Big Announcements
Laid off, a glass half-full, and the Field to Frock revolution
Dear Friends and Readers,
It’s May! The full moon has been throwing her force and grace around as we inch minute by minute toward the summer solstice. As a 50 year old human, I have a hard time keeping up with the pace of the days and can hardly believe 2025 is a glass almost half full, just as I am struggling to reckon with the reality that I am inching toward my last day as the Director of Communications for Wisconsin Humanities. I have been laid off, effective June 3rd.
Wisconsin Humanities has been my work-home for half of my life and I am feeling all the human emotions possible about this big change. The chaos since April 2nd, when DOGE operatives illegally revoked the National Endowment for the Humanities’ operational grants to 56 state councils, effective immediately, has been intense. Unfortunately, this is a story being told by people all over the country during the first phase of our elected dictator’s revenge fantasy game. As 2025 unfolds and Making America Great feels like billionaires forging an old-fashioned empire, I am unfortunately just one of many, many peons in this game.
I know I sound a little bitter (and a little worried about who seems to be ‘winning’ the game at the moment), but I am also a glass half full. I’ve been one of the lucky ones, granted the unlikely chance at a young age to be brought into the fold of an organization with a mission in alignment with my own divine purpose — the public humanities! All the creative and careful and nuanced ways that humans explore the meaning of life — and through those explorations, find and build connections that weave the colorful fabric of community, society, history, and our collective future!!
My brain was wired to be a humanist. I have been filled up by the work of discovery and service around my chosen home state for nearly 25 years. And now…
…being pushed off the cliff is scary, but to feel my wings open is exhilarating. Thrilling. A joy. I feel the stretch and growth and truly have no idea where I’ll land.
Weaving a parachute
I don’t know where I’ll land, but I do know some things.
For several years, I have been learning more about the storied history of Linum usitatissimum during ongoing and fascinating conversations with the founder of Midwest Linen Revival, Leslie Schoeder.
Named for its usefulness, flax is the oldest cultivated fiber plant in the world. As a maker and collector of textiles, I am drawn to the human-plant connection of my ancestors, as well as the deep, inseparable bond between language and textiles. It’s a story that can be traced back at least 34,000 years and I am comforted to remember that we are, all of us, part of a culture that evolved with the plants.
Words like lineage come from that relationship (from linum and linen). Flax, which grew wild throughout the Mediterranean region into Iran and Iraq, has been meticulously cultivated to create a fabric that allowed humans to thrive all over the planet. Linen is lightweight, quick-drying, breathable, comfortable, non-toxic on the skin, easy to dye, durable, and 100% compostable. Linen is a soil-to-soil proposition.
The compostability of our clothes is rarely part of the equation these days, but it should be.
The ancient trade networks that developed to trade cloth also facilitated cross-cultural exchanges of ideas, craft, techniques, and people. Today, fabrics are still shipped all over the planet. Most of the clothes you and I buy have sailed many seas, crossed borders and continents, and traveled hundreds and hundreds of miles. One study done in France, where much of todays flax for linen is grown, found that a pair of jeans travels more than 40,300 miles (1.5 times around Earth) before anyone even starts counting steps in them.
The textile sector is the third largest source of water degradation and land use today. Modern man-made textiles like polyester and rayon will never go away. There are far too many clothes in our closed-loop system.
About 25 years ago (half my lifetime!), I started learning that similar problems were inherent in the global food system. Now the farm-to-table movement is attributed to Alice Water’s restaurant, Chez Panisse, which opened just over 50 years ago.
Cultural shifts happen through conversations.
Language and understanding evolve through human connections.
And that’s where Field to Frock comes in!
FULL LIST OF EVENTS
Over the weekend of summer solstice in Madison, Wisconsin, everyone is invited for a series of FREE events to encourage a richer modern human connection with textiles.
Come hang out in a flax field! At that point in June, the Linum usitatissimum will very likely be in bloom, and there will be experts talking about planting, harvesting, retting, and processing to prepare long bast fibers for spinning, as well as a chance to see DIY equipment demonstrated. There is also the opportunity to get inside the very unique and special Helen Louise Allen textile collection with textile specialist Sophie Pitman, who will tell tales of a few select linen pieces. There’s a dye garden to visit and hands-on activities with spinners and menders. And you won’t want to miss the chance to hear from Leslie Schroeder, the visionary behind Midwest Linen Revival, when she unpacks the beauty and potential of this moment in our fibershed’s history on the High Noon stage. After her ‘happy hour’ talk, there will be a fashion show! So if you are wondering how linen works for different ages and bodies today, don’t miss this!
And there’s more: Full Event List Here
Is the glass half full or half empty? Today, intrepid farmers, makers, and thinkers are pushing our interest in local food into the next era: A re-imagined and revitalized connection with local fiber production and economies. If you are wondering, what would a Midwestern, Great Lakes, or North American fibershed look like? And could it work? Join us as Field to Frock events in June!
👉 If you got this far, please click the ❤️!
Thank you so much!
Sincerely,
PS: My article, “Smitten with Linen,” was published this spring by Wisconsin People and Ideas Magazine. Thanks to the Wisconsin Academy for being on the front edge of this conversation in the Midwest!
You can read “Smitten with Linen” in full here.
I just finished reading The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Your description of the cycle of flax fits well with cycle of growth, as you know. Your program sounds wonderful. We hope to join you for part of it.
Thank you for the steady hand of service to the WHC. What a great long run you had there!