LIVE : in conversation with Brandi Harper at Otherwild

As part of my How to Not Always Be Working book tour I’ve been inviting friends and peers along the way to share their own experience with work, play, creativity, politics, hope, and more

Have Company Residency Alum / friend / magical unicorn person / knitter / book contributor Brandi Harper joined me at Otherwild in New York City on December 12

Brandi brings to so much joy, truth telling, and brightness to this conversation (and to the world every day). I really am in awe of the way she speaks about work and life and queerness and blackness and togetherness and the importance of REALLY carving out self care and friendship and romance for yourself in a world that doesn’t see or prioritize you.

I interview Brandi and we talk together and we open up with questions from the audience at the end - share widely with friends and tell us what you think! xo

Brandi’s Instagram

Brandi’s Etsy Shop

Brandi’s Website

LIVE : in conversation with Ellen Rutt

Recorded in front of a LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE in Ypsilanti, MI on November 5 2018 at Worthwhile Paper Co studio

It felt so special to read to these listeners, and interview Ellen. I miss having a podcast and don’t have the clarity yet for what the next THING would be. SO - I thought, why not just record this, and share it with the people. That’s what the Have Company podcast was - it just didn’t have the pressure of being in front of other people.

Enjoy our talk on choice making and making our “best” work and shifting and moving and pressures and how we talk to ourselves and more

note : sometimes there are questions from the audience and they might be very quiet and we might be loud - cheers to this non mixed non mastered recording xo

an audio book & a hello

Hello 

I am so pleased to share the audio book read aloud version of my book A Sacred Shift 

This reads as a sort of strange poetic gesture, out of order, upside down offering.  

It's raw it's here it's read by me! 

You can purchase this audio book for $11 below, and you can also listen to the newest PODCAST episode where I read the introduction 

Grateful to find ways to turn projects into other things 

Episode 50: In Conversation with Rebekah Erev

Hi podcast listeners! Check out our new Facebook group where you can continue conversations from the podcasts with other listeners.

Rebekah Erev is an earth-humping Hebrew Priestess, clergy person, artist, and small business owner who created the Moon Angel / Malakh Halevanah deck and book. While Rebekah was in her religious training, she began designing a set of oracle cards as her own tool for divination, and now distributes them for everyone's benefit. Rebekah has a background in teaching, with an masters degree from Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington, and has co-founded the projects bfamfaphd.com and DIY Art School as a response to privilege and cost making higher education inaccessible to many. She also collaborated with Elsa Asher to publish Moon Tools workbook to extend the concept of the Moon Angel cards into classes and an online support system, encouraging people to use the cycle of the moon to work though life processes and creative projects. 

Marlee and Rebekah talk about the humanity of asking others for help, sweeping as a zen activity, not taking things personally in business when people say no, living in radical queer therapy cult, reading through the entirety of the artists way, and leaving her teaching job to pursue her career as an artist. 

words of wisdom:

“I love teaching. I love seeing people’s potential, and seeing them for who they really are, and helping to bring that out. Yeah, I love being a cheerleader, essentially. And, loving people and seeing them, and helping them find ways to express who they are more authentically and share that with the world- it’s really satisfying.”

“I started to think about my actions and how they make my prayer in the world.”

“Being in touch with our sexuality, as sexual beings, that helps us get more in touch with our intuition.”

current projects:

Rebekah is working on having feelings about having feelings, or having the capacity to feel more of the good and bad feelings / Exploring obscurity and the unknown though art and sex / Making a list of hopes and intentions moving into a new year / Cultivating a rebel heart, and finding the good in the current growth of activism and public expression of feelings.

things to be excited about:

• Her awesome TV channel! Rebekah has made series of videos, one for each oracle card, and is posting them on Hebrew Priestess TV with more videos to come...
• Boobs poster campaign! Rebekah is selling printed posters celebrating breasts, and giving half of all proceeds to the Birth Justice Project and Planned Parenthood. She is also donating 50% of her workbook sales to support the Standing Rock water protectors.
• Teaching workshops! Rebekah will be offering classes at the new Have Company studio in West Oakland.

Episode 49: In Conversation with Wax and Wane Fiber

Wax & Wane Fiber is a collaboration between Baltimore fiber artists, Claire Fredrick and Ashton J. Page. The two met at the MFA in Community Arts program at the Maryland Institue of Art in Baltimore, after Claire came from Chicago, Illinois and Ashton came from Omaha, Nebraska. They collaborated at MICA on The Quilt Story Exchange, where they worked with Baltimore women in recovery from trauma, to make therapeutic storytelling quilts. After graudating, they were inspired by their mutual interest in the magical range of natural plant dyes to start their own company, Wax & Wane Fiber. The company has a two-fold mission: to play in the studio researching dye science and surface design, and to travel and teach natural dying with an undercurrent of ecological stewardship. They also make a line of textiles for the body and home, including custom vagina scarves and pride flags. They talk with Marlee about teaching workshops in their own studio and on the road, how to promote events and new developments, and the challenge of ramping up studio production amongst part time jobs and domestic partners.

words of wisdom:

“This is a partnership, so we are using ‘we’, and it’s been a challenge for me to get away from using ‘I’ statements… this is both of our’s thing, and having to be cognizant of the “we”, and also when it is okay to be my thing in a two-part company, and when it is okay to be your thing in a two-person company.”

“I think when that happens, you are just forced to figure it out.”

current projects:

Claire and Ashton were hosted at have company in the last few days that the physical shop in Grand Rapids existed, and they offered a natural dye workshop that turned into a space to share feelings and talk about transition. They are working on developing a longer-term course in their craft, hoping to offer a four-day workshop for public schools. In the studio they are gearing up for holiday season sales- they are excited to be selling at Renegade Brooklyn for the first time this year.

things to be excited about:

• Finishing a knitting project! Claire is finishing her first knitting project, a shawl that she has been working on for months and will wear this winter.
• The Broken Circle: Yarns of The Knitting Witches! This new young adult fantasy fiction by Cheryl Potter, that Ashton and Claire are SO in love with. It’s about fiber arts and witchery and it is a series, so get ready to be hooked.