Greenspell Annual Open House
Sunday, October 12 from 11am - 5pm!
The Greenspell Annual Open House offers students of our Foundations in Bioregional Herbalism Course the opportunity to engage our Chicago community and give back a little bit of what they learned throughout the seven month course.
Through student-led workshops and a sliding-scale apothecary booth, this open house supports our ongoing efforts to provide more accessible herbal remedies and education, empowering community members to engage with herbal medicines and wellness practices to cultivate preventative self-care and abundant aliveness!
Gathering and Sharing Knowledge
Throughout the seven month intensive, students connect with medicinal plants, learning to harvest, process, extract for medicine, formulate, blend, bottle, and eventually guide community members as to which herbal remedies will best support them. This gives students the opportunity to learn about the practice of bioregional herbalism through each step of the process. At the open house, students organize and lead their own workshops and offer herbal preparations we made as a group back to our community, so the herbal goodness continues to spread.
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𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
sign up for a workshop 𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
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Workshop Descriptions
Note: Most workshops are free to attend but since this is a fundraising event, if you are able to contribute to our community fund, we welcome you to pay any amount when signing up for the free workshops. Two workshops have a $15 fee to cover materials cost, you are welcome to add an additional amount if you would like to pay more, but are not required to.
Even though most workshops are free, we do ask that you still sign up ahead of time so we know how many folks to expect!
DIY Fire Cider Workshop with Dayna Larson
Want to learn how to make your own delicious, immune boosting Fire Cider? In this workshop, we will learn to make Fire Cider and some of the benefits of this unique preparation to prime your immune system for winter wellness. Fire Cider is an apple cider vinegar preparation of warming and pungent herbs (and whatever else you might have in the kitchen) that supports immune function while warming and restoring vitality to the body. We will explore the benefits of Fire Cider and why it’s important to our health. When we make Fire Cider together, you'll leave with a jar full to get you through winter!
Archetypes & Herbal Allies for Productivity, Burnout, and Rest with Izzy Romano
While we often think of herbs for supporting common complaints like colds, flus, respiratory ailments, or gut issues, herbs are powerful allies for the nervous system, where herbalists often regard herbs more as people that can support us through challenging times. In this workshop, we will explore some archetypal nervous system states, highly informed by a fast-paced and productivity-oriented culture, and some herbs to temper and even resist the cultural imperative to do more. Sometimes we need a friend to remind us that it’s okay to rest, and sometimes this friend happens to be an herb!
Neighborhood Plant & Tree Walk with Bridget James
Medicine truly is all around us! Often growing right at our very feet, through the cracks in the concrete next to the compost bin in the alleyway. Acquaint yourself with the common medicinal trees and weeds we often encounter along the alleyways and parkways of Chicago on this neighborhood plant and tree walk.
Journey through the Senses Workshop with Helen Lee
In this workshop, artist Helen Lee will guide you through an illuminating and sensory opening experience through an intentional eating practice, and other somatic practices to support you in connecting with your body and your environment in new ways.
Botany in a Dance with Meghann Wilkinson
Can't tell a mustard from a mint? Let's use movement mnemonics, goofy gestures, and fun rhymes to learn how to effortlessly identify a few key plant families. Utilizing Thomas Elpel's patterns method of plant ID, we'll share moves and laughs and dance away with new eyes for knowing who is growing around us!
Greenspell Studio Location, Details, & Arrival
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Greenspell Studio is located at N Oakley Blvd and W Fulton St. (333 N Oakley Blvd, Unit 101, Chicago, IL 60612)
5 minute walk from the corner of Western Ave and Grand Ave
10 minute walk from Damen Green Line Stop
6 minute walk from Western Metra Station
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There is plenty of free street parking available on Oakley. Please do not park in the building’s parking lot. This lot is reserved for building tenants only and your car may be towed if you choose to park in the lot.
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Please enter through the door by the loading dock in the parking lot, not through the front door. Ideally the door will be propped open, but the door is locked for any reason, ring the intercom for unit 101 to be buzzed in. Once you’re in, you’ll walk through the loading dock area and our studio is the first door on your left. I always try to provide as much signage as possible to direct you to our space :)
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There are several bathrooms in the common area just down the hall from our studio. These bathrooms are shared with other building tenants and are ADA accessible.
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Greenspell studio is located on the first floor and is wheelchair accessible. All surfaces are cleaned and sanitized before each workshop. We keep workshop size to a minimum to ensure enough space for each participant. Masks are available upon request.
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For the most up-to-date information regarding the workshop, please return to this webpage. You will also receive a workshop reminder prior to the date of the workshop/plant walk. Please add alex@greenspell.org to your contacts so emails related to the workshop/plant walk don't get sent to your spam folder.
Our Annual Open House over the years…
Before we had our own studio, this event was called First Curve’s ‘Community Apothecary Pop-up’ because we would pop up around town to share our offerings. Our first pop-up on November 6, 2021 was hosted by Chicago Patchwork Farms with a lively fire cider making workshop, a community apothecary stand with sliding-scale herbal remedies, yoga, free zines, delicious and toasty herb-infused apple cider, and more. The next two years we popped up across the street from the Logan Square Farmer’s Market in October at the Comfort Station in Logan Square. These pop-ups included everything we had at our first, plus student-led workshops, tarot readings, and guided meditations. Now that we’ve got our own home, we’d love to invite you in to our cozy space and enjoy some of the same stuff we saw in past years, plus a few new surprises :)
Fundraising
Every pop-up and open house we’ve offered are entirely non-profit and donation-based. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Financial support is greatly appreciated though! Earnings from each year are allocated in several ways, depending on the year, often going to local urban farms, a scholarship fund for the Greenspell Bioregional Herbalism Intensive, our herbal free clinic, local community empowerment initiatives and non-profits, and the costs of running the Open House.
This year, proceeds from the Open House will go primarily to our Scholarship Fund for the Greenspell Herbalism Intensive and to support and subsidize our Herbal Free Clinic which provides no-fee consultations and a discount on custom herbal formulas for individuals who may not be able to afford the full price of a private consultation. Scroll down below to see other ways these funds are allocated!
What your dollars support:
Herbal Free Clinic
The Herbal Free Clinic provides no-fee consultations and a discount on herbal products for individuals who may not be able to afford the full price of a holistic herbal consultation. Eventually, we’d love for the clinic to be entirely Free (including custom herbal formulations). Revenue from the open house will help us get to that point.
Greenspell Intensive Scholarships
Currently, we are only able to offer two partial scholarships each year for people who would like to participate in the Foundations in Bioregional Herbalism Course. Eventually we’d like to offer full scholarships for those interested, but who otherwise wouldn’t have the means to attend. Revenue from the open house supports this possibility.
Free Herbal Products for Indigenous Folks
The plant-based remedies we make through First Curve Apothecary are meant to offer healing with as few barriers as possible, particularly for those who have been overlooked due to oppressive systemic racism and marginalization.
As an herbalist working with and on lands sustained for millennia by Indigenous people, I believe it is important to offer back medicine that I could have never created were it not for the stewardship, knowledge, and care of these Indigenous groups. Towards this end, I offer free product to Indigenous people.
At the moment, we are only able to sustainably offer a limited amount of free herbal product, but your contributions through our open house will allow us to increase our offerings.
Future Stewardship Initiatives
One of our long-term goals is to deepen ecological stewardship in the Chicago Region and surrounding areas. We also hope to offer education and skill development related to ecological stewardship.
Revenue from the open house will allow us to orient our efforts toward developing our stewardship initiatives and inviting our community to learn more about stewardship at whatever scale possible.
Greenspell Education Center
A physical location and land to learn in-person, hands on, and in the presence of other curious human beings is in the works! This also requires a lot of resources, and we are trying to avoid taking on debt or inviting in outside investors at all costs, so your support will bring us one step closer to making this happen for our community!