Journey ONEderland

Building an earth-based retreat and learning center for BIPOC to experience Maine’s outdoors

Update:

Nicole Mokeme, founder and creative director of Rise and Shine Youth Retreat, passed away on Juneteenth Weekend. We hold you in community as we all grieve her loss and celebrate her beautiful, powerful spirit. Nicole leaves Rise and Shine Youth Retreat as her legacy. Her close friends and Rise and Shine organizers are carrying on her work, using the name Journey ONEderland to honor the transition. We are committed to keeping alive her vision for a landbase where BIPOC communities can come to rest, play, and build power. May her spirit and her work live on in the many communities who love her deeply.

“We have to talk about liberating minds, as well as liberating society” – Angela Davis

Rise and Shine is creating Onederland, Maine’s only Black owned, led and focused earth-based learning and healing center

  • Onederland will be Maine’s first nature education space that directly caters to and meets the cultural needs of the BIPOC community in Maine and beyond.
  • Land in Common is partnering with Rise and Shine to protect and hold the land that will become Onederland.

Rise and Shine Youth Retreat is a rejuvenation center for the enrichment and liberation of Black people in Maine and beyond.

  • Founded in 2014, Rise and Shine offers art and outdoor recreational programming and wellness experiences for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and People of Color of all ages to explore and learn in Maine’s outdoors as a way to build community and collective wellness.
  • They host retreats for teens, young children, college students, adults and families, exploring the ecology of vast woodlands and small and large bodies of water throughout the state of Maine.

Rise and Shine is seeking land and infrastructure that will become Onederland – a sensory garden, playscape and park.

The dream space:

  • A 50-acre parcel of peaceful and wild land
  • Easily accessible from more than one urban center and arts community
  • Existing infrastructure for housing and retreat programming
  • Woods, fields, pond, and a network of trails
  • A hilltop location offering a true feeling of safety and confidence, with views out in all directions

We’re building a land acquisition fund to support the land purchase

We’re budgeting 1.2 million to build a land acquisition fund. Already, $300,000 has been donated by a very generous donor, leaving a remaining need of $900,000 to be raised.

Land in Common is a fiscal sponsor of Rise and Shine. You can support the creation of Onederland by:

  • Donating through Land in Common’s website
  • Paypal (info@landincommon.org)
  • Writing a check to Land in Common, memo Onederland, and mailing it to 217 South Mountain Rd. Greene, ME 04236

All funds raised will directly go to Rise and Shine for land acquisition costs.