Upcoming events
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Song Circle
First Monday of Each Month | 6:30PM-8:30PM
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Tending the Vital Hive
Friday’s | 10:00AM - 2:00PM
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Funky Buddha Yoga & The Vital Hive
Selected Tuesday’s | 7:30PM
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Community Grief Ritual
Select Dates | 2:00PM - 6:00PM
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Vital Hive Harvest Party
Saturday, Aug 29th | 4:00PM - 10:00PM
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Journey into Circle Singing
Sunday, Sept 13th | 2:00PM - 6:00PM
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Song of the Harvest: Breathwork, Cacao, & Community
Sunday, Sept 20th | 1:00PM - 5:00PM
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Sacred Plant Gathering
Thursday, Sept 17th | 6:30PM - 8:00PM
Song Circle
First Monday of each month | 6:30–8:30 PM | Somatic Wisdom Institute | Grand Rapids, MI | No Registration Necessary
Join us at the Somatic Wisdom Institute as we bring our voices together in the singing of heart songs! We will gather to share and celebrate songs of devotion from all around the world. These songs of love and healing are intended to connect us to our own hearts, to each other, to Mother Earth and to the Great Mystery. You are invited to bring any songs you feel inspired to share, we open sharing to the whole community the last 3o or 40 minutes of the gathering. Dancing and improvisation is encouraged!
August 3rd
September 14th
Tending the Vital Hive
Every Friday | 10:00AM–2:00PM | The Vital Hive | Lowell, MI | No Registration Necessary
All Summer at The Vital Hive. Below is our spring schedule. More dates to follow
This season, we will gather each Friday to place our hands in the soil, shape pathways and gardens, and build beauty that feeds both people and the bees of the land! Tending the Vital Hive is our weekly community workday devoted to regenerative farming practices, edible landscaping, and living in reciprocity with the earth.
It is our dream to spend our days here on earth creating a place here on earth where the plants, animals and humans can find more and more reciprocity. Please join us!
Some days we plant.
Some days we build.
ome days we clear, compost, and make space for what wants to grow next.
All are welcome. No need to sign up, just show up
Email Micahm1@gmail.com if you don’t know our address
A simple shared meal will be provided at 2:00pm to close our time together.
Please bring:
A water bottle
Work gloves
Weather-appropriate clothing
Come for the whole time or what you can. Your hands matter.
Spring Schedule
July 31st - Tending the Gardens (Taking a Break)
August 7th - Tending the Gardens
August 14th - Tending the Gardens (Taking a Break)
August 21st - Tending the Gardens (Taking a Break)
August 28th - Tending the Gardens
We will be meeting all Fridays until October.. More details to come soon.
Funky Buddha Yoga & The Vital Hive Band
Selected Tuesday’s | 7:30PM | Funky Buddha Yoga Eastown | Grand Rapids, MI
Join Funky Buddha Yoga and The Vital Hive for a unique Slow Flow Yoga experience accompanied by live music. Move mindfully through a gentle, grounding practice while the soulful sounds of The Vital Hive create an immersive atmosphere for relaxation and connection. This special collaboration invites you to slow down, breathe deeply, and flow with the rhythm of live music in a supportive community setting. All levels are welcome.
Tuesday, August 25th | 7:30PM
Select Dates | 2:00PM-6:00PM | The Vital Hive | Lowell, MI | Tiered Pricing
Community Grief Ritual
Saturday, October 17th
Sunday, December 6th.
You are not alone in your grief.
Join us in tending the village heart for a communal stirring of grief. Whatever shape your grief takes — loss, unloved places, ancestral, ecological — it is welcome here.
In this ritual, we gather to honor Grief as a natural and deeply human process. Cultures around the world have gathered in rituals for thousands of years to acknowledge the grief that they’ve felt.
When we forget these ways of being with and tending our grief in community, we miss a vital and rich part of our lives- a part that connects us deeply to our joy and compassion. This is a practice of allowing the wild and tender places of sorrow to open us more deeply to our aliveness.
This space welcomes people of all experiences and all griefs — those newly touching grief, those long acquainted with it, and those simply curious about what healing in community can look like.
The ritual will be facilitated by Nic Despres, a ritualist, musician, and grief-tender, inspired and taught by the rituals of friend and teacher Josh Fox, Asheville, NC.
What to expect
To preserve the emergent and spirited nature of this ritual, it will be held tenderly with open palms, following the stream of what is alive within the unique group that attends. We will gather around an altar, orient to the space and each other, and learn how to hold this space together. A few of the ritual technologies we may employ to call in our grief are: storytelling, music, poetry, heart-sharing, breathwork, games, and somatic practices.
What to Bring
Altar items — sacred objects, votive candles, flowers, photos or items representing ancestors, your younger self, family, or beloved places (you will get these back)
Personal comfies: cushions, water bottle, journal, pen
If staying for the sauna and potluck: a dish to share, salad topping, swimsuit, and towel
We want this experience to be as accessible as possible while honoring the value of the work. To support this, we offer three ticket options: Benefactor, Classic, and Scholarship. Click to register to select your tiered option.
Address emailed upon registration.
August 29th | 4:00PM-10:00PM | The Vital Hive | Lowell, MI
Vital Hive Harvest Party
Come celebrate the harvest with us!
After a season of planting, weeding, watering, building, and sharing the tending together, it's time to slow down, enjoy the abundance, and celebrate all that has grown.
We'll spend the afternoon playing yard games, sharing stories, making music, and doing what we do! Dinner will be a community potluck around 7:00 PM, followed by a bonfire, music, and plenty of time to linger in the late summer evening vibes.
The hot tub, cold plunge, and sauna will be available throughout the afternoon and evening, so feel free to enjoy them before dinner, after dinner, or both! Just be sure to bring a swimsuit and towel.
Bring:
A dish to share for the potluck (bonus points if it came from your garden or the farmers market!)
A yard game if you have one
A swimsuit, towel and water bottle
Instruments
Family, friends, kids... everyone is welcome!
Whether you've helped tend the gardens all season or you're simply looking for an evening of good food, music, and community, come join us!
Journey into Circle Singing
September 13th | 2:00PM-6:00PM | The Vital Hive | Lowell, MI | Tiered Pricing
The art & play of vocal improvisation with Kath Weider & Beth Patterson
Curious about vocal improvisation? Join us for a generous afternoon exploring the voice as a portal into presence, deep listening, pleasure, and creativity. Through somatic movement, vocal play, improvisation, and community singing, we'll explore the joy of making music together while discovering new possibilities for authentic expression, connection, and embodied play.
Circle singing is a group singing technique developed by American master vocalist and composer Bobby McFerrin over a career of groundbreaking vocal exploration. At the root of the practice is using the voice as an instrument for collective, spontaneous composition.
In the circle we build trust in our own voices and amongst each other, as we step into the unique container of creative sacred play. Gradually, we explore the vast capacities of the voice, not just as a vehicle for melody but for prayer, silence, invented language and new harmonic and rhythmic landscapes.
No previous singing or improvisation experience is necessary—only a willingness to listen, experiment, and be surprised by your own voice.
Nic Despres and The Vital Hive are delighted to welcome Kath Weider and Beth Patterson, two longtime practitioners of improvisational circle singing, to guide us in rediscovering the freedom, playfulness, and aliveness of our voices.
Kath Weider is a singer, vocal coach, writer, filmmaker, and devotee of the art of improvisation and the healing power of music. She teaches vocal arts at her Studio for Vocal Alchemy in Ann Arbor, MI and leads song circles, ceremonies, and retreats weaving meditation, inquiry, and the sacred arts of music and improvisation. You can listen to her album, Prayer Beads, here.
Beth Patterson (she/her/they) is a singer songwriter, improvisational vocalist, and clinical social worker from Kalamazoo, Michigan. She has practiced improvisational circle singing in community since 2006 as a founding member of the Trybal Revival circle singing community in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Beth continues to host and facilitate community based improvisational singing in Kalamazoo which is focused on community building and spiritual practice.
Beth released her second full length album “Love Says” in December of 2024. Beth’s third album, “Singin’ Together, Livin’ the Dream” is being released August 2026 on Bandcamp. This album is a collection of community singing songs born out of improvisational practice that focus on justice, spiritual activism, love and healing. This collection includes “Wake Up”!
Beth continues to work on recording projects, writing music and creating with the use of improvisation.
We want this work to be accessible and affordable. If cost is a barrier even after Tier 1 ticketing, please contact Nic HERE to inquire about financial assistance— no one will be turned away due to a lack of funds.
Come ready to play, listen deeply, and experience the joy of creating something that has never been sung before.
Stay afterwards for a communal hot tub, sauna, & potluck.
Songs of the Harvest:
Fall Equinox Breathwork, Cacao, & Community
Sunday, September 20th | 1:00PM-5:00PM | The Vital Hive | Lowell, MI | $95
The harvest season invites us to pause and notice what has grown. It is a time to gather the fruits of our labor, to express gratitude for what has nourished us, and to release what is complete before the quieter seasons arrive.
Join us at the Vital Hive for an afternoon of breathwork, ceremonial cacao, live music, and a shared harvest meal as we celebrate the turning of the season together.
Our breathwork journeys combine conscious connected breathing, carefully curated music, skilled touch, to create space for deep restoration and healing. As the breath deepens, many people experience greater clarity, emotional release, nervous system regulation, renewed vitality, and a deeper connection with themselves, the natural world, and those around them.
We will also start the day with a 30 minute bioenergetic practice to start to open the body and deepen into the breath.
Ceremonial cacao will be shared as a gentle heart-opening ally to the journey, helping us deepen with the breath medicine.
If you are new to breathwork, no problem, no experience is necessary.
Creating Your Breathing Nest
You're welcome to arrive anytime between 1:00–1:30 pm to create your breathing nest. Bring a yoga mat, blankets, pillows, and anything that will help you feel comfortable for the afternoon. This will be your space to rest, breathe, and journey throughout the ceremony.
Optional Hapé & Sananga
For those who feel called, we will offer an optional Hapé and Sananga circle beginning at 1:30 pm. These traditional Amazonian medicines are offered with care and respect and are entirely optional. If you wish to participate, please arrive early enough to have your nest prepared beforehand.
Although the formal gathering concludes around 5:00 pm, you're warmly invited to linger. Share conversation around the fire, enjoy the sauna, hot tub, or cold plunge, sing a few more songs, and simply enjoy being together. Following the ceremony, we'll gather around the table for a simple harvest meal. We'll provide fresh greens and homemade dressings. Please bring a favorite salad topping, side dish, or seasonal offering to share as we celebrate the abundance of the harvest together.
Harvest Feast and the rest of the evening
Although the formal gathering concludes around 5:00 pm, you're warmly invited to linger. Share conversation around the fire, enjoy the sauna, hot tub, or cold plunge, sing a few more songs, and simply enjoy being together. Following the ceremony, we'll gather around the table for a simple harvest meal. We'll provide fresh greens and homemade dressings. Please bring a favorite salad topping, side dish, or seasonal offering to share as we celebrate the abundance of the harvest together.
Important Health Information
Breathwork can be a powerful physical and emotional practice. This style of breathwork is not appropriate for everyone. Please consult with us before registering if you have any of the following:
Pregnancy
Significant cardiovascular disease or uncontrolled high blood pressure
Epilepsy or seizure disorders
Recent major surgery or serious injury
Schizophrenia, bipolar I disorder, or a history of psychosis
Any medical or psychiatric condition that could be aggravated by intense breathing
If you have questions about whether this experience is appropriate for you, please contact Micah before registering.
The address and additional details will be sent after registration.
Schedule
1:00pm - 1:30pm – Arrival & Create Your Breathing Nest
1:30pm – Optional Hapé
2:00pm – Opening Circle, Bioenergetics, and (optional) Sanaga
3:00pm – Cacao and Breathwork ceremony
4:30pm – Sound Bath and Community Singing
5:00pm – Formal Closing
5:00pm – 9:00pm Shared Meal, Sauna, Cold tub, Hot tub, Bonfire (optional)
We look forward to gathering with you as we celebrate another season of tending the garden—both within us and around us.
Thursday, September 17th
An invitation for community based integration while exploring the powerful plant teachers Hapé and Sananga hosted by Brie Moblo and Lindsey Lutkenhoff. Both women have been working with these medicines for years and have a deep desire to share the practice and importance of creating humble connections with these sacred allies while understanding that creating space for integration can be as much the medicine as ceremony, big session work, or shifting awareness in our psyches.
Often, these plant medicines are powerful and clear big energies, assisting us in getting into our bodies while also bringing in a sense of deep connection to ourselves, the earth, and each other.
Hapé (also commonly spelled Rapé and pronounced "ha-peh") is a sacred plant medicine traditionally used by various Indigenous tribes of the Amazon rainforest. It is a finely ground powder made from a blend of Nicotiana rustica (a potent variety of tobacco), medicinal plants, herbs, and ashes served as a nasal snuff. The preparation and serving of Hapé is a sacred art, often involving prayer, chants, and song.
Sananga is a traditional eye medicine derived from the roots and bark of the Tabernaemontana genus, a native to the Amazon rainforest. The Sananga will be applied to the eyes in drops, assisting in cleaning and clearing of not only the ocular band but also negative energies. This medicine creates space for deep breathing, embodiment and connection to self, reminding us to be in the present.
Music is a beautiful medicine that assists in the movement of energy, opening of awareness and connecting to the divine. Kyle Joe, singer/songwriter, will be holding live music for the circle to attune to and enjoy throughout this gathering. Kyle has dedicated himself to his passion of medicine music and is deeply gifted in creating space for spirit to move with and into sacred healing spaces.
No previous experience necessary.
Please arrive prepared with a water bottle, a yoga mat, and anything else you may need to comfortably sink into this experience.
Contacts will need to be removed for Sananga to be served.
Select Thursday’s | 6:30–8:00 PM | The Vital Hive | Lowell, MI | $35