Morning circle. Photo by JP Goguen
By Emma Castleberry
Asheville’s Firefly Annual Gathering, a five-day earthskills event, will be held Tuesday, June 7, through Sunday, June 12, at Deerfield in Mills River. The Firefly Gathering is also now offering year-round classes called Perennial Workshops that were piloted when the Annual Gathering had to be canceled because of the pandemic.
A bow-drill coal is brought to life with the help of a pre-made kindling nest and steady breaths. Photo by Austin Lottimer
In addition to the development of the Perennial Workshops, time off from the Annual Gathering allowed Firefly to refine its vision and mission. The pandemic also increased interest in the earthskills education that is offered by Firefly. “More people have realized that our nation’s current systems are unstable: that food security is an issue; that medicine is not always available when you need it; that government leadership is not always sound; that isolation from ourselves, each other and the natural world is at the heart of much suffering,” says executive director Marissa Percoco. “This year, we are focusing on reconnection: connection with our own creative power; connection with communities we have not historically been in relationship with; connection to the ancestors of this place; and connection to the empowerment that comes through learning a new craft or skill.”
This year’s Firefly Annual Gathering will offer hundreds of earthskills classes, including outer skills like friction fire, leather making, basket weaving, bike maintenance and blacksmithing, as well as inner development classes on topics like conflict resolution, decolonization and embodied movement. There are also efforts to make the event itself more inclusive and reflective. “We recognize that, in general, earthskills are Indigenous skills, sometimes appropriated from cultures who still exist around us,” says Percoco. “Our goal is to bring more teachers from these traditions to our event, to cross-pollinate culturally and form more resilient relations with others.”
Percoco says she hopes the Perennial Workshops provide additional accessibility for a wider audience that might not be able to commit to the five-day Annual Gathering. “This is a way to dip one’s toe in the skills community,” she says. “And so we are focusing on real issues. People need food, so we offer food-focused classes. People need tools, so we offer blacksmithing. People need to learn plants and connect with the natural world, so we offer plant walks. People need to protect the natural world, and so we seek to help folks experience nature in such a way that they fall in love, because if we love something, we will protect it.” Some upcoming classes include a Vegetable Fermenting workshop in July and, later in the summer and fall, Blacksmithing, Wool Spinning, Friction Fire and Plant and Mushroom Identification Walks.
For more information or to register for Perennial Workshops or the Annual Gathering, visit FireflyGathering.org.
