'Skills of Our Shared Humanity:' Kingsley Folk School Preserves Traditions, Builds Community

Josh Green found peace among the beads.   

Green, who works in Grand Traverse County’s equalization department, decided to try an indigenous bead work class at Kingsley Folk School earlier this year. Truth be told, he wasn’t expecting to get much out of it.

“I’ve never thought of myself as a bead work person – I don’t do those tiny little artsy things,” he tells The Ticker.

But something unexpected happened as Green slowly and methodically worked to affix beads to cloth. Unplugged from a hectic and anxious modern world, he felt himself slip into tranquility.

“It was a great way to slow down and take a step back from life,” he says. “It’s very grounding, I would say. Peaceful and stress relieving, and I loved that. I would never have even thought to try this, but it’s good for you.”

Since its founding in 2021, Kingsley Folk School has offered classes in a variety of traditional and practical skills: Basket weaving, wreath making, glass blowing, cheese and soap making, music, fly fishing, tree grafting and much more. The nonprofit hires local people skilled in these areas to teach its classes.

While participants (there have been at least 500 since the school started) do indeed learn new skills or crafts, there are plenty of ancillary benefits. They slow down, unplug and do things with their hands, which can boost mental health and provide genuine enjoyment, organizers say. They also get to spend meaningful time with their friends and neighbors.

“This offers a way to connect with community members that’s not based on politics or religion,” founder Sierra LaRose tells The Ticker. “It’s very neutral, and those spaces are becoming increasingly rare. So the community building is really valuable.”

The folk school movement has been around for a while (there’s one in Leelanau County, too). It was Kingsley’s wealth of potential teachers that led LaRose, who runs an herbal tea company, to launch one there.

“I kept running into people with amazing skills and they would tell me about what they were doing and I was like, ‘I want to learn that. I wish you would teach a class.' And they'd say, 'Well, I would if somebody would have me,’” she says. “In Kingsley especially, there's so many homesteaders, multi-generational farmers and people with skills that are honestly dying out. There’s just a lot of skills here.”

Getting those people to pass on those skills (the "skills of our shared humanity," as the school likes to call them) is half the fun, LaRose says. It's just as rewarding for the teachers as it is the students.  

“We aren’t hiring the top experts in the field – the people we hire are just super passionate, and maybe teaching is something new for them or something they never thought they could do,” LaRose says. “Then all of the sudden they feel so empowered and valued by their community.”

Teachers get 70 percent of tuition, LaRose says, with the folk school retaining just enough for overhead and operating expenses (it’s run by a volunteer board). Offering low-cost classes to the community was a priority from the start, LaRose says.

“I hear a lot of people saying they’re really grateful that the classes are affordable,” she says. “A lot of people have wanted to take classes like this, but they can’t afford to take them at other locations.”

People seem to be very appreciative of and enthusiastic about the skills they learn at these classes, LaRose says.

“I'll run into them three years later and they're like, I'm still doing that. I've made gifts for all my friends and family,’” she says. ‘I think people have considered, if not actually started, businesses based on skills that they've learned.”

The school is based at LaRose’s farm on Walton Road, and the biggest challenge up to this point has been not having a year round space to host events and classes. That will change soon as the school works to build a heated barn on Oct. 24 and 25.

“We had just enough in our fundraising account to purchase the barn kit, but we need to pour the cement and insulate it and finish it. And we really need some financial or material assistance with those things,” LaRose said. “We would (also) love to have the community join in because our whole thing is community projects, and this will be a good learning experience.”