WILD! ​
Miracles: A Feast
of Gratitute
in the Woods
Join Us at a Feast Under
the Stars Featuring a live
performance from our
artist-in-residence
The Fall Equinox
Saturday, September 13, 2025,
2 PM Opening Libations on the Land
4 PM Feast of Gratitude
11518 Webster Hill Road
Ava New York​​​ 13309
This September,
we celebrate
WILD! Miracles
On behalf of the artists, storyweavers, creators, goddesses, healers, witches, and conjurers, we will host our second annual gala, 2025 WILD! Miracles: A Feast of Gratitude in the Woods on September 13. This celebration continues our capital campaign to transform our 300 acres of land in upstate New York into a healing and reconciliation center stewarded by Black and Native American women.
This feast under stars is not only a gathering and honoring of visionaries and leaders but also an integration of the arts and nature as we showcase our second Artist-in-Residence, this time, a Youth Artist-in-Residency cohort.
This gathering is both a homecoming and a horizon: a moment to root into the soil of our shared struggle and rise toward a future we design together. This will be one night rooted in joy, justice, and imagination.
WILD! Miracles: A Feast of Gratitude in the Woods is a sacred celebration of resilience and restoration, honoring the unwavering allies who stood beside Black Women’s Blueprint through years of adversity, culminating in a transformative victory that breathes new life into 300 acres of reclaimed land in Ava, New York.
​
As WILD! Miracles: A Feast of Gratitude in the Woods approaches, these luminaries will be honored for their courage and commitment. This is not just an event; it is an honoring of miracles, a sacred gathering—a moment of celebration, remembrance, and profound gratitude. It is where the forest itself will bear witness to generosity, where tables will be set in wild splendor, where all will come together not just to share a meal, but to acknowledge those whose hands held firm through the storm, whose voices rose in defense of the right to exist, to dream, to build.
Honoring WILD! Visionaries & Luminaries
During our dinner in the Woods, we will announce sacred spaces that will be built on the land at Restore Forward in honor of supporters and partners of The Reconciliation Center, and women whose extraordinary work and enduring legacies enrich our lives.
Robet Burgdoff
Legacy Library
Carolyn Nussbaum
Women's Freedom
Lounge
Steven Fantuzzo
Fountain of Equality
Nan Stolzenburg
Peaceful Edge
Minnie Garrow
Forest of Herbs and Botanicals
Rebecca Minas
Universal Design Lab
Greg Lesniak
Guardian of
Hidden Waters
Kenya Crumel
Sanctum of Seeds
Cicely Garrett
Sanctum of Seeds
Debra Inwald
Hearth of Stone and Fire
Peter Buffett
Greenhouses and Botanical Garden of Truth
Jennifer Buffett
Greenhouses and Botanical Garden of Truth
Hilary Hart
Arbor of Sacred Reimagining
Sedoo Manu
Fathering Tree of Freedom
In Memorial of Dr. Melz Owusu
Undisciplined Trail
In Memorial of
Barry Segal
The Earth Remembers Project
Honoring WILD! Visionaries & Luminaries
During our dinner in the Woods, we will announce sacred spaces that will be built on the land at Restore Forward in honor of supporters and partners of The Reconciliation Center, and women whose extraordinary work and enduring legacies enrich our lives.
Robet Burgdoff
Legacy Library
Carolyn Nussbaum
Women's Freedom
Lounge
Steven Fantuzzo
Fountain of Equality
Nan Stolzenburg
Peaceful Edge
Minnie Garrow
Forest of Herbs and Botanicals
Rebecca Minas
Universal Design Lab
Cheyenna Weber
Cooperative Trails
Jim Johnson
Cooperative Trails
Greg Lesniak
Guardian of
Hidden Waters
Restore Forward Board
Recognition (Plaque)
H.O.L.LA
The People's Archive and Memory Room
Restore Forward
Founding Cooperative Board
Recognition (Plaque)
A Theatrical Ceremony
of Magic and Miracles
September 13, 2025
The Story:
​Beloveds, gather. The forest is calling.
In a world unraveling, something divine has taken root. WILD! Miracles is not merely an event—it is a summoning, a sacred rite, a ritual of remembrance and rejoicing. Here, beneath ancient canopies and across consecrated soil, we bear witness to a year that defied gravity, a year when the impossible became flesh.
Through the smoke of hatred, through the scatter of screws and slurs, through a town’s resistance and a nation’s forgetting, warriors rose. They stood shoulder to shoulder—with hands steady and spirits unshaken—to guard a dream, to shield a vision: the reclamation of land and destiny for The Reconciliation Center.
​
And then, a miracle.
When all expected yet another battle, the town of Ava chose to turn. A new path unfolded. Acknowledgment. Permission. Possibility. This is the turning point, the divine breath that broke through stone.
Now, we name the protectors.
These are not just names. These are the conjurers, the shield-bearers, the light-keepers. Their brilliance, legal power, spiritual grounding, and uncompromising love shaped a future once thought unreachable.
​
And so, on this hallowed day in September, in the heart of the woods, we gather for a feast not just of food—but of gratitude, of awe. The trees will remember. The wind will carry their names. A table will be set in wild splendor, and we will dance, cry, laugh, and bow in honor.
This is not theater. This is testimony.
This is the spellwork of justice.
This is WILD! Miracles.
Come ready. Come reverent. Come radiant.
Oya Noire
Composer & Lyricist
Featured Artist-in-Residence
Skiing Squirrels Productions
Oneida County Theater Group
Featured Artist-In-Residence
As part of our $10 million capital campaign to raise funds to develop this land, we are committed to donating a percentage of all funds raised to the local community in Ava.
Last Summer against all odds, the town of Ava approved the Open Development Plan, granting the ability to move forward with permitting, building by building. After years of struggle and legal battles, expectations were set for yet another fight. But instead, the town board chose a different path—a fresh start, a new relationship.
They acknowledged the wrongs of the past and signaled a desire to be on the right side of history at a moment when the world is in turmoil—an historic time, wars that have fractured communities, divisions that have seeped into daily life.
​
Because of the unwavering dedication of our Luminaries this victory is possible.
Their brilliance, legal and strategic counsel, and steadfast belief in justice have paved the way for this moment.
When the world said no, love carved a path through the forest.
Event
Co-Stewards
Maria Motolla
Ariel Jacobson
Huong Nguyen
Ingrid Benedict
KC Wagner
Bonnie Collins
Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes
Gina Belafonte
Kelli Stidiman Hall
Host Committee
Dailisha Eve Rodriguez
Maria Neve
Alicia Luhrssen-Zombek
Cathline Tanis
Geraldine Deese
Dr. Yaa Elombe
Kim Waldon and Rhonda Waldon
Rosemary Didi Jordan
Whitney D. Smith
Alisha Santiago
Natalie Jeffers
Dawn Ramsey and Chekasha Ramsey
Monica Dennis
Deidra Houchen
Indira Henard
Karen Tronsgard-Scott
ML Daniel
Ed Heisler
Annika Gifford
Kelly Miller
Ann Duckett
Coleta Walker
Lorna Hines-Cunningham
For More
Information
​For sponsorships, capital campaign & fundraising questions, contact:
Sevonna Brown
Event Co-Chair
wildgala@restoreny.org
For FAQ and Logistics, including planning your stay
and how to get there contact:
WILD! Coordinator
wildgala@restoreny.org
Honoring the Luminaries of Our Time
The Robert Burgdoff Legacy Library
The Caroline Nussbaum Women’s Freedom Lounge
The Steven Fantuzzo Fountain of Equality
The Nan Stolzenburg Peaceful Edge
The Minnie Garrow Forest of Herbs and Botanicals
The Rebecca Minas Universal Design Lab
The Greg Lesniak Guardian of Hidden Waters
The Hilary Hart Arbor of Sacred Reimagining
The Sedoo Manu Fathering Tree of Freedom
The Kenya Crumel Sanctum of Seeds
The Cicely Garrett Sanctum of Seeds
The Debra Inwald Hearth of Stone and Fire
The Peter and Jennifer Buffett Greenhouses and Botanical Garden of Truth
In Memorial of Dr. Melz Owusu
In Memorial of Barry Segal The Earth Remembers Project
H.O.L.L.A. The People's Archive and Memory Room
Made possible by:
