​For our first Convergence, we are inviting a variety of Permaculture Influences, Teachers and Programs to participate. We plan Friday and Saturday to be focused on workshops, group activities and speakers with Sunday being a hands-on building day with a few projects to choose from.   We have spaces set for entertainment, community conversations, fire side chats and more…

Meet some of our Participants below with more to be announced coming up..
​Workshops, classes and talk details coming soon.  

​Benjamin Weiss

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Susquehanna Permaculture is the project of permaculturist and rewilder Benjamin Weiss. The organization offers permaculture design courses (PDCs), and workshops related to permaculture, rewilding, organic and intensive gardening, sustainable agriculture, herbalism, community-building and much more!
https://susquehannapc.com/

Matthew Stephens

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Matthew Anthony Stephens was born in Beverly on Chicago’s South Side. While the Windy City has not typically been the first place one would think of with regards to permaculture and urban sustainability, up until now, anyway, Matthew is doing his part to change that. As founder of the Earth Reforestation Project, Permaculture America, and Permaculture Chicago, Matthew has done forums for students at his alma mater, Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, and conducted after school mentoring programs about sustainability, design, and permaculture.   Since 2011, he has also worked with Chicago’s oldest community garden, Xochiquetzal (1986), as both a mentor and permaculture design consultant and educator. https://sacredecologydesign.joomla.com

Scott Mann

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Scott Mann is a father, storyteller, swordsman, and certified permaculture designer from Harrisburg, PA. He received his Permaculture Design Certificate in 2010, and also holds a Masters of Science in Park and Resource Management from Slippery Rock University. Scott is the owner and host of the Permaculture Podcast, an online broadcast where he shares the stories of permaculture practitioners, regenerative farmers, and culture creators from around the globe to an international audience of listeners.
http://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/

Sarah Ashley Baxendell

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​Sarah Ashley Baxendell is a permaculture and ecological designer, land conservationist, herbalist, grant writer, activist and artist living in Pittsburgh, PA. She believes that our presence in the world makes a difference and adheres to our complete interdependence within it. She is a graduate of Permaculture Design from the Permaculture Center for BioRegional Living, and has taught courses on permaculture design, permaculture finance and bioregional herbalism at the North American Permaculture Convergence, Firefly Gathering, the Florida Earth Skills Gathering, and Indiana University. Sarah Ashley currently develops green space projects (parks, farms and gardens) in South Pittsburgh's Hilltop neighborhoods, and concocts local herbal creations with Corner Alchemy Apothecary. Sarah Ashley is available for green space and ecological design, park planning, grassroots environmental organizing, and land conservation projects, and specializes in whole systems design, greenspace Master Plans, urban agriculture,  fundraising, strategic planning, operations planning, and project-based financial modeling. 
www.ArtEcologyDesign.com
www.CornerAlchemy.com

Natural Builders Guild of the Lehigh Valley

The Guilds mission is to grow and support a community of skilled Natural Builders in the Lehigh Valley in order to promote the art and business of Natural Building through outreach & education, skills & methods training, resourcing, collaboration, and service.  The group will be facilitating various demo and hands on building opportunities.  


Theresa Byrnes - 

Metal Working and Forge Work

Devin Devine

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Serving the Main Line PA area since 2007 Licensed and Insured with 19 years experience in masonry and hardscaping and a lifetime involvement in the arts and creative endeavors.   Pennsylvania’s very own maestro of Artistic Hardscaping. Specialties include Stacked stone sculpture, artisan crafts and other natural material arts.  
http://www.devineescapes.com/

John Holzwart 

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John Holzwart  - from Wisconsin. He specializes in foraging walks, preservation skills, food forest plants and trees, and is also a handcrafted broom-maker. http://plantbasedservices.com/

Master Gardeners  Tom Reed & Jessica Simkulet

Tom Reed will be speaking about Vermiculture, which is composting using worms and Jessica Simkulet will be speaking about Rain Gardens

Meagan Ruppert

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A visionary business coach founder of Ascending Circles and Path of Purpose Mystery School , also the founder of Return to Roots Gathering, a hoop dance, yoga, flow arts, and music festival that creates a space for conscious, spiritual, and community transformation.
​ http://ascendingcircles.com/

Formidable  Vegetable Sound System

Very Special Guest coming out from Austrailia
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Charlie McGee of Formidable Vegetable Sound System. Possibly the only band to promote the joys of adapting to climate change, economic collapse and frugal hedonism through dance music, Western Australia’s Formidable Vegetable Sound System are the world’s most whack experiment in ‘ecological electroswing’. With high-energy live shows consisting of glitchy bass beets, ukulele jazz chops, violin shredding and hyperactive horn playing, the band has only one goal: to pound simple solutions for sustainability deep into your consciousness in the funkiest way possible.  http://formidablevegetable.com.au

William Padilla Brown

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William Padilla-Brown is a Social entrepreneur, Urban Shaman, Citizen Scientist,  Poet, Mycologist, Amateur Phycologist, and a Certified Permaculture designer. William has spent most of his life traveling the world, stopping at such places as The Pyramid of the Sun, Olmec Ruins in Villahermosa and Campeche Mexico, England, France, Taiwan, and various States on the East and West coast of Northern America. ​Visit his project https://mycosymbiotics.blog/

Adam Haritan

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Adam Haritan is a wild food enthusiast, researcher, and forager.
For several years, He has been leading wild edible plant and mushroom walks throughout the woods, forests, and fields of Pennsylvania as a way of reconnecting humans with their land.  He has developed an online community of like minded friends at ​http://learnyourland.com/

Alexis Campbell

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Alexis Campbell is a gardener, writer, poet, crafter, fermenter, worm farmer, homesteader, roller derby skater, and a certified permaculture designer and educator from Reading, PA. For the past nine years Alexis has worked in sustainable agriculture and environmental education, specializing in urban permaculture. She received a PDC (2008) from Andrew Faust in NYC, and studied Growing Power’s Commercial Urban Agriculture (2010) at PGCC. Alexis earned a Teacher of Permaculture Certificate (2012) from Dave Jacke, completed Mark Shepard’s intensive course in Restoration Agriculture (2014), and trained in Restorative Practices for Schools (2014).

Devon Paderewski

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Greenway Apiary - We are a family owned and operated company that keeps bees and harvest bee products from honey to wax and pollen and propolis. We also do bee demonstrations. We offer a full range of Langstroth hive supplies and can supply you with bee packages and nuc colonies in spring and summer. We love to talk bees so hit us up for more info in you feel inclined.

Perry Kroeger

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 is a visionary performer, writer, designer, videographer, and artist. A three time Broadway veteran, his theater art has been experienced both here in states and in the theaters of Bangkok and Moscow.  He is currently artist in residence at The Growing Stage, The Children’s Theatre of New Jersey where he creates stage sets, puppets, and graphic art.  He is also a featured workshop lecturer and presenter at CoSM, the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in Wappingers Falls NY, visionary art sanctuary hosted by Alex Grey and Allyson Grey.

Joshua Lee Mallory

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​Joshua has been a student of Capoeira for the past ten years, learning with Capoeira Biriba, eventually becoming an Instructor and hosting a club for young adults at Penn State University. Now bringing his style of Capoeira to the underprivileged youth of North Philadelphia, he continues his training with Professor Sopremo, Contra Mestre Pardal, and Mestre Doutor of ASCAB. He is an Artist-in-Residence, shoots and video and photo for his own business 'Noise Soul Cinema', and also enjoys playing guitar and singing with new friends by the fire.
http://noisesoulcinema.com/​

Sonni Shine

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Sonni is a World traveler, singer/songwriter, multi instrumentalist, Social Justice Warrior and Yoga instructor that will be coming out from Philadelphia to share and inspire us all. 
Folk style story telling mixed with reggae, R&B, and soul rhythms and riffs. Percussive guitar riffs combined with playful vocal melodies and thoughtful words.
She is apart of many music projects including The Underwater Sounds, Golden Spiral, she can be caught at various acoustic and solo gigs. Sonni Shine Music Website

Bobby Beetcut

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Beetcut is a peace educating “Family Roots Musician” who creates a fun and funky blend of uplifting and inspiring music that resonates with kids and their parents alike. His new release entitled, “Up In A Tree!” tours a range of musical styles from Funk to Folk, Groovy Pop Rock to Rocking Rhythm and Blues.  https://www.beetcut.com/

Tribal Waves

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Jamie Hogetsu Orfanella and Jacob Cole

Jamie Orfanella- didgeridoo, world flutes, jaw harp, EWI, percussion 
 Jamie studies the Japanese Shakuhachi flute at the Ki Sui An dojo under Grand Master Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin. As a didgeridoo player, Jamie has been influenced by many of the finest players including Stephen Kent and Jeremy Donovan. His ever-expanding array of instruments also includes the quena, dizi, kalyuka, kaval and Native American flutes, pennywhistle, jaw harps, ocarinas, various percussion, and the EWI midi wind controller. Jamie’s diverse background and wide array of sounds keeps the music of Tribal Waves always changing and evolving. 

August 21st is named to remind us all of the date in 2017 of the first total solar eclipse visible in the US in a century. The musical project is itself like a solar eclipse: "a day," to quote one of their songs, "when there is no difference between day and night"...a free-form ambient soundscape. To remind us that we're all, RIGHT NOW, floating through space, we create a harmonic spaceship for us all to journey on together, built out of bass lines and synthesizers, angelic looped vocal harmonies and psychedelic guitar shavings, and lots and lots and lots of love and laughter...(But really, we're just a handful of squirrels trying to solve a murder mystery.) Check out the website here