PRACTICE
FORWARD
RESILIENT . CREATIVE . COMMUNITIES
A community of practice cultivates a community of care.
Each session offers embodied and creative practices to strengthen resilience and deepen connections, collectively building community resilience and capacity to help us face uncertainty. This series insists that creativity and embodiment are key to building resilient communities.
Culture Mill's Fall 2025 series is provided in partnership with the Haw River Ballroom and curated and framed by Culture Mill.
September 23rd:
Processing Chantal: Embodied Integration of the Flood
Led by Culture Mill and Collaborators
6pm to 9pm: The Haw River Ballroom
Two months following Chantal, and during the one year anniversary of Helene and 20th anniversary of Katrina, there is much to grieve, be with, move through, and welcome in as we collectively experience climate crisis. Culture Mill will facilitate a space to the broader community in which we can acknowledge the work that has been done, share and hear personal stories centered around climate crisis. In a series of embodied practices we integrate individual and shared experiences, learn body-centered tools, and embolden communities with practices that support creative and responsive resilience.
October 14th:
Alternative Economies
Led by Culture Mill with collaborators
6pm to 9pm: The Haw River Ballroom
Is the economic system in which most of us live and work the only option? What kinds of alternative economic ideas and experiments have thrived, particularly at a local level? Could any of these ideas be put into practice in Saxapahaw? How could this allow greater ease, abundance, resilience and connectivity in our lives? This open forum will be divided between learning, reflecting and exchanging.
What is Mutual Aid? And beyond the theories and examples of successful mutual aid, how can we practice it successfully through awareness of our own nervous systems and embodied responses to crisis? As we acknowledge the 1 year anniversary of hurricanes Helene and Katrina, how can we practice mutual aid in Saxapahaw before and after Chantal? This open forum will be divided between learning, embodied reflection and exchange.
October 28th:
Time Bank
Led by Culture Mill with Harry Phillips
6pm to 9pm: The Haw River Ballroom
Local polymath and green-thumb Harry Phillips wants to start a Time Bank. Building on our last session on Alternative Economies, what is a Time Bank and how does it work? What is essential for it to be successful and how can you get involved in Saxapahaw? This session will be divided into learning, discussion and the potential for concrete planning around this initiative.
November 4th:
Songs of Resistance
Led by Culture Mill with Kamara Thomas and Kym Register
6pm to 9pm: The Haw River Ballroom
Some things cannot be expressed only in spoken or written words. For those, singing is required. How can raising our individual voices into collective song be a practice that builds embodied solidarity and resistance while allowing the braiding together of both grief and joy. You do not need to be a singer or even able to carry a tune to participate. All you need is a body and a voice.
November 18th:
Intergenerational Movement
Led by Culture Mill with Clint Lutes
6pm to 9pm: The Haw River Ballroom
Description coming soon
December 16th:
Breathwork and Inner-Relationship Focusing for male-identified people
Led by Culture Mill with Ari Berenbaum
6pm to 9pm : The Haw River Ballroom
Facilitators will guide participants through multiple rounds of breathwork, followed by an introduction to Inner-Relationship Focusing, in order to allow new embodied insights into the complex connection between internal physiological and emotional landscapes. Specifically for male-identified people, this workshop designed to foster a deeper and greater understanding of all that can be unearthed by spending time within the complexity of the physical body as well as the embodied felt sense.’