Medicine for the People

The Spirit of the Space and the Teachings -

We hold an earth-honoring, liberation-oriented approach to community and to herbalism.

This means that we acknowledge and actively work to dismantle systemic harm (such as racism, classism, transphobia, etc) to create a mutually safe space/experience and greater access to life-sustaining care, education, medicines, and relationships.

We are blessed to gather and learn together with an amazing cohort of people who share in these common values and breathe joy into the experience of building community resilience.

What You’ll Learn and Come Away With

How to make your own medicines!

Learn to identify, grow, respectfully harvest and wildcraft many common local medicinal plants.

Come away with medicines and know-how to build a beautiful and nutritional kitchen apothecary and stock your home apothecary - with teas, infusions, vinegars, oxymels, electuaries, tinctures, infused oils, salves/balms, and flower essences.

Not only will you take home a starter kit apothecary from the medicines we make in our time together you will also gain the solid ability to prepare these medicines again in the future.

The Calendar - 9 Weeks of Herbal Magic! Please NOTE: we meet 7 Monday evenings and 2 Sunday daytimes

Three Mondays, April 21, 28, and May 5 - 7:00-9:00 PM

Sunday, May 11 - 9:00 AM -12:00 PM Mother’s Day

Three Mondays, May 19, 26, and June 2 - 7:00-9:00

Sunday - June 8 - 1:00 - 4:00 PM

Monday, June 16 - 7:00 - (:00 ish - Culminating Class, Apothecary Dissemination, and Solstice Celebration

You download a printable version of the calendar here.

Reciprocity and Cost - We hold a firm commitment to accessibility and want to work with people

Base Level Offering - 400.00
Community Care Contributor Level 1- 450.00
Community Care Contributor Level 2 - 500.00

Partial and Full Scholarships Available - Scholarship Policy - scholarships are available and prioritized for Black, Indigenous, trans, queer, disabled people, or those who need relief from systemic cultural violence. Please don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know your interest and circumstances.

Our Fee Structure - we are a small grassroots intersectional (queer, Black, Trans, working class) and intergenerational community-building org. Not only does our core crew need to be paid, but we also ask our community of participants to share responsibility for making these offerings available to those who could not otherwise afford them. Whether you are new to economic redistribution or collective care or very familiar when deciding where to pay on the scale, please read through these resources we have created to help you navigate your decision.

Thank you for supporting our work.

community care writing and scholarship info

Who’s Facilitating? - ShuNahSii Rose (she/her) - Welcome to this foray into earth-honoring herbalism. For me, it has always been essential to have a sense of the values and practices of teachers and communities I’m considering working with. Hopefully, the character of our community is already shining through, and, here’s a bit about my personal foundation, orientation, and commitment to liberation-oriented, earth-honoring, community herbalism.

I began my study of herbal medicine, out of necessity, in the early 80s in inner-city Chicago. The call to original medicine was born of both, my innate love for plants, and my familial/community need for affordable, accessible care. While my study began in books and with my work at a little herb shop on Halsted Street, soon after this, at eighteen, my passion for herbal medicine blew open when I went on my first inner-city herb walk with Rosita Arvigo. Learning to identify medicinal plants that we were tripping over daily and to make affordable and safe medicinal preparations was life-changing and Rosita became my first Herb Mother.

Soon after, I met one of my primary foundational Herb Mothers, Anishinaabe Grandmother and Ethnobotanist, Keewaydinoquay. Kee was a mentor, remarkable teacher, and dear family friend until her passing seventeen years after our meeting (she remains an uppity and engaged ancestor). While I have immense respect for clinical herbalists and the role they can play in the tapestry of care for our communities - I also believe firmly in ordinary people learning the basics of herbal medicinal knowledge and preparations. Earth-honoring folk herbalism as hands-on training in the field is my foundational orientation to practice and education. Medicine for the People helps people learn to identify, grow, respectfully harvest, process, and preserve a plethora of simple home remedies to stock medicine cabinets, strengthen resilience, and empower communities.

Community Participation - How we Learn Together - In 2020, we began both - The Plants are Calling (a year-long intimate apprenticeship) and The Community Food Forest at Leslie Park - a mutual aid public project that serves as a demonstration garden and provides free education, sanctuary, seasonal celebrations and harvests of culinary and medicinal herbs as well as cutting flowers and fruits. The Plants are Calling core apprenticeship has evolved into a tight-knit ongoing educational community, many apprentices have stayed with us since the beginning and will be joining us for aspects of Medicine for the People.