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"It seems the essence of our lives sometimes comes down to the feeling of another life against our fingers, palms, our own hands." :: Linda Hogan, Chickasaw novelist, essayist, poet, and environmentalist, for Emergence Magazine.

As we move into this holiday season, we are reminded that everything in the world is still wonky. This is a time when we are supposed to be together, to be able to hug one another and feel each other's heartbeats. We're not quite there yet, but we have found other ways to connect this season to old friends and new. Even if it is through zoom (still), we've seen relationships bloom and milestones reached. Keep reading for a peek at what we've been up to! 

With warmth and light, 
The Culture Mill Team  

Southern Futures 


As we welcomed the first Southern Futures residency with Marcella Murray and David Neumann, we practiced together in a very particular kind of circle that included visiting artists, local artists and Carolina Performing Arts administrators. It felt very important for us to set our foundational gathering in a mode of practice that examines our past and imagines our future(s) by focusing on humble listening and community engagement.

This particular modality was a set of restorative practices, led by Val Hanson from the Dispute Settlement Center in Carrboro; Val facilitates a form of listening both inwardly and outwardly, welcoming every voice "in", and allowing an intentional slowing of our usual pace in order to do so. Such practices give permission to a generative silence, allowing us to connect to our lived experience in the present moment. The combination of somatic practices and restorative practices allow us to connect deeply to our individual and our communal bodies. 

We are grateful for the collaboration with Amanda Graham, director of engagement at CPA that helped shape a week of meaningful conversations with local communities and artists in Chapel Hill, Saxapahaw and Graham. One afternoon in a particular stood out, when we organized an artist cummunity lunch at The Eddy Pub with local artists Sylvester Allen, Katie Nunn, and Jeghetto. With Marcella and David, we all spent the afternoon with activist and owner of The Muse, Dionne Liles, in downtown Graham. We are grateulf to Liles for welcoming us all into the beautiful, inclusive space they have created in Graham. It was an impactful way to bring artists from different backgrounds, disciplines and places together, in order to explore the complicated space that is Graham and Alamance County.  
 

Supported by the College of Arts & Sciences, University Libraries, Carolina Performing Arts, and the Center for the Study of the American South, Southern Futures sparks fresh dialogue, funds groundbreaking scholarship and artistic projects, and encourages new voices on campus. By both celebrating southern cultures and communities—and creatively engaging the challenges faced by those cultures and communities—students, researchers, community members, and artists chart paths forward.

Of course this was taken before all classes went virtual - but we can't wait to dance with you in person someday soon!
 

Ongoing "Dancing With" Classes


We're almost done with the first series of Dancing With movement classes. In case you missed it, this free class series, open to those living with and without Parkinson's Disease, is designed to use mindful movement, dance, and imagery to provide anyone with the tools to achieve increased quality of life, a reduction in the risk of falls, and a personal sense of agency.

We've had SUCH fun getting to know our current group of participants. We have students joining from all over North Carolina, a couple in Canada, and even one person joining from Mexico! Throughout the series we have worked on bringing awareness to different parts of the body, awakening nerve endings through different ranges of motion, connecting breath to movement, and developing a sense of playfulness in the dancing body that we all have. 

We asked participants to elaborate on what these classes have meant to them:

"I look forward to the class each Thursday as a way to keep moving with others because it motivates me to put movement first for that timeframe." - Deborah P.

"Being single, living alone, and finding my way to stability on the other side of illness, I have found the Dancing With classes so very helpful to my mind, body, emotion, and spirit. It feels safe to step into the virtual class because I'm being guided and invited to move in a way that works for me. The movement is engaging my mind and body while helping my healing. The community is accepting, encouraging, and non-judgemental and I look forward to joining them every week. I feel lighter, positive, and more confident with every class - thank you!" - Christine C.

 
We are so very grateful to each and every one of our participants for the sense of community that continues to grow with each class.

Find out more at about the origin of this class series, and the new projects stemming from this work, on our website here.
 

Dancing With is funded in part by ADF with a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council. Culture Mill's work is made possible in part with a grant from the Kenan Charitable Trust. Additional support is provided by RTI International.

Tommy in Residency


Tommy here. This past week I have been in residence at Respite in the Round, a nature based immersion space for artists, healers, cultural and frontline organizers, stewarding 23 acres of Occaneechi Saponi land, and connected to the Indegenous-led farming collective: Handèwa Farms. Priority of this resource is given to Black, Indigenous, Queer, Trans, Nonbinary and people of color working or making art for collective liberation. Though I do not embody these identities myself, my access to resources through Culture Mill allows my time here to help subsidize residencies and retreats for folx who do embody those identities.

During my time on this land, I worked on a performance project called How To -- a proposition that comes from Norweigan/Israeli Artist and Activist Mia Habib. Habib is inviting 5 artists from around the world to work on a performance score within a community context. I take Habib's score to be concerned with the question: "how to be human" in our varied and common global context(s) right now. Here in the American rural South, as a White Cis Man, this question is situated in a practice of learning from my community rather than teaching to my community. It is a practice of decolonizing my relationship to land and to my own body.

This place is a perfect setting to explore that work and to learn. The land is owned and stewarded as R.O.S.A. (Rare Occanneechi Saponi Alluvial) Forest, on which Respite in the Round and Handèwa both operate in joint ownership by Kristen Cox and Kisha Jeffries. Follow them @respiteintheroundnc and @handewafarms, or check out their websites below, and support this profound project at the nexus of artmaking, land conservation and collective liberation

I am grateful to community conversation partners who are working with me as I am guided along this practice: grappling with what it means to have vision, let go of control, operate within institutional systems and remain connected to our bodies and ancestors as humans.
 

https://www.respiteintheround.org/ 
https://www.handewafarms.com/ 

Community Partnerships

 

This past weekend we were excited to host vendors participating in the Saxapahaw Holiday Market in the Culture Mill lab. Over 60 local artists and artisans descended upon our little town, and we got smacked in the face with some real holiday cheer! 

We wanted to highlight one vendor in particular, Katie Nunn, a dear friend and local artist with whom we collaborate on a monthly basis. She is responsible for the *amazing* window display that changes each month in the lab, using almost all recycled or foraged materiels. We love the playfulness and satire that permeates all of her work, and we hope you got a chance to catch her at the market this past weekend. If not, check out her instagram here or @boneheadart. 

And next time you're in Saxapahaw, swing by the lab and see what's hanging in the window - you'll get a dual taste of Katie's and Culture Mill's current work. 
 

Upcoming community event:


We truly believe in the importance of partnering with people in the community, so we're excited to make the Culture Mill lab space available for a CLOWNING WORKSHOP (how cool is that) January 14-16th. More info is forthcoming, but for now you can find details here.

Want to support Culture Mill?


We believe there are myriad ways to support local organizations. Especially during the tumultuous times of a pandemic, we understand that not everyone is able to offer financial support. To those who have volunteered their time and emotional encouragement, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

If you are able to offer a financial contribution, we welcome one-time donations. We also encourage you to become a sustainer! With the help of your monthly donations we are able to continue to work towards bringing embodied practices to our ever growing community. 
 
Contribute to Culture Mill Here

Culture Mill acknowledges that the land now known as Saxapahaw rests on the village sites of the Sissapahaw, Eno, Shakori and the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation whom, along with other tribes, made their homes along the Haw River in what is now known as Alamance County.

We recognize the Native communities in our region today and extend our deepest gratitude to those who have stewarded this land, and offer our respect to their elders, past, present, and future.

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