Herblore: Ancestral Plant Storytelling
Saturday, April 27, 2024
6:00 PM–7:00 PM
Lunder Center at Stone Hill
(See the event location map)
Get directions to the Clark
What are the plants that tie us to our ancestors and sense of place?
Brooke Bridges, Twink Williams Burns, and Rebecca Guanzon share intimate stories about their relationships with the land and their ancestors. Although the three women come from different backgrounds and grew up across the country, the ancestral homelands of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans and the plants that grow in the Berkshires are key to their herbal journeys and healing pathways.
Attendees are invited to gather around a bonfire and sip on tea blends created by the herbalists. Stay after the readings for an intimate conversation with the panelists to hear more about their experiences as practicing herbalists.
Free. For accessibility concerns, call 413 458 0524.
ABOUT THE HERBALISTS
Brooke Bridges is the owner, head herbalist, and formulator of Brooke's Botanicals, her all-natural skin, hair, and self-care business. From working as a child actress in Los Angeles to her current role as CSA assistant manager at Soul Fire Farm, an Afro-Indigenous community farm in Petersburgh, New York, Bridges has had a unique journey. Through mental health challenges; a cross-country move; and a deep connection with regenerative agriculture, farm-to-table cooking, and plant medicine, Bridges has transformed into an advocate for using plant medicine and looking to spiritual plant connections and nature immersion for healing.
Twink Williams Burns is the founder of Ancestor Seeds, an heirloom seed company located on the ancestral homelands of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans, specializing in vegetable and herb seed varieties that are culturally significant across the Black diaspora. Burns believes that every seed holds the story of the past and the hope of the future. She believes that connecting with the plants that sustained, nourished, and healed generations of people in your family is a powerful way to connect with your personal history. Drawing from the legacy of many storytellers before her, Burns brings the story and glory of individual plants to life by joyfully weaving together history, place, culture, culinary traditions, and plant-based remedies from around the world.
Rebecca Guanzon, a trained herbalist and practitioner of multiple energetic healing modalities, brings over twenty years of experience with trauma-informed care practices. She is a graduate of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, specializing in medicine making, foraging, and herbal immersion. As a neighborhood herbalist, she promotes mutual aid by distributing free goods and cultivating an intimate circle of accountability partners. This work and active community convenes at Wild Soul River, an abolitionist herbal gathering space in Williamstown that Guanzon co-owns with her partner justin adkins.
Brooke Bridges, Twink Williams Burns, and Rebecca Guanzon share intimate stories about their relationships with the land and their ancestors. Although the three women come from different backgrounds and grew up across the country, the ancestral homelands of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans and the plants that grow in the Berkshires are key to their herbal journeys and healing pathways.
Attendees are invited to gather around a bonfire and sip on tea blends created by the herbalists. Stay after the readings for an intimate conversation with the panelists to hear more about their experiences as practicing herbalists.
Free. For accessibility concerns, call 413 458 0524.
ABOUT THE HERBALISTS
Brooke Bridges is the owner, head herbalist, and formulator of Brooke's Botanicals, her all-natural skin, hair, and self-care business. From working as a child actress in Los Angeles to her current role as CSA assistant manager at Soul Fire Farm, an Afro-Indigenous community farm in Petersburgh, New York, Bridges has had a unique journey. Through mental health challenges; a cross-country move; and a deep connection with regenerative agriculture, farm-to-table cooking, and plant medicine, Bridges has transformed into an advocate for using plant medicine and looking to spiritual plant connections and nature immersion for healing.
Twink Williams Burns is the founder of Ancestor Seeds, an heirloom seed company located on the ancestral homelands of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans, specializing in vegetable and herb seed varieties that are culturally significant across the Black diaspora. Burns believes that every seed holds the story of the past and the hope of the future. She believes that connecting with the plants that sustained, nourished, and healed generations of people in your family is a powerful way to connect with your personal history. Drawing from the legacy of many storytellers before her, Burns brings the story and glory of individual plants to life by joyfully weaving together history, place, culture, culinary traditions, and plant-based remedies from around the world.
Rebecca Guanzon, a trained herbalist and practitioner of multiple energetic healing modalities, brings over twenty years of experience with trauma-informed care practices. She is a graduate of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, specializing in medicine making, foraging, and herbal immersion. As a neighborhood herbalist, she promotes mutual aid by distributing free goods and cultivating an intimate circle of accountability partners. This work and active community convenes at Wild Soul River, an abolitionist herbal gathering space in Williamstown that Guanzon co-owns with her partner justin adkins.
