Whisk Broom Workshop

Sunday, March 8th, 2026 from 1PM - 4:00PM CST

at the La Terre Institute for Community and Ecology in Kiln, MS

Spend an afternoon learning the Appalachian craft of broom making!

This class is open to total beginners as well as professional crafters. Participants will design and make an angel wing style whisk broom using traditional broom corn straw and natural cordage. Whisk brooms are useful, attractive, and make great environmentally friendly tools for tending to a space. They are great for quickly cleaning tables and countertop surfaces or can be used to clean dust, dirt, and cobwebs from hard-to-reach spaces where a big broom can't get, such as behind kitchen appliances or toilets. Some people like to keep one in their car or near their fireplace to clean up ashes. They make excellent housewarming or wedding gifts and can also be used in a ritual or sacred space for energetic clearing purposes. If you've never had a whisk, you are missing out on the joy of using these beautiful, handcrafted tools!

When: Sunday, March 8th, 2025 from 1PM - 4:00PM

Location: La Terre Institute for Community and Ecology, Dedeaux, MS (more about La Terre Institute below)

Age limit: 15+ or with special permission of instructor.  

Please note: this class will exercise upper body muscles and will require use of both feet and hands while seated. There is a minimum of three participants in order to hold this event and a maximum of ten participants.

Cost: This workshop has three ticket price options: $60 for a standard ticket, $85 for a sponsor ticket to support equitable access, and pay-what-you-can equity tickets for people of the global majority (PGM) from racialized communities. Twenty percent of the ticket sales will be redistributed to a local First Nations organization (10%) and and African American reparations initiative (10%).

About Wild Earth Crafts: 🖤🤎🏳️‍⚧️🍉🪶Wild Earth Crafts supports DEI, LGBTQ+ rights, access for all bodies, a Free Palestine, Landback, decolonization and collective liberation 🖤🤎🏳️‍⚧️🍉🪶

About the Instructor: Frea Forager (pronounced FREE-yuh; she/they) helps people tap into the potent medicine of their own creativity and deepen their connection to the natural world through earth crafts. She is committed to fostering an equitable and liberatory approach to craft work. Her teaching thoughtfully explores how craft practices, education, and materials are connected to broader social issues such as historical and ongoing injustices, including land appropriation, indigenous displacement, and systemic inequality. She also shares ways she is actively engaging in efforts towards repair and positive change within the field. You can learn more about her and the work she does HERE.

Cancelation Policy: Refunds minus a $15 processing fee are available up to 15 days before the event. After that, a credit will be issued for a basket purchase or attendance at a future workshop

About La Terre Institute:  La Terre Institute for Community and Ecology is inspired by a love of the Earth, and of the Land on which we live, and by the desire to gain deeper knowledge of both and to defend both against all forms of domination and exploitation. We are guided by a recognition that we are now living in the midst of the Necrocene, the period of the 6th great mass extinction of life on Earth, of developing climate catastrophe, and of other major threats to the integrity of the biosphere. The Institute was founded in 2013 with the goals of promoting social and ecological regeneration, creating a cooperative, non-dominating Earth community, and preventing regional and global ecological collapse. In pursuit of these ends, we sponsor courses, workshops, conferences, training programs, and other activities in New Orleans, and on eighty-eight acres at Bayou La Terre Woodland Center, near Dedeaux, Mississippi. Our practical focus is the creation of primary communities rooted in personal and communal awakening, in practices of liberation and solidarity, and in an ethics of care for all beings. We see the immediate development of communities of awakening and care, liberation and solidarity, and of local, regional, and global networks consisting of communities of these communities, as the best hope not only for survival, but also for the greatest flourishing of humanity and the entire Earth Community.

A Note for Visitors, On Mindfulness & Care

The most useful guideline is to practice mindfulness and care while on the land. Pay attention to all the beings and phenomena that you experience. Thich Nhat Hanh has said that “the miracle is to walk the Earth” (La Terre) and that “mindfulness is the miracle which can call back in a flash our dispersed mind and restore it to wholeness so that we can live each minute of life.” Cultivate the clarity of your own (that is, Nature’s) mind. Through our awakened presence on the land, we learn to appreciate, care for, and nurture its goodness, beauty, and creativity.

Programs at Bayou La Terre

In addition to many programs in New Orleans, we have had the following activities on the land: Art & Sound Workshop; Daodejing Workshop; Earth Day Celebrations; Fall Equinox Celebrations; Leonard Cohen Weekend; Practice of the Wild Workshop; Shakti Ecofeminist Weekend; Spring Equinox Celebrations, Summer Solstice Celebrations; Thoreau Walden Weekend; and Winter Solstice Celebrations; in addition to barbecues, birdwatching, camping, creek walks, hikes, meditation, searching for snakes (and other reptiles and amphibians), trailblazing, and yoga.