The Mycelium Underground (TMU) is an interspecies assemblage devoted to supporting resilience within bioregional communities. Working primarily in the interface between humans and fungi, we facilitate the exchange of knowledge between communities. Our goal is to co-create alternative pathways that resist capitalism and its attack on all life, and to bring a critical approach to science and education that is based in multiple ways of knowing. We celebrate and advocate the interconnectedness of all persons and cycles.
The New Moon Mycology Summit:
The New Moon Mycology Summit is a gathering for communal learning around environmental + social justice through the lens of fungi. With 50+ presenters from various fields, this multi-day outdoor event offers interdisciplinary workshops, panel discussions, and skill-shares to bring a critical approach to science and education based in multiple ways of knowing.
The New Moon Mycology Summit operates on a redistribution-oriented gift economy. Admission to the event is donation-based and sliding scale, pay-what-you-can, with no one turned away for lack of funds. We prioritize redistribution along the lines of ability and need, and encourage people with the means to contribute more toward admittance to support scholarships, travel stipends, and event costs. Funds collected through registration go directly toward covering total operational costs: paying presenters and contributors, food, the kitchen crew, material needs for the event, and scholarship funds for travel and other needs, so that we are able to operate without offsetting costs and hold space for scholarships. Much of the food that fuels the summit is donated by farms in the bioregion, and other food is rescued from going to waste. Volunteers assist with all aspects of organizing + putting on the event, from set-up to breakdown, tech support to sanitation.
In a world where the dominant paradigm seeks to commodify all life and value money and profit over everything, we seek to co-create a space that embodies a mutualistic, liberated way of building together that decentralizes capital and knowledge, and shows that a different way of working and sharing together is possible.