Partner Q&As
Our community partners live the adage, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” Meet them and learn what motivates them, how they became involved in their work, and how their work reflects the “perennial turn.” Their stories help tell the story of New Perennials’ work in Vermont. Check back often—interviews are added monthly.
“A large part of the perennial connection at All Souls is giving people the opportunity to wake up, be alert to what’s happening around them, and to help them connect with the cycles of the natural world.”
—Rev. Don Chatfield, director at All Souls Interfaith Gathering
“I am drawn to the yet to be realized potential of this living relational New Perennials Project network. I am interested in questions, conversations, and enactments examining how we can align ourselves with life. I am drawn to noticing relationships across disciplines and am stunned by the gifts of the local folks in this network and the possibility to play and collaborate.”
—Cameron Davis, artist and educator
“I am thinking a lot about prepositions—with, in, for, about. That to me is the connection. It’s not the stuff, but our relationships to the stuff—the network of relationships that create conditions for that. … What are the conditions and the long-term commitment to being rooted in a place? How do you adapt as things change?”
—Emily Hoyler, educator and facilitator
“It’s about returning to practices and ways of being that are in harmony and are non-hierarchical. I believe we need to draw from collective wisdom.”
—Saifa Hussain, chaplain and educator at Middlebury College
“I have noticed that when I encourage other people to develop the skills and the consciousness and the tenacity to stick with themselves and learn how to trust themselves, that foundation is not just healing, it also serves them no matter what they do.”
—Meghan Rigali, creative arts and education at Willowell Foundation
“What I’m most interested in is not thinking about education as something that is cut off from the rest of living. John Dewey has this great quote: ‘Education is not preparation for life, education is life.’ One of the ideas embedded in that is that schools are places where these big ideas actually happen in real time. The solution comes from interdependence and the ways we can bring it all together.”
—Matt Schlein, founder and director of both the Walden Project