nurturing the relationship between spirituality and social justice
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Contact us
by e-mail at
leavencenter@leaven.org
by mail at Leaven
P.O. Box 97
Lyons, MI 48851
or by phone at
989/855-2606.
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Upcoming Events
We encourage you to participate in the following events sponsored or led by Leaven. For more information about an event, you may call us at the Leaven Center office, (989) 855-2606, write us at Leaven, P.O. Box 97, Lyons, MI 48851 or e-mail us at leavencenter@leaven.org. The Leaven Center is near Lyons, Michigan, midway between Lansing and Grand Rapids.
There are two ways for you to register. You can register on-line by VISA, Discover, or MasterCard, paying the full amount of the registration fee by credit card. Or you can print out a registration form and send it by mail to our post office box. If you register by mail, you have a choice of making the specified deposit to hold your space, or you may send a check for the entire registration fee. Partial scholarships are available for all events.
Leaven Center Calendar
July 24-27. Getting Real! For Boys 12-15 Years Old, with Neil Byrne, William Copeland, Joe Reilly, and Alex Wilson
July 28 - 31. GrrrlFest ~ An Annual Event Just for Girls, with Sarah Cleaver, Jessi De La Cruz, Chris Pereira, and Naadirah Nicole Shapely
August 13-17. Telling the Truth About Our Lives ~ The Art of Autobiographical Writing, with Anya Achtenberg and Demetria Martinez
August 30. First Annual Alternative Family Reunion.
October 24-26. Doing Our Own Work: A Seminar for Anti-Racist White People, with Melanie Morrison and Aaron Wilson-Ahlstrom. (continues December 5-7 and January 16-18, 2009)
July 24-27, 2008
Getting Real! For Boys 12-15 Years Old
Getting Real! is an opportunity for young men between the ages of 12 and 15 to enjoy a fun and enriching weekend experience in a supportive and positive environment. Over the past five years this program has encouraged young men to build healthy relationships with themselves, each other, their families and communities, and the earth. In this climate of brotherhood, participants learn from each other, enjoy the outdoors, discover ways to handle the challenges that young men face in the world today, and have fun together!
Activities include drumming, shelter building, group games, creative writing, fire-building, personal reflection time, hiking, and free time. As we play, learn, and have fun together, we will share our own experiences and celebrate our diversity, enriching our journeys towards adulthood and celebrating our life paths.
Getting Real! provides a unique opportunity for young men to grow and learn together, and to enjoy being themselves in a space just for boys. This time together will be guided by Joe Reilly, William Copeland, Neil Byrne, and Alex Wilson, each of whom has extensive experience in youth leadership and strong enthusiasm for nurturing meaningful learning experiences with young people. At the request of boys from previous years, we have extended this year’s Getting Real! to make it a four-day event.
Event for boys 12-15
Leaders: William Copeland, Joe Reilly, Neil Byrne, and Alex Wilson
Time: Thursday, 3 pm – Sunday, 3 pm
Cost: $215 ($50 deposit; $165 balance due)
Neil Byrne is currently serving as the Coordinator of Service Learning Opportunities at The Leaven Center. His work here includes the coordination of a program designed to offer volunteers and participants opportunities for leadership development and to provide them a supportive environment in which to build authentic relationships across differences through service. Neil brings to this work first hand experience with, and a passion to interrupt, the cycle of inherited damage that occurs when men follow and impose a narrow definition of manhood. He is committed to supporting and advancing social justice, and has completed anti-oppression trainings at The Leaven Center addressing sexism, racism and disability rights.
William Copeland is a poet and cultural organizer. He has presented workshops at schools and programs including Detroit, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Adrian, Romulus, Highland Park, middle and high schools in Minnesota, and Michigan’s Prison Creative Arts Program. He is a board member of the Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership, one of the founders of the Detroit Artist-Activist Community Dialogues, and a consultant for nonprofits on using art to amplify their messages. He works as a Program Director for University of Michigan’s SERVE, advising college students in community service, learning, and social justice projects.
Joe Reilly is a singer, songwriter, and environmental educator at the Leslie Science Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In addition to teaching and performing his music to audiences throughout the Midwest, Joe leads talking circles for boys at American Indian Health and Family Services in Detroit and writes music with the Scholars Together Learning Community in Royal Oak. Joe has offered instructional and inspirational workshops on songwriting, guitar, and environmental justice for a variety of communities. His way of working with people is empowering and educational.
To print and send registration form
To register on-line and pay by credit card
July 28-July 31, 2008
GrrrlFest ~ An Annual Event Just for Girls Age 10-14
A time for girls, ages 10-14, to be together engaging in activities like: creating music, art, and poetry, having fun outdoors, making pizzas, playing games, and lots more. At previous GrrrlFests, there have also been valuable conversations about friendships, developing a girl’s own opinions about beauty, making healthy choices, and affirming unique gifts and talents. This event will be girls’ space – a place to share dreams and talk about what’s great and what’s hard about being a girl.
The retreat will bring together young women from different parts of the United States and Canada and will be led by four feminist women who understand how crucial it is for girls to develop positive and healthy self-images and form relationships with women who can serve as mentors. At the request of girls from previous years, we have extended this year’s GrrrlFest to make it a four-day event.
Event for girls 10-14
Leaders: Sarah Cleaver, Jessi De La Cruz, Chris Pereira, and Naadirah-Nicole Shapeley
Time: Monday, 3 pm – Thursday, 1 pm
Cost: $215 ($50 deposit + $165 balance due)
Sarah Cleaver is a former Leaven Center staff member who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She helped to lead the first GrrrlFest at The Leaven Center in August 2004. She co-facilitated and participated in various workshops during the two and a half years she spent at Leaven, but she shares that GrrrlFest was definitely a huge highlight. Sarah has spent the past three years writing music and touring the country as half of the duo Nervous But Excited. She is greatly looking forward to coming back to The Leaven Center this summer to help lead this event.
Jessi De La Cruz is a Leaven Center staff member. She has worked with youth in a number of non-profit groups since graduating from Michigan State University with a degree in journalism in 1998. Most recently, she co-facilitated an Alateen group, which is a support group for youth who have been affected by the disease of alcoholism. She enjoys writing poetry, hanging out with her cat, Parker, and listening to music. She is currently working on her certification as a massage therapist and applying for graduate studies in the area of social work. This will be her second year leading GrrrlFest.
Chris Pereira helped to lead GrrrlFest in the summer of 2007. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a BA in Women’s Studies and Political Science and moved to Michigan to pursue graduate school. She is about to start work on her dissertation in the Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy program at Michigan State University. Chris is passionate about social justice and peace education, dancing, poetry and living life to the fullest, and is excited to be a part of the GrrrlFest team again this year.
Naadirah-Nicole Shapley lives in the Chicago area, where she works as a pre-school teacher and Diversity Advocate. She holds a BS in Family Community Services from Michigan State University. Naadirah-Nicole grew up in a multi-racial household as a transracially adopted child. She is passionate about all forms of social justice, especially the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, and is a poet and writer of reflective prose. Among her favorite activities are times spent outdoors and with her family that is scattered from North Carolina to British Columbia.
August 13-17, 2008
Telling the Truth about Our Lives
~ The Art of AutobiographyOur lives are works-in-progress. How we write about our lives allows us to feel our way forward into the future and to locate where we are as individuals set in a particular historical moment. Putting our stories into writing helps to make more vivid a story “map” that spiderwebs through time and space, clarifying and deepening our own stories by revealing their relationship to the stories of others.
This workshop will give you the tools you need to tell your story in the context of a supportive community. We will do many writing explorations to bring forth this rich storytelling capacity within each of us. We will examine issues of memory, how we reframe a story with each telling, working to discover its meaning and power to heal on both the personal and communal level. We will also explore ways to honor/write about that which we can’t remember – due to factors such as trauma or unknown family history – so that the struggle with memory, where useful, can become part of our narrative.
There will be room for many kinds of writing and many kinds of writers. We will read, write, and share our writing with one another (by choice, never by obligation). Through the process of our own writing, as well as listening to the words of other writers, we will give birth to the stories we have always wanted to write.
Leaders: Anya Achtenberg and Demetria Martinez
Time: Wednesday, 7 pm – Sunday, 1 pm
Cost: $325 ($100 deposit and $225 balance due)
Anya Achtenberg lives in Minnesota, teaches creative writing and is creator of the Writing for Social Change: Re-Dream a Just World workshops. Her numerous literary prizes in fiction and poetry, include Coppola’s Zoetrope: All-Story, New Letters, Southern Poetry Review and Another Chicago Magazine. Her works include: The Stone of Language (West End Press, 2004); The Stories of Devil-girl, (novella on CD, 2003); and a completed novel, Floor Plan of Paradise, excerpted in Harvard Review. She is writing a novel centered on a Cambodian woman born as the bombing of Cambodia begins.
Demetria Martinez of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the author of a novel, Mother Tongue, winner of a Western States Book Award for fiction; and three collections of poetry, including Breathing Between the Lines. Her autobiographical essays, Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana, was the winner of the 2006 International Latino Book Award in the category of Best Biography. She is summer writing faculty at the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at UMass Boston. She lectures widely and writes a column about social justice issues for the National Catholic Reporter.
August 30, 2008
Leaven's First Alternative Family Reunion
- Potluck BBQ (Leaven will provide burgers, hotdogs and beverages)
- Games! (Ball Toss, Cake Walk, Bean Bag Toss and more!)
- Entertainment all day!
- Guided Nature Walk, Crafts, Rope Swing Rides and more!
- Rededication of the Meditation Circle - purchase a brick today!
- Stay the weekend at the Lodge for a discounted price! Please make a reservation; limited space available.
For more information, call Jessi De La Cruz at 989-855-2606 or e-mail jessimdelacruz@leaven.org.
Time: Saturday, 12 noon to nighttime
Place: The Leaven Center
Cost: Free -- bring a dish to pass!
October 24-26, 2008, December 5-7, 2008, and January 16-18, 2009
Doing Our Own Work: A Seminar for Anti-Racist White People
Doing Our Own Work is an intensive seminar for white people who seek to deepen their commitment to confronting and challenging white racism where they live and work. It is our experience and conviction that those of us who are white need to "do our own work" -- educating ourselves, confronting white supremacy, holding each other accountable, and demonstrating good faith as we seek to build genuine and lasting coalitions with people of color. Doing Our Own Work seminar is designed as a supplement to, not a substitute for, contexts where people of diverse races and ethnicities discuss and strategize together how racism can be challenged.
Utilizing input from the leaders, reading assignments, videos, group discussion, and structured exercises, we will explore the following topics and issues:
- Individual racism, institutional racism, and cultural racism
- White privilege and unearned advantage
- Claiming and shaping an anti-racist identity
- How to be an effective anti-racist ally
- Discerning our spiritual resources for change
- Practicing the skills of interrupting racism
- Strategies for institutional change
Providing more than 45 hours of "class time," the seminar utilizes an action/reflection method of learning: our study and reflection will be grounded in anti-racist action and our action will be strengthened and refined by reflection, study, and conversation. The action/reflection components of this seminar will include:
- Identification by each participant of a "sphere of influence" or constituency that will serve as her/his focus during the seminar;
- Assessment of where and how racism is present in this constituency;
- Development of an action plan and time table that identifies ways that the participant can work, in collaboration with others, to challenge white racism and strengthen anti-racist commitment in her/his constituency;
- Checking in with the group to receive feedback and encouragement and to amend the action plan where appropriate;
- Keeping a journal of daily experiences, insights, concerns, and questions regarding racism and anti-racism.
The facilitators are committed to working with the participants to create a respectful, loving, and truth-telling environment where we may bring our whole selves to this vitally important work.
Leaders: Melanie Morrison and Aaron Wilson-Ahlstrom
Time: Friday, 7 pm – Sunday, 1 pm
Cost: To be announced. The balance may be paid in installments over the course of the seminar. The cost includes program, resource materials, lodging, and meals for three weekends.
Melanie Morrison is Director of Allies for Change and a seasoned anti-oppression educator and activist with 20 years experience designing and facilitating transformational group process. Melanie is passionate about working with individuals and organizations to better understand the connections between systemic oppressions and to nurture collaborative action and authentic relationship across differences such as race, age, gender, abilities, and sexual orientation. She believes it is possible to grow ever more aware of the depth and complexity of injustice without surrendering our capacity for compassion, joy, and hope. She has led numerous anti-racism seminars and workshops. This will be her 15th year of facilitating the Doing Our Own Work seminar.
Aaron Wilson-Ahlstrom is a teacher who is passionate about the role of schools in working for social justice. He works for the Henry Ford Learning Institute, a small non-profit that is developing a network of small, innovative charter schools based on the Henry Ford Academy in Dearborn, Michigan. Aaron believes that racism is present everywhere and, while it does not oppress white people, it does damages them by making white people complicit in the oppression of people of color. He sees anti-racism work as critically important if white people are regain their collective humanity. In addition to being a facilitator of Doing Our Own Work, Aaron is a community training partner with the Michigan State University Extension multicultural awareness program.