To teach is to be taught.
At the core of us all, we seek to belong. Long to Belong is a heart-centered, community-based offering that invites participants into a weekly gathering where vulnerability, courage, and collective wisdom take center stage. This course is an experiment in co-creation and a return to the circle — where teaching and learning are shared, reciprocal acts. The true way of wisdom.
Together, we will explore what it means to be both uniquely ourselves and part of something greater. Through open dialogue, storytelling, introspection, and ecological awareness, we will identify the tools and strengths already within us. Our goal: to reimagine belonging — to ourselves, to one another, and to the Earth. And to dream into being a model classroom/village that reflects the values we wish to see in our everyday lives and interactions.
Each session will be a blend of reflection, movement, dialogue, and hands-on engagement with the living world. Practices may include but are not limited to: grounding in nature, awareness, plant companionship and learning, Earth stewardship projects, creative expression and more.
Join Akoth Ambugo, keynote speaker of the African Heritage Foodways Symposium, for this participatory course in building a relationship with the living world and each other. This is not a lecture-style course, but rather a space to feel and question. To connect and co-create through active participation.
Core Activities & Practices:
Each session will be a blend of reflection, movement, dialogue, and hands-on engagement with the living world. Practices may include but are not limited to:
● Grounding in Nature: Tuning our senses to the land, observing natural rhythms, and rediscovering our relationship with place.
● Awareness: Gentle techniques to regulate the nervous system, deepen presence, and foster clarity, such as stillness held in collective silence.
● Plant Companionship & Learning: Connecting with local plant relatives — their stories, healing properties, and ecological roles — through touch and observation.
● Story Circles & Heritage Sharing: Sharing from the heart, personal and ancestral stories that honor our cultural lineages and ways of relating.
● Earth Stewardship Projects: Collaborative efforts to care for local green spaces (e.g. soil regeneration, seed planting, tending to water sources).
● Dialogue & Visioning Sessions: Honest, facilitated conversations about our roles in collective healing and envisioning systems of care rooted in equity and ecological awareness.
● Creative Expression: Optional sessions with music, writing, movement, or art to explore belonging through creativity.
● Relational Practices: Exercises in deep listening, consent-based communication, and building compassionate accountability.
This is not a lecture-style course, but rather a space to feel and question. To connect and co-create through active participation.
Does This Speak to You?
If any of these questions stir something in you, even quietly, we welcome you to join us. Long to Belong is more than a class — it’s a space where we gather to remember.
● When do I feel most connected to something larger than myself?
● What does “belonging” feel like in my body?
● What parts of myself have I hidden in order to feel accepted?
● What does the land I live on want to tell me?
● What stories have been passed down to me — and what stories want to be born through me?
If these questions resonate with you, we invite you to sign up and share this offering with anyone in your circle who may need it. Together, we can explore these answers and create a space of belonging.
Recommended reading materials
“Of Water and the Spirit” by Malidoma Some
1 Notebook
1 Drawing pad
**Please note there will be no class on Monday, May 26 due to the Memorial Day Holiday.
To register visit:
https://www.campusce.net/kvcccommunity/course/course.aspx?catId=37
***Thanks to Kalamazoo Valley Foundation a full scholarship is available for this class. To request the scholarship please email
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