Ilene Evans
Ms. Ilene Evans, M.A., is an inspired storyteller, performer and scholar who weaves music, poetry, dance and drama, to bring history alive. Ms. Evans creates and presents storytelling/theater programs and workshops/seminars that inform, educate and entertain audiences young and old. She has toured extensively across the US and internationally with her historical and original works.
In 2009, Ms. Evans worked with staff from the US State Department to tour to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Columbia to share African American history and culture through arts, education, literature, and music. In 2015 she travelled to Ghana, and in 2018 to Marwa, Tanzania. She has received the Foundation of Freedom Award from Wheeling Jesuit University for her outstanding work.
She is a Chautauqua scholar, developing presentations of historical women who have contributed significantly to African American culture; selected by the United States Embassy to share her work in the history and culture of African Americans, Ms.Evans’ historical storyteling presentations include Harriet Tubman, Memphis Tennessee Garrison, Carrie Williams, Coralie Franklin Cook, Ethel Waters, Bessie Coleman, and Eslanda Robeson, and Elizabeth Catlett.
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Over at the Sanctuary the leaves 🍁 have been turning and falling to the ground. Here is a view of the Heart House from the front of the pond. The Heart House can sleep up to twenty-two people in beds. This is the space where we host many guests and groups for our dynamic fellowship programming. If you are looking for a venue to host an upcoming event, retreat, or training we can send you more information. Hit us with a DM!
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On indigenous people’s day we remembers Falling in love and being again in right relationship with the air, water, fire, earth, and ether. In eternal gratitude to the land beneath our feet.
The Earth we steward at Roots to Sky is at the mouth of Patawomeck and the Seneca Rocks is the traditional unceded land of the Shawandasse Tula people. The name means Southwind Earth in the Algonquin language.
Our circle gets tighter as we make new relatives and weave in our old ones here at Roots to Sky Sanctuary. Listening to Mother Earth as she whispers.
#indigenousland #fourdirections #medicinewheel #heartspace #landjustice #landback #peacemaking #listening #connections
#Reflecting back on some of the wonderful course collaborations with @jhaferd from Spring 2022. Thanks to the students at City College @spitzerschool_ccny, the incredible team @rootstoskysanctuary, for the ongoing work of “Restorying the Potomac”, which began a year ago with the Sp ‘22 studio.
During the three day site visit, undergraduate design students worked to bring undervalued stories of this land to life.
Stay tuned for more photos, and updates from the output of the RTP Fellows!
#Repost @jhaferd
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RESTORYING THE POTOMAC, PART 1
Faculty : JEROME HAFERD @jhaferd
Restoring the Potomac is a land-based research, restorying, exhibition and ‘re-monumenting’ project being undertaken in collaboration with the Roots to Sky Collective in the Appalachian Mountains. The project seeks to generate new forms of living archive, activism and interpretive practice connecting and transecting the modern day and pre-colonial Potomac River watershed. The first in a multi-year endeavor, Spring ‘22 advanced studio engaged the Land as a protagonist for design : to produce spatial scholarship and propose architectural interventions of memorialization, cultivation, and stewardship beginning at two critical sites : The Fairfax Stone and the Roots to Sky Sanctuary. This work challenges prevailing modes of architecture, and inspire us to think at the scale of the stone, monument, regional, and planetary.
Jerome Haferd is a licensed architect and educator based in Harlem, NY. He is co-founder of the award-winning design and research practice BRANDT : HAFERD. His writing on archaeology, Blackness, and speculation has recently been published in Log and Project journals. Jerome is assistant professor at CCNY, and conducts course collaborations with Yale, Columbia and elsewhere. He is also a core initiator of Dark Matter U. Jerome received his M. Arch at Yale and his B.S. from Ohio State. He has worked in the offices of OMA/Rem Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi Architects. BRANDT : HAFERD are 2020 AIA New Practices New York recipients. Haferd was winner of the 2020 Studio Prize (CCNY).
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#Architecture #AdvancedStudio #CCNY #appalachia
#fairfaxstonemonument #potomacriver
In July 2023, Antonio Carassco one of our esteemed Humanities in Place Fellows led a ceremonious weekend for our community. We had nearly 70 people come to sit around the fire, share stories, make music, and heal with the land. These few shots were part of our opening circle ⭕️ in front of the Sanctuary pond.
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#humanities #landstewards #RootsToSky #buildingsanctuary #mellonfoundationfellows #humanitiesinplace #community #growtogether #appalachia #westvirginia #mountainscape #circleup #tendingthefire @xocoyotlantonio
We are ending out an incredible summer of Roots to Sky programming! We couldn’t be more thrilled by the events and retreats, rooted in healing, humanities, regenerative farming, and the arts that we were able to host at the land 🥁
As we prepare for the fall we will be sharing some flashbacks and special moments from 2023. This photo was taken during the opening ceremony and drum invocation for Beauty in the Backyard a creative arts healing retreat that brought over 350 people to the Sanctuary.
We have incredible fellowship programming still coming up in the last few months of the year. Check the link in our bio to learn more about the upcoming events!
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📸 @zoophoriaphotography
Hello! Welcome to the instagram account for the Roots To Sky Sanctuary Family!
We are excited to share our mission and work with you all via this platform.
More soon…!
-RTSS
© 2026 Roots to Sky Sanctuary
Nestled between Thomas, West Virginia
and Oakland, Maryland
Nestled between Thomas, West Virginia
and Oakland, Maryland
