Dear friends of YIP,
We hope this Newsletter finds you well!
Throughout the month of May, the yellow dandelion flowers that sprinkled the green field turn into fluffy white puffs, flying off into the distance with a light brush from the wind. As always, the Yippies gather every morning for singing and announcements, before flying off like the dandelion seeds into the day to take root in their own projects. May is the period of self-design curriculum. The morning announcement round becomes one of the few time when the whole group gathers in the same space.
During the self design curriculum, Yippies are free to follow their own interests and dive into specific topics of learning. The group can use their budget to invite in contributors, as well as host workshops for each other. It is also a time to further develop and finalise their personal initiative project, which they have to present at the end of the month. In the first week, the group invited Paul Mathews to lead them in creative writing. The second week we had the pleasure to explore the four temperaments through masks with Mike Chase as well as songwriting with Nancy Ackroyd. All the while, Yippies hosted different workshops for each other, ranging from contact improvisation to writing and grounding in nature. In addition, there were also art exhibitions and a one woman theatre play.
This is a dynamic month, not just with the drastically shifting spring weather, but everyday the schedule looks different. Like colourful spring flowers, filling the landscape, painted green by the grey rain clouds, liveliness fills the campus during this month.
written by Jasmine Pan
In this newsletter you will find:
– Gardening Week: Opening the Garden written by Gabrielle Arnold
– Self-Designed Curriculum: Writing Creatively with Paul Mathews written by Nele Goertz
– Self-Designed Curriculum: Mask Workshop with Mike Chase written by Heda Chaloupková
– Self-Designed Curriculum: Creative Song Writing Workshop with Nancy Ackroyd
written by Clara Cruz-Marquez
– Personal Initiative Project: Going into the roots of Femininity written by Ada Asinari di San Marzano
– Personal Initiative Project: PLUM written Branwen Clay
– Alumni Project: Terranu – A Place to Root, Regenerate, and Reimagine written by Pieter Ploeg
Gardening Week: Opening the Garden
Waking up, opening the curtain, sun pouring in,
Sleepy eyes, service hour,
Porridge, toast, peanut butter, peppermint tea,
Circle, faces, singing outside,
Tools out, lifting
Sand bags, wheel barrow full,
Uncoiling the yellow hose,
Opening, uncovering,
Watering, translucent, sparking in the sun,
Gentle breeze, ahh wind chime!
Spade, rake, turning, breaking up the soil,
Sore arms, good sore,
The garlic has sprouted!
So have the radish’s,
New life, sleeping life, waking up,
Life is waking up in the garden,
Digging lines, rows, holes,
Beds are readied,
Seeds, spinkling, planting, placing, sowing,
Carrots, Spinach, Fava beans – good for hummus
Onions, Poppy, Calendula, another slug!
Sweeping soil, covered, resting,
Fika in the sun, wind, some rain,
Laying in the grass, wild garlic olive oil, yum,
Chatter, close in, far away,
Wind through the trees, crunchy leaves,
Mud stuck to shoes, mud shoes, worm,
Spiral seeds, flower beds, dandelion, wild salad,
Cultivated care, intention, attention,
Potential, reflecting, connecting,
Alive in us, alive in the garden
I enjoyed this week in the garden facilitated by Aleksa. The garden beds started off quite dead and dry looking after the winter, but were slowly transformed throughout the week. As well as change being present in the garden, it was interesting to see the changes in the group after the beginning of the year gardening, then being away on outpost and internships, and the difference in feeling and dynamics now vs then. Everyone seems more at ease with each other now. This week was rich and full of learning and purposeful action, there were many small actions but together steadily the garden felt changed. I really enjoyed spending so much time outside, connecting with the earth, and fellow yippies. It was so nice to have Aleksa back again, she guided and held the week well, with care and intention. I feel excited to see how the garden continues to change and grow as the weather warms up over the coming weeks.
Written by Gabrielle Arnold
Self Designed Curriculum:
Writing Creatively with Paul Matthews
Last week we invited Paul Matthews for a creative writing workshop, or as he calls it “writing creatively.” Paul is a poet, gymnast and mentor. In the past he was a teacher for Creative Writing at Emerson College and is now working there on their Storytelling course.
Together with him we explored several exercises. Sometimes we worked in couples or in the whole group and other times, solo. One exercise I really enjoyed was when we had to write in a group of three about a thing in the room. One person had to write about the thing, another had to write a letter to the thing and the last had to write from the thing’s perspective. My group chose a crack on the wall. I wrote a letter to the crack on the wall. And it was surprising how many questions I had for it. And how I could even relate to it. After this exercise the crack on the wall was no longer just a crack on the wall anymore. Through writing about, to and from it, the crack gained aliveness that wasn’t there before.
From the beginning Paul put awareness on “loving the words” over and over again. It’s not about making sense or sounding good. It’s all about loving the words and playing with them. In fact he said “one has to be silly to let one’s soul speak”, which I think isn’t only an advice for writing creatively but also for living life. We tend to take things so seriously that we most likely communicate through our logical head. But being silly indicates braveness, joy, love, compassion… It’s coming from the heart which can only be true and honest.
Personally the three days with Paul were quite challenging because I tend to overthink when it comes to writing creatively. But rather than wanting something to look good and sound profound Paul’s methods helped me to let go of that for a bit and listen more closely to my intuition.
Written by Nele Goertz
Self Designed Curriculum:
Mask Workshop with Mike Chase
For our self designed curriculum we were lucky to have Mike Chase joining us for three days. We went on a journey of self exploration through learning about different temperaments living within us and shaping our personalities. Mike led us in the process of working with masks.
We started with looking into where temperaments are in our biography, between body and soul, and looked at the eternal in human being arising from the spiritual stream and hereditary stream of generations before us.
This workshop was very special to me, it was the first time I’ve worked with masks and it wasn’t only for theatrical purposes. Our first encounter was with the neutral mask. The neutral mask can strangely evoke a lot of feelings in us. Suddenly it is not the facial expression but the body language that matters. We did a simple but powerful action with the neutral mask, one person would wear the mask and then look into other people’s eyes, embodying the neutral field of being. This look could go beyond how we usually see that person. This look could show some parts of our souls.
The whole play with Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic and Phlegmatic temperaments was a lot of fun, because we got to experience how it feels to embody extreme qualities of all the temperaments and interact with each other as if we were fully one of these temperaments. For example, we all turned into Cholerics – fiery leaders who try to convince others to join their project: “This way, follow me!”
It was intriguing to investigate all these temperaments, how are they connected to elements (water, earth, fire, air) as well as natural kingdoms (mineral, plant, animal, human), what are they essential for and how life is so colourful thanks to them and their differences.
Walking on campus you could often hear yippies discussing who has which temperaments and how are we influenced by them in our actions and tendencies.
Throughout the workshop we had the opportunity to experiment also in more performative ways with masks. There were some very enjoyable scenes of witnessing how an extremely one sided temperament deals with a situation requiring completely different qualities. An extreme melancholic had to be an entertainer at a children’s party.
On the final day we could map our own temperament score and investigate where we would want to move one of our temperaments if we could have, which was quite a moving and vulnerable experience.
Additionally to morning workshops Mike also gave a talk on Karma and Reincarnation which is the topic of his ongoing research. Why do some meetings in my life seem to be so significant and influential, what is there we have to learn from each other? Did we have something to do with each other in our past incarnations?
Mike’s contribution raised a lot of questions in me. Not only questions but also widening my perspective on what’s beyond this life on earth. And I believe that it brought inspiration and ponderings to others as well.
Written by Heda Chaloupková
Self Designed Curriculum:
Creative Songwriting with Nancy Ackroyd
A little about Jasmine:
“How do I write a song? How can I share something so vulnerable? Will anyone want to hear it?”
These questions came into my mind when I first considered writing music. Nancy’s songwriting workshop became the perfect space to explore them with openness, creativity, and a lot of heart.
The session began with a short introduction where Nancy shared her songwriting journey and offered a little guidance to get us started. Then came our first exercise: 15 minutes alone to simply breathe and write. No pressure, no rules. “You can write a song just by looking out the window,” she told us. I took that to heart. I stared at the trees outside and began writing about them, and about how I felt at that moment. I’d never done that before. Turning just observations into a song and It’s something I want to keep doing.
Afterwards, we each found our own space; some in the garden, some in rooms or even in the stairwells. Nancy moved around us, checking in, listening, offering encouragement. By the end, we gathered in a circle to share our songs if we wanted to. Hearing everyone’s creations and sharing my own, was beautiful.
It’s easy to compare yourself in a space like this. To think other songs sound better. To doubt your voice. But it amazed me what came out. It was so special to hear others. I felt very grateful for being a participant in her workshop. Nancy’s calm, supportive presence helped us push past our comfort zones.
The week ended with a concert where we shared our original songs and Nancy performed as well. It was a highlight: a celebration of courage, creativity, and connection through music.
Written by Clara Cruz-Marquez
Personal Initiative Project: PLUM
“Leafryn is very honest with himself. I am too, but prefer a little sugar in my tea, a chocolate coating over the wounds. I think of the shadows dancing and try to catch them. I don’t think of you rotting. But I don’t just think of you beautiful either. Though you did have angelic tendencies, you were also very neurotic and grumpy. I was jealous. You were jealous. You said our dolls were prettier then each other. I rested my snotty wet face on your cold breast and said I love you. I said “wake up.” But I’m not awake. I keep forgetting we’re all one. I still think of you as dead just because you are. And I’ll twist myself in spirals of philosophical mind games, but it’s no use. My animal of a body grieves yours.”
– PLUM, the play
My play was written crying in the toilet in India before bucket-washing myself with cold water. When I returned to Sweden, it was almost ready. One of my inspirations, Pheobe Waller-Bridge, had finished writing her one woman show on the plane to her first performance. So I didn’t feel too much pressure to finish, but was relieved when it was ready weeks before. Then, I just had to learn the lines, book the Kulturhuset stage and make posters.
I went to the woods. It was funny being completely alone reading my play, knowing in the weeks to come I will be in front of loads of people. It begged the question: who would I be if no one looked at me?
For the ending I decided the best thing to do would be to say goodbye to my dead sister then for a girl who looks like her to come on stage and slow dance with me while a cello, a violin, a grand piano, a guitar, an opera singer and three other beautiful singers performed “Where the Wild Roses Grow” by Nick Cave. This was the perfect song, as it has the line “all beauty must die.”
It all went great. Everyone was crying. My performance was 7 out of 10, but in general I’m happy.
Written by Branwen Clay
Personal Initiative: Project Going Into the Roots of Femininity
How can a woman flourish at her fullest potential?
How can you be a feminist without knowing what the menstrual cycle is?
Growing up in the center of Barcelona, and hearing all types of demonstrations every week, I never felt drawn to the feminist movement that surrounded me. In secret, I did not consider myself a feminist. The problem, I find, is that the feminist movement we are exposed to is only feeding this inequality. It is once again designed from a misogynistic point of view. Women saying they want to be like a man, everything needs to be the same. For me, Feminism starts by acknowledging that men and women are not the same, that I find, is the divine balance; the moon and sun, the yin and yang…
In the attempt to be like a man, women are experiencing burnouts. Women are gifted with having a cycle which works in tune with the cycle of nature, our reality is ever changing, it is cyclic as is our productivity. So, I think that feminism starts by acknowledging ourselves, by tuning into our bodies again. This project has been completely out of my comfort zone, I felt so uncomfortable at the beginning even explaining what my project was about. I then realized the shame constructed by society that I carried within me. I was able to start my journey of healing and learning. I researched and interviewed powerful women in India, Zimbabwe and here in Sweden which made me realize how ignorant I was, and still am. We women are gifted with being able to sync our cycle to our lives to increase our energy and productivity. Why did I not know this? Why do most women here in YIP not know the four phases of the menstrual cycle and how to use it for their benefit? I believe that to make change, you need to start from within, no matter in what way you are trying to sell an idea, if you are not applying it yourself, it is useless.
For my project, I did a 2 hour workshop where I shared what I learned about feminine and masculine energy, and how to go back into the roots of our femininity to connect with the gifts -now forgotten- that come by being a woman. My project consists of two parts, the first one is this theory which I wish to share through workshops, the second part is a lingerie brand to cover the finances of the workshops I would do. The reason I chose it to be a lingerie brand is because I love sewing and I wanted to challenge myself by making underwear which I have never done before. Using vibrant and natural fabrics I got during our outpost in India I am currently sewing different sets. During this project I wanted to include a creative practice, and I am exploring the archetype of powerful and wild woman through funky lingerie. Right now, I am finishing my fourth underwear set, and next week I will be doing photoshoots with the amazing and powerful women that I have the luck to live with here in YIP.
Written by Ada Asinari di San Marzano
Alumni Project:
Terranu – A Place to Root, Regenerate, and Reimagine
Terranu is a small farm project in the hills of south east of Ireland. Here we are exploring what it means to care for land, grow good food, and live more in rhythm with nature. We have been here for over two years and are slowly finding our way as we plant trees, tend berries and vegetables, learning a lot as we go.
The dream of this place started years ago, in the time after YIP. Nakyta and I met during YIP2. We were both inspired by spiritual ecology, nature connection, and regenerative agriculture. After organising the Summer of Soil back in 2013 with a team of YIP organisers and alumni, we knew we wanted to create a place where people could gather, learn, and live with these questions. It took a while to find the right land, but eventually we landed here in Ireland. The name Terranu comes from Terra, which means earth, and Anu (or Danu), the ancient Irish earth goddess. For us, it speaks to both the physical land we’re working with, and a deeper connection to the spirit of place.
Right now, it’s mostly the two of us and our 3 children and 35 animals (goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, cats, dog) running things, but we’re slowly opening up to volunteers. We are planting an edible landscape with Aronia berries, fruit trees, cobnuts and other perennial crops, and experimenting with ways of farming that build soil and support biodiversity. There’s a lot of practical work—fencing, mulching, composting, caring for animals—and it’s also about relationships: with the land, with each other, and with the bigger story of regeneration that we want to be part of.
We’re not an education centre (yet!), but we love having people around. We have just finished building a small volunteer cabin. In the coming years, we hope many people will pass through—whether to help out, learn a skill, share a meal, or just breathe a little deeper in the quiet of this beautiful valley.
If any of this speaks to you, you’re warmly invited to get in touch. The door’s open, the kettle’s on, and there’s always something to do!
More info or to contact us: www.terranu.ie
Written by Pieter Ploeg (YIP2)
In the next newsletter you will find:
– Personal Initiative Project: Presentation Week
– Outdoor Experience
– Reflection of the Year
– After YIP
– Alumni Project
