:04:25.940 then organizers within the Permacultured Action Network. We were loose acquaintances before,

00:04:31.180 and most of us all met through being involved in festival production or festival culture in some

00:04:36.920 way, either as participants or volunteers or just folks who frequented these music festivals and

00:04:42.880 people who frequent concerts quite often. And we were all at Envision Festival almost four years

00:04:49.740 ago now and we notice a reoccurring theme at a lot of music festivals and a lot of shows and the

00:04:58.200 theme of transformation when a theme of connection community was coming up a lot and I can speak for

00:05:04.240 myself and say that in some ways I saw a lot of that but after going to so many of them what I

00:05:09.540 noticed is after these few days of really deeply connecting with myself and with new people and

00:05:17.800 kind of going to workshop after workshop after workshop and just like flooding my mind with so

00:05:22.540 many new and innovative ideas, dancing and praising and celebrating that when I left and

00:05:27.560 went back home, there wasn't a lot of change in my life. And I noticed that happening a lot

00:05:34.060 with other people that I saw. And so something I noticed was there was a lot of conversations

00:05:39.440 around transformation. But when I went back into the world, I didn't actually see a lot of that

00:05:48.320 materializing. So after so many years of attending these festivals and stuff, myself and the founding

00:05:54.580 organizers and artists that we worked with for the first Permaculture Action Tour, we found

00:05:59.260 ourselves having a roundtable conversations at a gathering called the Roots Gathering that happens

00:06:04.240 after Envision Festival in Costa Rica, and we were just talking about how disheartening that is.

00:06:11.460 And through Free Flow Conversation, we thought about, you know, well, all these people go to

00:06:15.920 these festivals, all these people go to these shows, like, what would it be like if maybe the

00:06:21.540 after party were at a community garden? Or if before the show, people, you know, worked and

00:06:27.780 planted together, and at the very end, there was a big, you know, the celebration would actually be

00:06:33.320 the show or the festival itself and so the idea around the permaculture action network really came

00:06:38.620 from that seeing that there was this missing piece in transformational music festival culture

00:06:45.960 which was like the actual tangible transformation of the land and of ourselves in a way we got

00:06:53.140 invited by the polish ambassador who is a an electronic dj and producer to join him myself

00:07:00.320 and a few other educators and organizers he invited us to join him on a 32-city nationwide

00:07:06.600 tour from San Francisco to New York and the original idea was just to bring us on as educators

00:07:13.580 to kind of give a talk before each show but what ended up happening is that as we started to plan

00:07:20.160 these permaculture action talks people in the local communities they were asking for

00:07:25.360 help in their communities help in their community garden or help from a local project that was just

00:07:31.520 needing manpower to get off the ground and we planned one or two and then we decided you know

00:07:35.980 why not try and do this after every single show you know we're blazing through these towns and

00:07:41.240 cities with our you know with the tour bus and the cars and why not leave behind something really

00:07:47.540 beautiful so to answer your original question around what makes permaculture action so unique

00:07:53.600 I think it is that bridge between art and actual doing of things, the action.

00:08:01.000 I think that art is so powerful because what it does is it's such an easy entry point for most people, specifically music.

00:08:10.780 I can't really think of anyone that I know who doesn't like music and who doesn't like to listen to music with other people.

00:08:19.340 And as a musician myself, something I see is that when people are at these shows, their hearts are being totally open and their ears are open, their eyes are open, all of our senses are wide open, and we're so much more susceptible to listening.

00:08:34.180 there's a deep listening that's happening and it seemed like the perfect place to utilize all of

00:08:41.340 that energy because I feel like you know with technology these days we could just listen to

00:08:47.260 you know Spotify on our nice both speakers at home and probably actually hear the music better

00:08:52.880 but we go to the shows to connect to connect with the artists and to connect with ideally

00:08:58.500 like-minded people who also like the same type of music or the same message that this artist is

00:09:03.220 sharing so it just seemed so perfect it seemed like just an underused resource of like all these

00:09:09.880 people are already here they clearly want to do something together so why not give them something

00:09:16.340 to do with their hands with their own bodies you know I forgot who said this but I saw a little

00:09:23.200 thing on Instagram the other day and it said the the role of the artist right now is to make the

00:09:29.900 movement more appealing and I just absolutely love that because as as an artist you literally

00:09:37.080 are louder than everyone else you're literally on a pedestal people can see you more people can hear

00:09:42.140 you more and it seems so perfect to team up with artists who want to do something who want to

00:09:48.620 utilize their platform but maybe they don't have the time to organize themselves or to to show up

00:09:55.160 at all the things and all the rallies but they can take a few moments to say hey there's a an

00:10:02.220 amazing thing happening tomorrow there's a project in your community we will show up there we'll play

00:10:07.180 you some music please come show up get your hands dirty it's it's a really easy way for the artists

00:10:12.780 to plug in with the movement it's a really easy entry point for everybody involved so permaculture

00:10:18.600 action network really is just that middle man that connects those links connects the projects that

00:10:24.780 are really just needing manpower that are already happening you know traveling around the country I

00:10:29.560 realized how much wonderful like food justice and environmental justice work was actually happening

00:10:34.900 all over the country I think I delusioned myself into thinking that it's only in Berkeley and only

00:10:40.660 in you know in New York and certain places but I mean we were in Illinois and and Montana and

00:10:47.340 you know all of these places that I don't really think of as the forefront of the environmental

00:10:52.440 justice movement, but every single town or city has its pocket and has its person or has its

00:10:58.240 group that's really working to elevate their community in that way. And so it's really just

00:11:03.900 our job to connect those projects with the people and the artists have the access to all the people.

00:11:11.240 So we really just act as the bridge between everyone to make sure that we can all

00:11:17.000 mutually benefit from being in the same place at the same time.

00:11:20.700 it's really a wonderful vision and i think how you're explaining it makes so much sense that

00:11:28.760 art and music is an incredible entry point and it does make the movement more appealing to more

00:11:35.880 people because it's really celebratory and it i think taps into a primal part of ourselves as

00:11:44.720 humans who have been living with celebration and music and community events for you know

00:11:52.700 thousands upon thousands of years so to produce these events to allow all these different people

00:11:58.740 to come together and really enjoy because I think that there is so much overwhelm and there's so

00:12:05.180 much bad news that it can get hard for people to feel welcomed I think for for also probably new

00:12:12.520 people to come into the movement to really feel like there's a welcoming place for them to come

00:12:16.980 into as whether beginning activist or burnt out activist or just somebody who's interested so

00:12:22.480 i think it's really a beautiful solution and you know kind of going back to that idea of the hard

00:12:27.740 times facing this movement i think as we collectively engage with grassroots activism

00:12:33.680 we are given the opportunity to reconnect with the joys that accompany coming together

00:12:38.900 you know gathering as communities the permaculture action days are this perfect example of this

00:12:44.280 because like we were saying earlier it's drawing folks in with celebration and demonstrating

00:12:48.680 the fulfillment that arises when we get our hands dirty and give back to the common spaces that

00:12:54.860 sustain us yet the truth is that once you begin this work you quickly realize that it's not

00:13:03.500 always fun or uplifting. And there are times when the weight of the world's inequalities

00:13:09.700 and grief feel paralyzing and debilitating. And then these situations emerge where you're asked

00:13:17.920 to question what you are willing to risk for the things you love. And so I'm wondering how you

00:13:24.860 apply the principles and the teachings of permaculture action days and permaculture in

00:13:30.500 general to the harder moments, to the more challenging aspects of activism and grassroots

00:13:36.260 organizing. Yeah, I appreciate you speaking to that. Yeah, I would say that permaculture,

00:13:43.940 to be honest, was my, we have a funny joke in the permaculture world that permaculture is kind of

00:13:49.440 like the gateway drug to activism. It was definitely my entry point to being more

00:13:57.460 politically involved and aware of what's happening even outside of the environmental movement and

00:14:02.500 just like how interconnected it is with all of the other struggles I mean it's it is all totally

00:14:09.460 connected it's really hard to delineate like an environmental issue from a social issue from a

00:14:17.280 issue of race from an issue of identity from an issue of of wealth and inequality and so yeah

00:14:24.100 it started out really fun and exciting, but there are definitely times as someone who lives and

00:14:30.980 breathes these movements, it gets hard. I would say one of the principles that I like to personally

00:14:38.420 apply to my life as an organizer, as well as a youth educator who works in primarily super low

00:14:45.880 socioeconomic communities, mostly children of color. One way that I use the principles to

00:14:53.840 support me in this work is just remembering that it's better to start slow. Slow and small solutions

00:15:02.260 are really important. I know that I personally can get really overwhelmed with just the magnitude

00:15:09.620 of how much work actually needs to be done to ensure that my grandchildren or my children

00:15:16.400 actually have a beautiful world to thrive and grow in. It gets really overwhelming and almost

00:15:24.100 paralyzing. And I think that remembering that starting small is such a radical and powerful

00:15:32.200 thing to be able to know that we don't have to tackle the entire world or the entire

00:15:38.280 system of injustice at once and in one day, but these small daily acts can really, really amount

00:15:45.440 to a big change over time. And even more importantly, a big change in ourselves. And as

00:15:51.940 we begin to change as individuals and see the world differently and question our own biases and

00:15:57.640 really look at our impacts in our lives on the planet, in our communities, that spreads.

00:16:05.320 it's contagious and so I really love that principle starting with small and slow solutions

00:16:12.860 because it reminds me that I don't have to solve every single problem and I might not actually see

00:16:19.760 the end to all the injustices that I I'm working to to fix and repair in my lifetime but that the

00:16:28.340 little things that I do on my own and the little things that I can encourage others to do that's

00:16:34.900 important you know it's just like droplets lots and lots of what is the ocean but a collection of

00:16:41.000 of droplets of water so that principle really helps me out and I like to stress that at these

00:16:47.360 permaculture action days that you know like this is this is a it's a small part of the many

00:16:53.320 solutions that we need to see but it's so wonderful and important because it's changing our hearts

00:16:58.480 it's beginning to change our local community we have to start with where we are but that does make

00:17:05.120 a difference and it does ripple out so i try to remind people because i i do get asked that a lot

00:17:10.480 at action days you know like well what can we do about this and what can we do about that and i see

00:17:15.760 the distress and i see the anxiety in people's faces and i can hear it in their voices and

00:17:20.500 i just have to remind them that you know permaculture in general when we approach the

00:17:25.920 land we don't just come in there and try and fix or repair or push our agenda on all at once you

00:17:33.040 know it's stopping and and really seeing what's already happening acknowledging observing and then

00:17:40.960 starting with the simple things to make you know a piece of land or make a land project

00:17:46.860 a thriving beautiful and regenerative space for both the earth and everyone who's interacting with

00:17:54.120 it mama take this heart make it better

00:18:15.240 Put my rain boots on

00:18:20.900 Face the stormy weather

00:18:24.380 If I can't do it on my own

00:18:28.980 Could we please do it together

00:18:32.320 Cause I don't want to give up

00:18:40.360 No, I can't just give up

00:18:49.800 These days been so rough

00:18:55.680 Everybody wants to be tough

00:18:59.520 But I ain't scared to say when I'm weak

00:19:03.800 My strength is vulnerability

00:19:10.360 Thank you for reminding us to take a deep breath and go slow.

00:19:17.680 I can even personally say that I sometimes have a hard time with that because as I see

00:19:24.060 the rapid rate of destruction and extinction in this current ecological and social crisis,

00:19:31.220 it boils my blood, it fuels the fire of this sacred rage, and there's these moments I just

00:19:36.880 want to restore faster do something more bigger faster and that can be overwhelming it can lead

00:19:44.980 to burnout it's probably not in the truest sense of the definition sustainable for us to do that

00:19:51.960 and so I think being able to slow down and realize how we can make the next step with the most

00:20:01.440 integrity and really observing like what you said with the land not just coming onto the land with

00:20:07.500 our human agenda and saying okay well we have the solutions and this is how we're going to move

00:20:11.460 forward but instead you know it is a permaculture principle to observe and to take a step back and

00:20:17.040 to really sense wisely how to move forward so i really appreciate that and you know something that

00:20:24.260 you had mentioned earlier is that these food sovereignty movements are popping up all across

00:20:31.800 the country in places that you didn't expect them to be. And it's exciting to know that we are just

00:20:40.460 one drop and knowing that there are good people everywhere doing good work. And while this is,

00:20:47.460 you know, immensely exciting, I think it is also crucial to not lose sight of how access to

00:20:53.940 healthy and clean and diverse food largely remains a luxury of the privileged. And marginalized

00:21:00.560 communities, mostly communities of color, arguably are in need of these efforts the most and persistent

00:21:07.520 food deserts and can rarely afford the high prices of local organic food. So implementing permaculture

00:21:15.520 designs within such urban spaces harbors the potential to not only empower communities through

00:21:21.000 food sovereignty but also rekindle a healing relationship with earth and with one another

00:21:26.540 and i'm wondering how you've seen and experienced how permaculture and food sovereignty and access

00:21:34.740 to food act as a incendiary step towards greater social justice in underserved communities

00:21:42.360 it's probably been one of the most fulfilling parts of this work traveling around the country

00:21:49.900 and meeting folks who are in these communities that are just straight up struggling you know

00:21:55.780 struggling in a lot of the areas you know access to food access to good water as you were saying

00:22:01.300 coming into the permaculture world one of the first things I noticed is as far as like how

00:22:08.100 it looks like if you google permaculture and pictures of people come up or teachers come up 0.97

00:22:14.520 It's like older white men. 0.59

00:22:17.400 And if you look, if you do some more research, most of them are highly educated and well-traveled, middle-class backgrounds. 0.93

00:22:26.160 You know, it definitely, even the word permaculture itself can be something that's like really exclusive.

00:22:31.800 You know, it's like I get asked all the time when I go into communities of color, I was like, what's permaculture?

00:22:36.780 And I'm like, oh, yeah, this is not knowledge that's just shared with everyone.

00:22:41.380 so one of the cool things we've done in this work is we go out of our way to connect with

00:22:49.400 with the communities of color that like the people in each of the cities you go to who are doing this

00:22:55.020 work in a grassroots way I've seen I'm trying to think I like there's so many projects that I want

00:23:01.660 to highlight there's a farm in New Orleans in the ninth ward a place that has only in the last like

00:23:09.520 four to five years, been able to restore some of their homes. There's still tons of abandoned homes

00:23:17.220 and spaces in this neighborhood from the hurricane. But there's a man who lives there.

00:23:23.780 And what he did was he took his backyard, he took the locks off the gates, and he just started

00:23:30.060 gardening. Just one man by himself. And little by little, the neighborhood kids would come through.

00:23:37.960 and a lot of these young men in the in the community don't have father figures around

00:23:44.900 and you know mothers and people in the family are working a lot so there's a lot of youth who don't

00:23:50.920 have a lot of supervision who don't have a lot of support emotionally or otherwise and so they're

00:23:57.660 kind of roaming around and it's easy for them to get caught up in things that can be detrimental

00:24:02.300 to them in their development. And one by one, these kids started to come by and say, you know,

00:24:08.460 Mr. Zach, what you doing? What you doing? And it really started through just conversations. He's

00:24:15.020 like, I'm just, you know, planting some collards. Y'all eat collards, right? They're like, yeah,

00:24:19.900 we eat collards, but we thought they came from the can. And one by one, he just started really

00:24:26.080 just sharing this passion for food that he had. And he wasn't a master gardener and didn't know

00:24:30.780 a lot about it but he just knew that he needed to eat more vegetables because of his high blood

00:24:36.500 pressure and he didn't have the money to buy the produce himself so he was like I know I got all

00:24:41.880 this land my grandma used to grow her own food I'm gonna try it you know looked up online just

00:24:47.820 some basic gardening things and you know this one person over the course it's now been five years

00:24:53.280 since he started that he's got six high school students who are working he turned into a

00:24:58.380 nonprofit. He's got grants to actually pay these youth to come here and work the garden. And what

00:25:05.460 the space has become is like a staple for the community to come together where they feel safe.

00:25:12.700 They built a stage there. So they host a festival every year. You know, the kids, all of the kids

00:25:19.780 in the neighborhood come there just to hang around. Not all of them garden. Not all of them

00:25:25.280 are really interested in doing that part of it, but they want to be there because they know it

00:25:30.300 feels good to be amongst the plants, to be amongst their community. And that in and of itself is

00:25:36.140 permaculture and so strong and builds resilience within a community. And especially when they're

00:25:41.900 going back home and bringing baskets full of a fresh food from their own neighborhood back to

00:25:48.100 their homes to then prepare food, which of course is like the staple of any community or of any

00:25:53.620 family. So I've seen permaculture do healing in these lower, just these communities that are more

00:26:02.560 at risk. I've seen it transform communities, not just by giving access to food. In a way,

00:26:10.620 it almost seems like the food itself is kind of like the secondary thing. What I've seen it

00:26:15.540 actually do is bring more connection amongst people. And when people in a community are

00:26:26.320 speaking with each other and spending time together and seeing each other on a normal

00:26:32.360 basis, that builds so much strength and allows folks to come together to decide what things

00:26:40.140 need fixing, what things need repair, what wonderful things are happening. There is just

00:26:44.820 this amazing support system and from that grows i mean in this case it grows food grows out of that

00:26:51.660 and plants and medicine and herbs grow out of that but what i saw at this garden in new orleans

00:26:57.660 what grew out of that space was family and that is just as important as food and as water like we

00:27:08.260 are relationship beings and we need to connect with each other. And we're living in a society

00:27:14.840 where all people of all classes are so distanced from human connection. I see this specifically 1.00

00:27:24.160 in these communities that are more traditionally marginalized. What I've seen is it build a sense

00:27:31.160 of pride and a sense of belonging and who they are and what they have. And from that,

00:27:39.240 there's so much possibility for more healing. So I've seen permaculture deeply and truly

00:27:46.380 transform communities. And for that reason alone, I continue to show up to support these staple

00:27:54.020 individuals in these communities who are really going out of their own pocket and out of their

00:27:58.760 own time, opening up their own backyards to connect with their neighbors and bring back

00:28:04.620 something that's just so ancient.

00:28:28.760 I've been counting my blessings

00:28:51.280 Cause I know that life's for living

00:28:54.280 And I don't want to complain, no

00:28:57.080 But I see some things that need to go

00:29:00.280 I've been counting my blessings

00:29:03.260 Cause I know that life's for living

00:29:06.220 And I don't want to complain, no

00:29:09.060 But I see some things that need to go

00:29:12.280 And I know I might be young

00:29:15.540 But I've seen a lot of things

00:29:18.480 When I was walking the streets of Oakland

00:29:21.300 I saw a mother begging

00:29:24.480 And I just don't understand

00:29:27.600 How life can be so cruel

00:29:30.320 Some people have everything

00:29:32.900 While others break the rules to eat

00:29:36.280 Ooh, I'm so confused

00:29:42.060 Ooh, I'm in love and pain at the same time

00:29:48.220 I've been counting my blessings

00:29:51.260 Cause I know that life is for living

00:29:54.220 And I don't want to complain, no

00:29:57.020 But I see some things that need to go

00:30:24.220 It is ancient human connection to land and food and soil and seed. I think these are things that

00:30:32.900 are biologically ingrained in us how to steward land. It's really important what you're bringing

00:30:40.720 up that permaculture might be mainly represented by a certain demographic of people, but there's

00:30:48.020 people all over the world doing quote permaculture without that title and to uplift those stories

00:30:54.260 and to uplift those people and one question that was coming to me as you were talking is

00:31:00.300 I think that permaculture which is a really fabulous set of skills and teachings and there's

00:31:08.540 many many really wonderful strategies out there but how activists and movement builders and

00:31:15.620 organizers and people how people show up when they're wanting to share the news share the wisdom

00:31:22.020 share ideas really looking at our own positionality in these circumstances where we show up so I was

00:31:30.880 just kind of imagining how do you go into communities and walk softly and not try to push

00:31:37.840 your agenda or to tell people to do this that or the other but how can you know these solutions be

00:31:43.520 presented to empowered or disempowered communities in a way that is not patronized or belittle but

00:31:49.860 instead act as honorable and respectful. I'm so glad you asked that. That's such an important

00:31:57.320 part of what we do. As an organization, we're growing a lot. The first Permaculture Action

00:32:03.760 Tour was myself and three other organizers and, of course, the artists that we were on tour with.

00:32:10.060 But as far as the people who were putting together these Action Days, there were four of us.

00:32:13.520 and most of us were based in the Bay Area or in Colorado, and when we went into other cities and

00:32:22.740 towns, we had to really, really find our way, our path with that, and I won't say that we've always

00:32:28.920 done it right. In fact, I can think of a few times where I'm like, whoa, we got to change the way we

00:32:33.720 just came into this place, but in our years of organizing, we've done close to 100 permaculture

00:32:39.560 Action Days now. And something we started doing about a year ago was bioregional cruise. So

00:32:48.100 instead of myself or my partner Ryan Rising or Alexa Levy, for instance, going flying to, you

00:32:55.480 know, Denver or to Detroit or something to put together a permaculture action day, at this point

00:33:01.140 we've traveled around enough that we've met a lot of people who are in the various bioregions of

00:33:06.260 the country and so that's one way that we've kind of found a balance with entering into communities

00:33:13.620 is that we kind of have someone from that general area from within you know 50 50-ish miles of the

00:33:21.620 space to be kind of speaking on our behalf kind of facilitating the initiation of permaculture

00:33:27.760 action day but to be honest a lot of the time what we do is we just put out a call and say hey we're

00:33:33.780 coming, you know, or right now we're working really closely with Rising Appalachia. And so

00:33:39.120 we get their tour dates way, way, way in advance before they go public. And we put a call out

00:33:45.080 there and we say, hey, we are coming to these cities. What are projects and people that we

00:33:51.720 should connect with? So a lot of what we do as the Permaculture Action Network is we're really

00:33:57.560 asking these questions, facilitating these questions. So asking who, what, where in your

00:34:02.300 community needs support and then we usually get a few responses or folks reach out a lot of the

00:34:07.880 times folks reach out to us saying hey i noticed that the band that you're working with is coming

00:34:12.080 to our town we're a local garden or we're a local farm urban farm that needs that could that wants

00:34:18.500 to do these projects we could really use your help so a lot of the times what we do is we just ask

00:34:24.380 okay well what do you need support with is there a certain project that you're trying to implement

00:34:30.840 right now is there just like general work that needs to be done we really are always just asking

00:34:35.980 what do you all need and just utilizing our resources which is usually the people power

00:34:41.080 but sometimes we're able to get a lot of materials or or get things donated to the space we do a lot

00:34:47.940 of that work but we want to be really conscious of coming in and implementing our plan because

00:34:53.720 most of us i know when i go to permaculture action days unless they're in the bay area for the most

00:34:59.040 part I've never been to the space before so I I'm completely dependent on what the the host or the

00:35:06.800 the person who's running the space or the person who reached out to us just dependent on what they

00:35:11.800 say that they need from us if we see something that maybe they don't have like you know there's

00:35:17.000 some places we're like oh yeah this do you all have like a composting system oh you don't like

00:35:21.880 is that something you're interested in is this constantly asking questions and a lot of the

00:35:27.780 times we go to these places and you know myself and our other organizers we've got these grandiose

00:35:32.520 ideas of like oh it'd be so cool if you put this and this and this here we've gotten really good

00:35:37.340 at checking ourselves to make sure we we just always ask or wait for the invitation when it

00:35:42.980 comes to the projects but we normally just support the local organizers with whatever they ask for

00:35:50.280 and to our the best of our abilities but our our bioregional organizers and all the new people who

00:35:56.840 come on as a part of the promo culture action team we go through a training and we talk a lot

00:36:02.940 about cross-cultural organizing and power dynamics and step up step back we we use a lot of star hawks

00:36:12.200 empowerment manual trainings and exercises to make sure that to the best of our abilities that

00:36:18.760 people are who are working with us come into the organizing with the sense of social dynamics and

00:36:24.940 power dynamics and are just really aware of themselves, like really aware of like how they're

00:36:32.740 speaking, the way in which they're speaking with folks, how they're asking questions, how much

00:36:38.300 they're talking, things like that. We're working right now to deepen that training and actually

00:36:43.400 have our whole organization do a training with Starhawk and Pandora Thomas to help us get further

00:36:49.460 in that. I think we're doing a pretty good job with the cross-cultural organizing that we do and

00:36:53.980 and the organizing of, you know, people from different cities and states kind of coming

00:36:58.800 together for these different projects. But most of us are 20s and 30-somethings, and it's so

00:37:05.500 important to me that we look to our elders who have been doing various types of organizing for

00:37:11.060 decades, for longer than I've been alive. So we are, as an organization, looking to deepen our,

00:37:18.040 even though we specialize in social permaculture, we're looking to just deepen and deepen our

00:37:22.480 knowledge and experience and in our social organizing because so much of what we do is

00:37:28.540 the permaculture action network like we do like I think people mostly see they go online they see

00:37:33.660 like the physical projects that we do but it takes months and weeks to organize that one day or that

00:37:40.080 one weekend that we spend in a place and that's like where the juicy stuff is that's the stuff

00:37:46.460 that really makes a difference in someone's life is like learning how much it takes to make

00:37:52.020 something happen and how much teamwork is is necessary to really see a change happen in our

00:37:59.480 communities and I'm really excited to be doing some trainings with Starhawk and Pandora Thomas

00:38:05.260 and Penny Livingston and other elders in the permaculture and just social justice world to

00:38:10.140 help us do that better. I am the woman the peace in the war I am the one with so much force if I

00:38:19.040 If I keep singing about my story,

00:38:21.680 We will all know where we come from.

00:38:24.720 I am the woman, the peace, and the wall.

00:38:27.760 I am the one with so much force.

00:38:30.760 If I keep singing about my story,

00:38:33.660 We will all know where we come from.

00:38:36.700 I am the woman, the peace, and the wall.

00:38:39.500 I am the one with so much force.

00:38:42.720 If I keep singing about my story,

00:38:45.420 We will all know where we come from.

00:38:48.320 I am the woman, the peace, and the war I am the one with so much force

00:38:54.420 I keep singing about my story We will all know where we come from

00:39:00.400 I am the one with peace and the war I am the one with so much force

00:39:06.400 I keep singing about my story We will all know where we come from

00:39:12.380 Hold on to your story

00:39:15.860 Hold on to your story

00:39:21.840 Hold on to your story

00:39:27.880 Don't let them take them away

00:39:30.720 Hold on to your story

00:39:39.880 I really love the practice of bioregional leadership

00:40:06.080 because people who live in a place they know what they need and they usually know what's best and

00:40:15.340 to be able to support communities supporting themselves support the leaders of those communities

00:40:21.600 to get what they need with you know the access that the permaculture action day can provide with

00:40:27.660 hands and and music and i really appreciate how you've gone about it and also sharing with us

00:40:34.260 your missteps at the beginning, because I think that a lot of people will not try something at

00:40:40.780 all because they're so worried about making mistakes or embarrassing themselves. But when

00:40:45.840 we step into this movement as activists, environmental justice, social justice, climate

00:40:51.240 justice, I think we're all going to make mistakes. And I think we're all going to make missteps. But

00:40:56.960 do we keep showing up? Do we keep showing up, keep learning, continually putting ourselves out there

00:41:02.900 to become better and better stewards better and better community members and thank you so much for

00:41:09.780 sharing that journey with us and I really love the way that you're going at it now deepening your

00:41:15.740 social permaculture skills as an organization and really learning how to come in with the step up

00:41:22.660 step back practice and you know you had mentioned also respecting elders of the movement and we've

00:41:29.820 been able to speak to so many incredible elders of this movement on the podcast. And as a passing

00:41:36.740 of the torch begins to emerge within our movements of resistance, and youth are beginning to step

00:41:43.360 into these roles of leadership. And I really find myself reflecting upon the intergenerational

00:41:48.120 knowledge and the sharing and guidance. And this dominant culture is extremely individualistic

00:41:56.060 and has overwhelmingly lost respect for the wisdom of elders

00:41:59.860 and is largely devoid of ceremonial transition of leadership.

00:42:04.860 So I'm wondering, how do we or millennials youth evolve into leaders

00:42:10.940 in a respectful way that honors the generations that have come before us?

00:42:15.960 Yeah, as a millennial, this piece is one of the most important pieces in my life right now,

00:42:23.540 Even within and outside of the Permaculture Action Network and what I do, the work I do in mindfulness education with youth and the work I do in music and my artistry, it's really wonderful to look back and see what the youth are doing.

00:42:38.940 I work with kindergarten through through high school. So, you know, even I don't even know what the next generation after millennials is called. But like, you know, the generations after the more recent ones, I'm so inspired and excited by the innovations of the young people.

00:42:56.300 But what I've realized and what I've realized in my personal life and my personal practice is that as much as I want to think that what I do and say and feel is avant-garde, there is likely someone somewhere in time who has done this before or done something similar from which that I can look at and ask questions and do my research and gain more knowledge to make whatever it is I'm trying to do or say or think or feel better.

00:43:26.300 so one way I would say is just like some basic education like learning your history I mean

00:43:35.680 learning our personal histories like knowing where we come from learning about asking questions about

00:43:40.580 our peoples you know learning about the the cultures and the ethnicities and heritages that

00:43:45.400 we the heritages that we come from I think like having a strong sense of self is one way that

00:43:51.160 really invites the the guidance and wisdom of elders i think like whatever we're passionate

00:43:58.780 about may it be permaculture may it be music or anything like really looking and finding out who

00:44:07.540 are the greats in that air who are the greats in that field and having this craving to know

00:44:14.400 the history of what we're doing it's so important it's so so important permaculture we just you know

00:44:22.340 30 years ago Bill Malson just he he traveled around the world and he just got the he had

00:44:30.800 the privilege of being able to travel and study native and indigenous cultures all over the world

00:44:35.660 people been doing this what he saw the commonalities of what he saw and he wrote it down

00:44:42.180 his notebook put it in a you know put it to print stamped a name permaculture on it and it became

00:44:47.560 this new thing but people have been doing this work and I think it's the same with any work

00:44:51.780 myself as a as an organizer it's been vitally important for me to study movements of this

00:44:58.840 country and of the world you know what's happening in our political landscape right now in this

00:45:04.500 country this is not the first time this has happened in history and if I really want to

00:45:10.600 be a leader then I need to study from the other leaders I of course advocate for one-on-one like

00:45:17.400 actually spending time with our elders if you have access to our elders even just like your

00:45:22.860 family you know your grandma and your grandpa and your great aunties and great uncles just learning

00:45:28.340 about you know your your family and your lines but at the very least we've all got these we've

00:45:33.100 got these little devices that we we keep on our person at almost all times I mean can we just

00:45:39.280 Google search the leaders in the areas that we're trying to come into. It's so important

00:45:46.860 to educate ourselves with history. I'm personally spending a lot of time right now because I live

00:45:52.220 in the Bay Area and because I'm deeply committed to the justice of all peoples and committed to

00:46:00.640 the movement for Black Lives and committed to the movement for food justice. I study the Black

00:46:05.980 Panther movement a lot. I learned so much about what's happening now. I learned so much about

00:46:12.720 the things that are currently happening by taking, you know, some time out of my days

00:46:17.680 to look at what was happening 30, 40, 50 years ago. I think it's really, really important as

00:46:25.380 we're really trying to shift the paradigm and create a more regenerative future that we make

00:46:30.980 sure to look back because people have been fighting for justice since the beginning of time

00:46:36.060 and we could really gain to learn a little bit about their triumphs and the areas where you know

00:46:42.000 things were lacking and how we can make it even stronger as we continue to fight for justice and

00:46:48.140 for equality for our planet for all living beings and for ourselves

00:47:00.980 I heard you've been going through it

00:47:07.440 It tears me apart to see you like this

00:47:12.760 If I could, you know I'd fix it

00:47:17.880 But in life it's all a process

00:47:22.420 It don't matter where you go

00:47:27.120 But are you willing to do what it takes to get there?

00:47:34.660 What doesn't kill you, my friend? 0.51

00:47:37.640 Let's the snake shed its skin

00:47:40.100 What goes around comes back again

00:47:43.960 Push through the cracks, yeah

00:47:50.860 Move towards life

00:47:57.120 there's no turning back now wow thank you so much for your dedication to this work in such a deeply

00:48:10.800 integrity filled way when you were saying looking inside of ourselves and really learning

00:48:15.780 and taking the time to put into our own self-development and going back to millennials

00:48:23.220 I'm a millennial as well, and I see a lot of our generation, really just so many different ways of being at this time.

00:48:33.840 There's a lot of different choices in the United States for many millennials.

00:48:39.780 I think people aren't expected in the same ways to have families in the conventional sense and kind of have that more conventional life, so to speak.

00:48:50.460 I know that's a really broad term, and we could probably go into that as a whole separate question. But what I'm thinking about is just that historically, truly resilient Earth-based communities were deeply rooted in place, listening to, learning from, and adapting within the ecosystems they stemmed from.

00:49:09.800 and now in the age of this individualistic modernity many of us are profoundly out of

00:49:17.620 touch with intimate sense of place and many young people many millennials who don't buy into the

00:49:23.640 consumptive capitalistic norm have begun to search for an earth-centered communal belonging

00:49:29.800 and often turn towards nomadism and traveling and spending time with different communities and

00:49:36.880 in festival culture. Yet it's interesting because inherent in nomadism is a relative

00:49:41.720 disconnection from place. So I'm wondering if you find that it is possible to form a reciprocal

00:49:48.040 relationship with the land if you never set down roots in one place or one community.

00:49:54.860 I'm trying to think of how I want to answer this question. There's such a beauty in traveling.

00:50:00.680 and as someone who's quite well traveled myself I lived abroad for several years in fact I learned

00:50:07.860 permaculture from selling all my things taking a one-way flight to Costa Rica after I quit my job

00:50:13.360 and decided not to do the rest of the academia route that had been mapped out for me that's you

00:50:19.940 know that's how I found permaculture and that's how I found out a lot about myself and what's

00:50:24.720 important to me. One of the things that I think is very beautiful about this generation and about

00:50:30.760 the privilege that we have with technology and with travel to be able to deeply and authentically

00:50:37.240 experience so many different places and cultures and be able to really harvest that with integrity

00:50:43.700 if one chooses. But I've also found it really important to be rooted in a place. So it's

00:50:50.640 It's interesting because it's a huge part of who I am and how I became rooted in a place was like I traveled for six years to different eco villages and urban farms and community gardens and different countries and learning with the mind people and in the highlands of Guatemala and how they were growing their food and how they were harvesting their coffee and all of that.

00:51:13.660 And it came to a point where I actually really needed to be in one place, at least most of the time, to be able to actually do anything with all the knowledge and experiences that I had.

00:51:26.320 So I don't know if that's the answer you were looking for, but I kind of find it important at a point to really invest in a space.

00:51:36.840 And I say that as someone, as a musician who still travels quite often, but the Bay's my home.

00:51:42.600 and I'm deeply dedicated to supporting the things that are happening here especially when I'm here

00:51:49.260 but if one chooses to continue on the path of the nomad there's a part of maybe letting go that

00:51:56.920 you'll actually have a really really really intimate connection with the land in my travels

00:52:02.020 I had intimate experiences with the land but a deep connection with a landscape with a people

00:52:09.880 with a culture it takes time so if you don't have that time one way that you can still I think do

00:52:17.920 the nomad thing in a way that still adds to the healing of the land as you go is really do some

00:52:23.820 research before we travel to places and see what projects similar to the permaculture action network

00:52:30.000 just like seeing what's happening in that area and seeing what local folks are doing and seeing if

00:52:35.880 there are places where folks are asking for support. I think it's really important for

00:52:40.700 millennials as they travel to not travel with this mentality of like, I'm going to go around

00:52:45.120 the world and help everybody. Like, no, people, if they want help, they'll ask for it. And that's

00:52:49.280 actually counterproductive to a lot of things. So I think really taking the time when we go to

00:52:56.560 each place or beforehand to really do some research and find out what's actually happening.

00:53:02.940 if you're traveling and you want to really be dropping in with land-based projects then I would

00:53:09.080 you know pull up a google search and really look for land-based projects and I would

00:53:12.700 I would stress looking for ones that are run by native local people to that land and seeing if

00:53:20.180 they're asking for support if they're asking for volunteers if they're asking for folks to come and

00:53:25.180 be involved. I guess too, in my own life, I used to travel a lot more than I do now. And I've

00:53:34.540 realized that for me to actually connect with land, for me to really give the land and projects

00:53:42.440 my full attention, my full love, I need to be dedicated and I need to commit. And I think that

00:53:47.400 there's something about that sacrifice. And when I say sacrifice, I actually mean that. And one of

00:53:53.280 the most beautiful ways I can mean something. I mean, sacrifice is glorious when it's something

00:53:58.660 that you love and it's something beyond yourself. So there's a lot of things I've sacrificed in my

00:54:04.800 life to give back and to be in service to that which I love more than anything else,

00:54:10.480 which for me is this earth and specifically the temperate rainforest region. And I think that

00:54:16.440 traveling is very mind expanding and one can learn so much. And I really appreciate that

00:54:22.080 you pointed out that if you are on the nomadic trail and you do want to learn from other

00:54:27.200 communities land-based people to do some research first and to come in humbly and to see if help is

00:54:33.880 wanted and to see if your presence is wanted because it's not always wanted and it's not

00:54:39.080 necessarily a personal thing it's just how to learn to respect other people in their lands and

00:54:45.360 that's I think in the United States as well as globally so I really appreciated your answer and

00:54:50.800 I thought it was really well thought out and complex, which it needed a complex answer.

00:54:55.420 But I also now want to, for my last question for you, I want to leave this one open and

00:55:01.920 just see what you feel like sharing about your own personal projects, life, things that

00:55:09.340 feel really important to you at this time to share with the audience, and as well as

00:55:13.860 where people can find you, find the Permaculture Action Network, find your work specifically

00:55:19.360 and how they can support you oh thank you so much ayana for asking that oh well being the

00:55:27.320 permaculturalist i am i i like to do lots of different things i've got my foot in in a lot

00:55:34.100 of different uh ponds these days first i would love to share with folks how they can find the

00:55:40.480 permaculture action network if you heard me talking earlier about the bioregional cruise

00:55:45.160 and that sounds like something maybe you'd want to organize a permaculture action day maybe you

00:55:49.520 know folks in your community whose projects could use some support maybe you're one of those people

00:55:53.780 please connect with us permacultureaction.org and you can also find us on instagram and twitter

00:56:00.080 using permaculture action you know find us on facebook as well in that way and we are always

00:56:06.800 looking to expand our team and and build with folks so please connect with the permaculture

00:56:11.980 action network that way uh something that is happening in my personal landscape is that

00:56:17.640 i just put out my first album but yeah it focuses a lot on the inner landscape

00:56:24.560 on personal narrative on storytelling on pain and and accessing that and and transforming it

00:56:32.220 into into beauty into opportunity as as well as you know the the general human topics of love and

00:56:39.480 and of forgiveness and resilience.

00:56:43.880 My album's called Unraveled,

00:56:45.660 and you can find it on Apple Music,

00:56:49.560 on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora,

00:56:52.520 pretty much anywhere that you stream or purchase music

00:56:55.960 that just came out on July 30th.

00:56:58.720 And I just wrapped up my bi-coastal house concert tour,

00:57:03.740 which has been this grassroots way of sharing my music

00:57:07.860 and kind of similar to the Permaculture Action Network,

00:57:10.780 really bringing the music back to the people.

00:57:13.160 So if you listen to my music and you like it

00:57:16.500 and you have a beautiful home or space

00:57:18.600 and you would love to host a night of storytelling

00:57:21.800 and poetry and music for your community

00:57:25.380 or if you have an organization or a benefit

00:57:28.660 or something coming up

00:57:30.000 and would like to have my music be a part of that,

00:57:32.780 it would be my honor.

00:57:34.240 My music is of service to the movement

00:57:36.680 in all of its forms so definitely supporting me in that way is really helpful and you can find

00:57:42.380 out about my music the work that I do with children my kids hip-hop album or my EP Unraveled

00:57:48.920 at jasminefuego.org on Instagram Facebook Twitter at jasminefuego. I would love would love love love

00:57:59.000 to connect with you all if you all have any questions or want to connect more you can find

00:58:04.020 me in those ways as well.

00:58:34.020 why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh it's always hard to say trust this will all be a memory one day

00:58:48.700 nothing lasts forever no so just take a breath and watch this one roll by

00:58:58.240 well congratulations on your album release just a few days ago that's a huge accomplishment how

00:59:06.800 exciting and i love the idea of house concerts that's usually where i enjoy music the most is

00:59:13.820 when it's an intimate setting and you can really be close to the artist and feel the passion and

00:59:20.160 emotions behind the performance so that's really wonderful and thank you so much jasmine for coming

00:59:27.500 on today and for all your work in community organizing and really being able to reach

00:59:33.800 large groups of people, small groups of people, communities, big festival spaces. Yeah, it's an

00:59:41.120 incredible skill set to be able to really reach out and entice and inspire people in the way you

00:59:46.500 do. So thank you so much. Thank you, Ayanna. I look forward to seeing you at the Eclipse in Oregon.

00:59:53.040 Thank you for listening to For the Wild podcast. I'm Ayanna Young.

00:59:57.500 This episode is in partnership with the upcoming Organ Eclipse Festival and with Living Village Culture, who will be hosting the Shrines to the Cosmos, facilitating the Community Eclipse Ritual, and teaching the Ritual Performance Immersive at Organ Eclipse this year.

01:00:13.800 So head over to livingvillageculture.com and organeclipse2017.com to learn more.

01:00:20.160 jasmine will be there as well as myself i'll be sharing a talk entitled for the love of the wild

01:00:26.640 and hosting a panel called governed by nature rethinking society from earth up so please come

01:00:33.940 by and say hello if you happen to be there the songs you heard today were from jasmine's new

01:00:39.660 album unraveled our theme music is bow with silence returns and kate wolf like a river

01:00:46.860 I want to thank our research director, Madison Migulski, and to our producers, Reach Out and March Young.

01:00:54.900 Be sure to head over to ForTheWild.World to sign up for our newsletter to find out about what podcasts are coming up and what events I'll be speaking at, and also about the One Million Redwoods Project.

01:01:06.200 And please make a contribution, as we need your help to keep these projects up and running.

01:01:12.180 Thanks, and until next time.

01:01:16.860 It's high on a mountain, the warm winds are blowin', and where the winds are blowin' to, there ain't no way of knowin'.

01:01:43.860 The mountain grass is short, it's dry and close to burning. Crying out for water as the season's turning. Sweet smell of the pine, tall western cedar. Drifting on the wind through the mountains like a river.

01:02:13.860 I've been too long away from this wild open sky

01:02:19.480 On the concrete trails of wine

01:02:21.620 Through the canyons dark and white

01:02:24.540 The sounds of people talking

01:02:27.220 Words of blue and gray

01:02:30.720 Smells of doors and windows

01:02:33.760 Closed against the day

01:02:36.860 Sweet smell of the pines

01:02:41.580 Tall western cedar

01:02:43.260 Drifting on the wind

01:02:46.960 Through the mountains like a river

For The Wild - August 12, 2017

JASMINE FUEGO on Social Permaculture and Harnessing the Power of Festival Culture ⧸48

Episode Stats

Transcript