Robin Gunkel shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Robin, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I wake in the morning at 6 am and put a handful of bird seed out on my balcony for the enjoyment of the chickadees, doves, cardinals, wrens, pigeons, etc. who come to feast on it. I then leave a voice memo for a close friend who I message with each day and drink coffee before I make a smoke offering known as Riwo Sangchod. With this offering, I burn incense, offer more bird seed, in addition to flowers, tea, & fruit each morning facing east with the sunrise.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am the Creator and Director of Mushroom City Art Festival, which operated for its first ten years from 2013-2022 as a free and for donation festival. Mushroom City is an all ages gathering which brings together experienced mycophiles and newbies alike to learn about the fascinating world of fungi! Talks, workshops, musical performances, vendors, art installation, children’s art making workshops, forays, and more, all comprise Mushroom City! The mission is to share education, spread joy, and align our community with the wonder, wisdom, and intelligence of fungi and the larger natural world!
This year’s festival theme is Into the Beloved Rhizome! We have found inspiration in Dr. Martin Luther King’s Beloved Community and imagine the Beloved Rhizome as a site where social and natural networks can work together to foster communities of care. Mushroom City is a deep labor of love. This year, Holly Wheat, who has been a foray leader, photographer, and coordinator for the festival the last 10 years, has been my co-collaborator in organizing!
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
As a young girl, I was very much a dreamer with a vast imagination, I went on adventures in the neighborhood, hunted for ghosts and invisible vampires, searched for treasure, read Nancy Drew novels, and most wanted to be a detective or Ghost Buster when I grew up – I loved mystery & adventure! I believe I have done a good job at raising this girl. I largely had to raise myself, and I have become both an imaginative dreamer who envisions projects and a practical doer who is also able to navigate the default world. I also meditate, grow strong with yoga practice, and make art with friends. I have learned that the way I believed the world to be as a child is true- the world is as magical, vast, and otherworldly as I believed it to be, AND I have learned about discriminating awareness, critical thought, & insight! I embrace both/both!
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
I have come to be very resilient because I grew up with a lot of adversity. My older sister had profound Downs Syndrome, my mother had severe schizophrenia, my brother had learning disabilities, my father was stoic and aloof, very much a product of his 1940s upbringing. Everyone needed help in my home growing up, including my parents, and no one’s needs got met because everyone’s needs were so immense. I have both always had the world on my shoulders (heavy responsibility) and also tremendous freedom because no one was ever going to tell me not to do something. This could look like neglect, I often was neglected, but also there was no expectation, so I could invent my own story and be my own person. As I got older, my parents were happy with everything I did because nothing was ever expected of me. I have healed myself by forgiving my parents and myself and allowing myself to become more of who I always wanted to be.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
Empathy – crack open your heart to love the whole world! We need more radical empathy, communities of care, and loving our neighbors. This is truly the work of our time!
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: If immortality were real, what would you build?
When I consider how I am a holobiont, an assemblage of many living beings (fungi, bacteria & viruses that comprise me), I understand that I am part of something much larger than myself. On the micro level, to quote Walt Whitman, “I contain multitudes” and on the macro level, I am woven into multitudes. I am part of a living lineage, a thread that holds my ancestors who came before me. I think here is immortality. When I consider the communities that comprise me and the communities I am a part of, I understand how there’s a very long work for justice, equality, and regenerative planetary culture. I am committed to a long work to relieve suffering, wake up, and nurture a world where are all peoples and planet are treated with dignity, respect, and love.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mushroomcityartfestival.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mushroomcityartfest/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MushroomCityArtFestival
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxrPRiDDgX9wGOfEcYYSZFA/videos
Image Credits
Flier Design by Sunny Beach
Photos by Robin Gunkel & Holly Wheat
