Our ancestors sat beneath the full moon around a fire and explained the sacredness of life, nature, and spirit through the art of storytelling. Their stories provide the guidelines for inner peace, spiritual education, and communal action. The Aztecs told their stories through poetry that was born from a flowering need to express their soul. In the African Diaspora, myths and stories are housed in the body of cowrie shells, stones, seeds, and bones. When these are cast, the voice of the Divine is heard, and the community contemplates the mysteries of creation, applying to contemporary life the wisdom that emerges.

Did you know that the seeds of a powerful new world are growing every moment? Enjoy creative dialogue and experiential exercises designed to shift your attention from what is dying to what is being born. Discover how you can tap into this evolutionary energy and contribute your passion to our world.

Belvie Rooks is an African American woman whose family story of enslavement is chronicled in The Seeds of Sally Good'n: A Black Family in Arkansas, 1833 - 1953. Thomas DeWolf, a white male descendant of the most successful slave-trading family in U.S. history, retraces his ancestors' steps through the notorious Triangle Trade in his memoir Inheriting the Trade. You're invited to join them in a deeper conversation about race. Explore the hidden slave history of the North and how the traumas of that era still reverberate today. Join the urgent call for honest and opened-hearted dialogue in a nation ready for healing.

Coumba Touré has participated in and been instrumental in facilitating hundreds of educational workshops, gatherings, and struggles for social change around the world. In this session, she welcomes you into an exciting conversation about bridging divides and navigating through the diverse worlds on our interconnected planet.

In this session we will begin by watching an inspirational video of Van Jones. Tony will then discuss how President Obama’s economic stimulus plan is redefining the landscape of community development. Tony brings a fresh collaborative approach to activism, and sees the New Green Deal as an opportunity for us to mobilize the resources that are truly renewable: hope, compassion and creativity, in order to build a resilient community. There will be time for discussion on this most important topic.

Matthew Gilbert will host a paradigm-shifting movie produced by one of today's leading visionary filmmakers. Films will be announced in the onsite program; or check the website for the most up-to-date information.

As Chip Conley has written in PEAK, his best-selling book, peak-performing organizations create peak experiences for all those they come into contact with. In this workshop, you will learn how you can focus on the Hierarchy of Needs for your employees and customers.

The mystery of healing in Curanderismo lies within the earth, the heavens, the stars, and the sacred four directions. Come and learn the fundamentals of Curanderismo, an ancient and culturally rich health care system that helps you to remember what you have lost and reconnect to your true nature.

Join us to deliberately weave individual and collective learning. Expand your network of inspired allies and friends. Engage with tools from Appreciative Inquiry, World Cafe, Open Space Technology, and the Art of Hosting. Help navigate the changes facing IONS and live into the opportunities. Bring your stories, wicked questions, honesty, passion, and openness to being a community of practice.

This workshop weaves together Florence Nightingale's (1820 - 1910) legacy, science, and art to increase our understanding of being a global citizen activist at our deepest and highest expression of self, nature, and culture as we work together to create a healthy world by 2020.