About Us
Who organizes the Conference?
How did the Conference get started?
Where are you located?
What is the Conference’s relationship with Red Moon Herbs?
Do you work on the Conference year round?
Are you all herbalists?
Why do you call yourselves "wise women"?
Are you able to bring the conference teachings into your everyday lives?
How can I keep in touch other times of the year?
Who organizes the Conference?
Left to right:
Ema Carmona, Coordinator
Renee Conover, Site Logistics
Corinna Wood, Director
Lee Warren, Programming
There are four of us who co-create the planning of the annual Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference: Corinna, Ema, Lee, and Mana. We all live in a forested valley in the Broad River District, about 45 minutes from Asheville. We are friends and neighbors sharing values of simple, low-earth-impact living, and environmental and social activism. The conference gives women the opportunity for a part-time living-wage income in a rural area without much opportunity for employment and allows us work that is deeply aligned with our values.
How did the Conference get started?
The Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference was inspired by the thriving herbal conferences for women in the Northeast, Southwest, and California. Corinna Wood, Director of Red Moon Herbs, felt that the Southeast, too, was ready for this kind of gathering.
From our first annual event in 2005, we quickly discovered that the community was ready and eager, that we were filling a need. The conference now has a heart and soul of its own. For many it has become an annual event, a tradition in education, inspiration, and sisterhood. Our herbal conference community grows stronger and reaches further each year.
Where are you located?
The central Conference office is located at Earthaven Ecovillage in Black Mountain, NC. Director Corinna Wood and the staff live at or near Earthaven, which encompasses 325 acres, home to 50 members who are experimenting with living more sustainably on the earth. This green business shares office space with Red Moon Herbs, where the electricity comes from solar panels and the wood for the building comes from Earthaven land.
What is the Conference’s relationship with Red Moon Herbs?
Red Moon Herbs and the Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference are both owned and directed by Corinna Wood. They complement each other in many ways—when people are using herbal medicines, they often become hungry to deepen their understanding of the plants that are at the source. And when educated and inspired about taking care of their health naturally, they are often seeking high potency herbal products made in the Wise Woman way. See www.redmoonherbs.com for more information.
Do you work on the Conference year round ?
Yes, we do start working on the next year right after the Conference ends--it is a huge job to put on an event of this scale and quality. On average we each work on the Conference 10-20 hours/week over the course of the year (and 50-100 hours the week of the Conference!). For most of us, the income we make from the Conference contributes significantly to our families’ income yet all of us have other income streams as well. We’re so blessed to have the opportunity to work close to home where we also focus on important yet undervalued work of raising children, growing organic food, creating sustainable and renewable life systems, teaching, and healing ourselves and the Earth!
Are you all herbalists?
All of us have had herbal training and steep ourselves in the healing that the earth can offer. Some of us teach and counsel about herbs, others of us use herbs for our own and our families’ well-being.
Why do you call yourselves "wise women"?
Our intention is to speak to the wisdom in all women. There’s not a threshold that one passes in order to become wise. Our intention is to hold a voice for the Wise Woman Tradition in our region – the Southeastern United States. See the Event Focus page for more information.
Are you able to bring the conference teachings
into your everyday lives?
Much of the conference content springs from our desire to share our passion about herbs, nutrition, empowerment, movement, self-love and the like. And we’re still all on a path of learning. With regards to our connections to other women? Yes, we truly do aim to live a life that emulates non-competitive, supportive, celebratory, and encouraging relationships between women. May it be so the world over!
How can I keep in touch other times of the year?
Visit our Facebook page to connect with the SE Wise Women and conference planners during the year.
