Connections Across the Years as RUX Alumni Gather

Happy Summer Solstice! We hope you are finding joy in the transition of spring to summer across Kentucky. Looking back at our RUX Spring, in April we enjoyed the first KY RUX Alumni Homecoming Weekend Gathering at Rough River Dam State Resort Park, in Grayson County!

Alumni from across Kentucky, and across the last nine years, came together to share stories and be present in shared space. In a “Choose Your Own Adventure” format, Alumni led workshops in making cyanotypes, writing epistle poems, weaving mini Kentucky coverlets, making self-watering planters, nature writing, orienteering, flag dancing, and learning about wildflower herbalism. RUX Alumni led adventures including a farm visit and food making, a pilgrimage to Bill Monroe’s Homeplace, a bangolele workshop, a medicinal plant walk, and collage card-making.

Together we made art, learned about the plants, people, and places around Rough River; we wrote, listened, sang, ate, and played. We met RUXer’s families, friends, and dogs! We even our very first RUX children’s story circle. RUX Alumni shared our talents in an incredible evening showcase, shared stories and songs around a campfire, learned about RUX's new Kentucky Intercultural Micro-grant Program, and were delighted by an array of offerings in our RUX Makers Market—from plants to poems! It was a weekend that spoke to the deep connections that RUX has built and continues to build across our Commonwealth.