 Brian Linus Ngatunga first came to Asheville, NC in the spring of 2017 as part of LEAF International. Along with others from Tanzania, Rwanda, and Haiti, Brian spent the week before the LEAF festival visiting schools and community centers to share about his culture, music, and life. Brian also performed at the LEAF festival, making many friends and special memories during his time at LEAF that included his time with Dr. Bob’s family.
The Hanna family visited Rwanda and Tanzania in the summer of 2018 and had the good fortunes to spend the day with Brian in Arusha where Brian was attending his final year of secondary school. Brian was a gracious host and a helpful interpreter of Swahili, the traditional language of his nation. Brian gave us a tour of his school, Ilboru Secondary School, where Brian was the founder and leader of the Inspiration Team as well as many academic, social, and community clubs. Brian regularly writes articles for his blog, Motivational Corner, that focus on helping people be their best selves.
Brian remained in contact with the Hanna family and wanted to explore the possibility coming to the United States to continue his education. Brian discovered Foreign Links Around The Globe (FLAG), a licensed exchange program that provided him with the necessary visa and supervision to live with Hanna family for the school year. Brian is a junior at Asheville High School where he has challenging academic classes and sings in the A capello choir. Brian is also part of LEAF Schools and Streets where he spends time with Asheville Middle School students teaching about his culture, music, and dance.
Enjoy this one-hour LEAF where Brian talks about his country of Tanzania, adjusting to life in the USA, living with the Hanna family, and his passion for making the world a better place and helping people aspire to be their best selves.
Living Well with Brian Linus Ngatunga on AshevilleFM, December 30, 2019
Madelyn Ilana is a singer/songwriter, violinist, music teacher, energetic herbalist, and practitioner of Body Dialogue™, a unique form of somatic education and therapy.
With a deep connection to earth and to her body, Madelyn writes music inspired by nature, both inner and outer. With a creative range including dreamy vocals and songwriting, looped ambient violin tracks, eco-feminist hip hop, and spoken word poetry, Madelyn intends to share music as a way of connecting us all to our deepest selves, one another, and the life all around us.
Madelyn will be releasing a new album, Awake Dreaming on November 17th @ Ambrose West.
Enjoy this one-hour Living Well where Madelyn talks about the inspiration for her music and new album!
Living Well with Madelyn Ilana on AshevilleFM, November 4, 2019
Kedar Brown is an internationally known ceremonialist and diviner; a shamanic healer, intuitive and teacher of psychological and spiritual awareness. Kedar has developed an effective and unique approach to emotional and spiritual healing by braiding together his depth of clinical knowledge of experiential psychotherapies with more nature based, indigenous wisdom teachings and ritual healing methods from around the world. Kedar lives in the highlands of Western North Carolina.
Enjoy this one-hour Living Well with Kedar who shares his wisdom for shifting our perspective on anxiety and depression in order to heal our ancestral wounds.
Living Well with Kedar Brown on AshevilleFM, October 21, 2019
Kathryn Long loves working with children and the natural world and has been a caretaker and guide for children for most of her life. In 2016, she helped to found The Forest School Foundation and its school which is now called Growing Wild Forest School. Growing Wild Forest School is a non-profit all-outdoor school created to nurture children’s connections to nature, themselves, and other people. Nature-based education supports freedom of movement, choice, and expression within clear and loving boundaries. Kathryn’s purpose is to support all children’s evolving sense of self and intrinsic belonging in the human community and natural world.
Enjoy this one-hour Living Well where Kathryn shares the many educational and developmental benefits for children who are immersed in nature, play, and social relationships.
Living Well with Kathryn Long on AshevilleFM, October 14, 2019
Robert Turner is an organic farmer, the Executive Director of the Creekside Farm Education Center in Arden, NC and the author of a new book titled “Carrots Don’t Grow on Trees: Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities.” It’s about the importance of preserving and protecting our farming capacity and infrastructure here in the US. Robert writes a column called “Eat Your View” for regional food and lifestyle magazines, and he’s here to talk about the book and some of the more positive recent trends in our food systems.
Enjoy this one-hour Living Well where Robert shares about the negative impact of current large-scale agriculture and ways that we can reshape how we grow and buy food that supports local farmers, healthy organic food, and a healthy environment.
Living Well with Robert Turner on AshevilleFM, October 7, 2019
James “JR” Roof was born in New York City and grew up outside of the city in Monroe Connecticut. Leaving home and High School at age 16, JR eventually studied Social and Political Philosophy at The University of Massachusetts in Boston. In 1986 JR started volunteering with the Greenpeace Boston working on non violent direct action campaigns regarding environmental protection and nuclear disarmament. For the next two years, JR held positions as The Boston Canvass Director, Director of the Greenpeace USA Action Department and finally as a Senior Director for Greenpeace International directing The Ships and Direct Action Division.
In 1995/1996, JR helped co found The Ruckus Society in Missoula Montana and served as the Board Chair from 2000-2002. Ruckus came to international attention with its role in the WTO protests in Seattle in late 1999. In 2006-2009 he co founded Climate Ground Zero which fought to oppose mountain top removal of Coal in West Virginia and oppose the tar/oil sands development in Alberta, Canada.
From 2001-2013 JR also produced countless music shows in Missoula mostly notably with an Austin, Texas based band The Gourds, who disbanded in 2013. The last few years JR has worked with Sundance Power Systems part time in based out of Asheville North Carolina
Enjoy this one-hour Living Well podcast where JR shares about his rich history of environmental activism and how we can make a difference moving forward!
Living Well with JR Roof on AshevilleFM, September 23, 2019
Hayette has been cultivating a love of food since childhood and has been honing her skills in restaurant kitchens over the past two decades. A lifelong vegetarian, a nutrition class in college prompted her to transition to a vegan lifestyle. Hayette has a degree in Health and Wellness Promotion from UNC Asheville and a keen interest in fitness and sustainability within food systems. In 2018, Hayette opened Vegan Roaming, a vegan catering and events business. Her newest project, the Sunflower Diner, is a collaboration with the West Village Market & Deli and features a vegan menu with options for omnivores and a focus on local and organic foods. When not in a kitchen, you can find Hayette curled up on a couch with her miniature poodle.
Enjoy this one-hour Living Well where Hayette shares her passion for healthy food and sustainable food systems as well as her excitement for her Sunflower Diner which is set to open in a few weeks and located in the West Village Market.
Living Well with Hayette Bouras on AshevilleFM, September 9, 2019
Eliza is a weaver of story and medicine. As a journalist, she tells the stories of people and place with an environmental & social justice focus in her work. As an herbalist, she spends time in the bountiful forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains, pondering the medicine of soultending and reverentially wildcrafting the medicine of these mountains. She also occasionally spends time with youth in nature connection and freeplay as a co-teacher with the Asheville Growing Wild Forest School, an all-outdoors preschool.
Eliza helps to carry the hearth of EarthSong Rising, a community song gathering near Asheville September. 5th-8th. EarthSong Rising is an annual four-day celebration of song, nature and community. Participants settle into natural village rhythms by singing, dancing, swimming, laughing with children, and eating delicious, healthy meals. This event is a place for multi-generational singing, a rising of our collective voice, and an awakening of the spirit that lives in the heart of our species. Like the birds, people were made to sing beauty into the world, together.
Enjoy this special Living Well where Eliza shares about the amazing people and events happening this year at EarthSong Rising!
Living Well with Eliza Rose on AshevilleFM, August 26, 2019
Cleaster Cotton is a Nubian American Painter, photographer, ALNUGE Inventor, author, educator, and master teaching artist. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY where her mother introduced her to Cubism, paving the way for her invention of ALNUGE [al-new-gee] (ALphabets NUmbers GEometrics).
Cleaster’s work and contributions in Arts and Academic Education reaches across the USA and abroad. Her service includes the Westchester Arts Council, High Museum of Art, Georgia Council for the Arts, Museum of Design Atlanta, University of North Carolina Asheville, Asheville City Schools Foundation, LEAF in Schools and Streets, and several Boards of Education. Cleaster has taught thousands of (K-12) children, facilitated professional development workshops for hundreds of teachers and community professionals. Cleaster serves on the Board of Directors for LEAF as a cultural conservationist, artist, and advocate for children, STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art and Mathematics) education, and the arts for arts sake.
Enjoy this one-hour Living Well with Cleaster as she shares about her social justice work regarding cultural sensitivity and racial equity. She also hared about her powerful new public art installation, “Going to Market” located in the heart of the former African American business district known as The Block.
Living Well with Cleaster Cotton on AshevilleFM, August 19, 2019
 
Enjoy this one-hour Living Well with environmental and sustainability legends, Bill Fleming and Ned Doyle, who share about the vision of the Get Off the Grid Fest and all the great things planned for the weekend festival, August 9th-11th!
Living Well with Bill Fleming and Ned Doyle on AshevilleFM, July 29, 2019
The Second Biennial Get Off the Grid Fest will be held over the weekend of August 9,10 and 11th, 2019 in Asheville, North Carolina*. Echoing the first gathering that was timed with the total solar eclipse of 2017, the purpose of the upcoming event is three-fold. Our first intention is that this Expo serve to link people who have the technical expertise and know-how in the field of renewable energy with folks who have the commitment to and interest in achieving energy independence. Second, as a Fair, the event aims to provide a venue for homesteaders, companies, organizations, associations and individuals to showcase and share their ideas, products and experiences living and working sustainably. Third, the Festival seeks to expand the understanding of participants as to being off-grid, not only in the production of energy, but also living self-sufficiently in areas of health and wellness, food production and consumption as well as cultural expression and community building.
The three-day event is expected to attract between three and four thousand people who will engage with a variety of solar power producers and installers, biodynamic farmers and organic growers, food activists, healing arts and holistic health practitioners, earth scientists and educators from area schools as well as members of local community based organizations focused on economic and ecological sustainability. Festival-goers will interact with vendors in an open-air market and exchange ideas and information with a host of experts and instructors in a wide range of fields from hydro-electrics to hydroponics, solar power plants to herbs and medicinal plants, vermiculture to viticulture, beekeeping to goat tending, performing arts to healing arts.
The Get Off the Grid Fest features a strong music and dance component and an assembled cast of stellar musicians, performers, presenters and speakers on three stages and in several tent venues. The schedule of artists appearing include internationally acclaimed Rising Appalachia, Elise Witt and Donna Hopkins; nationally renowned Terry Garthwaite, Jeff Mosier and Strung Like a Horse; regionally popular Natti Lovejoys, Sol Driven Train and Jess Goggans as well as a host of popular Asheville-based groups and performers such as Jeff Sipe, Taylor Martin and Bayou Diesel.
The 16-acre Big Berea Pasture adjacent to Riceville Rd. near the campus of Warren Wilson College, just 5 miles east of Asheville’s city center is the site for this year’s event. An ample staff has been gathered to assist the Get Off the Grid Fest sponsors, companies, volunteers, artists, educators and vendors whose work in renewable energy and sustainable living deserves such a platform and spotlight. Come join us and help plant not only a seed but an entire orchard where the future can grow out of the pasture.
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