Presented by
An Intergenerational Feminist Fiesta
Saturday, November 21st | 9AM to 7PM
Santa Fe Community Convention Center
Interested in contributing to make Desert Bloom possible? Learn more here. Want to volunteer? Apply now.
BECAUSE A FEMINIST FUTURE DOESN'T BLOOM ON ITS OWN – IT'S SOMETHING WE CULTIVATE TOGETHER
A tribute to the brilliant women of New Mexico, Desert Bloom brings us together for one day across generations, identities, and lived experiences to celebrate and honor the successes, the history, the hard work of what we’re accomplishing—and imagine what comes next.
Part festival, part gathering, part call to action, Desert Bloom is a joyful collision of bold conversations, creativity, and collective imagination.
COME TO CONNECT & CROSS-POLLINATE.
BEING IN A ROOM TOGETHER MATTERS. THERE'S ENERGY IN THE EXCHANGE. MAGIC IN THE UNEXPECTED CONVERSATION.
Bold Dialogue
What women are carrying now, making visible the realities, leadership, intergenerational knowledge, needs, and possibilities of what we imagine.
Conversation Circles
Small-group discussions and participatory circles designed for deeper reflection, authentic sharing, and building lasting connections to support our community.
Generational Wisdom
Giving voice to the distinct realities, struggles, and triumphs of every generation. Inviting the question of what we preserve from our movement memory while making room for younger generations.
Immersive Expression
Art installations and creative experiences centered on truth-telling, reflection, and collective joy.
Pathways to Action
Clear, practical opportunities to turn the inspiration of the day into ongoing momentum within your own community.
Don’t just come to listen. Come to imagine. Come to be inspired, in person.
Because the future isn’t something we wait for.
It’s something we grow—together.
Let’s grow something wild.
Agenda
Download a PDF of the agenda here.
9:30AM-10:00AM
Session 1
Seeding the Day
A moment to ground, honor, celebrate, and set our intentions for the day ahead.
10:00AM-11:00AM
Session 2
Power. Resistance. Change.
Sponsored by Global Santa Fe
Women in politics who organize, legislate, advocate, and lead share what they’ve learned about navigating systems of power—and what it takes to transform them.
11:15AM-12:15PM
Session 3
Option 1. Care Matters! The Work Essential to the Future of People and Planet
How do we create a culture where everyone and everything gets to thrive? Listen to these changemakers who center care for each other, elders, and the earth as their first line of defense, keeping each other, our communities, and Mother Earth alive.
Option 2. Cross Pollinate: Different roots. Shared purpose. Bigger possibilities.
Featuring by Esha Chiocchio, Edie Dillman, Alexandra Merlino
What happens when business, conservation, culture, and community connect?
Option 3. Don’t Pass the Torch. Build a Bigger Fire.
Facilitated by Mendy Marsh
A cross-generational facilitated interactive conversation sharing wisdom, challenging each other, and building what comes next.
Choose
1 of these 3
Session 4
Siempre en Devenir: We Are Always Becoming
Curated by Natachee Momaday Gray
Sponsored by Collected Works Bookstore
Poets from every season of life share words shaped by perspective, provocation, humor, heartbreak, memory, desire, and joy.
12:30PM-1:30PM
1:30PM-3:00PM
Meal Break
3:15PM-4:15PM
Session 5
Option 1. The Power of the Pen, the Lens,and the Mic
Artists, authors, poets, filmmakers, and musicians know that art and stories shape the culture we live in.
Option 2. Right, My Dudes... Now What? Experiences from the Field
Featuring Justin Haas, Bill McCamley & Omar Torres
What does it actually mean to be a good man right now? What are men willing to unlearn? What are they ready to take responsibility for—and what issues hold men back from being active participants in their own healing?
Option 3. Seed, Grow, Bloom: Women Funding Women
Sponsored by Prospera Partners
When women have money, they don’t just create businesses—they create possibility.
Option 4. The Age We Don’t Talk About: Women, Power & Becoming Visible
Facilitated by Mendy Marsh
Sponsored by VOICE
A cross-generational, facilitated interactive conversation asking why women’s visibility fades just as their voices grow stronger—and how do we change that?
Choose
1 of these 4
4:30PM- 5:30PM
Session 6
Three Minutes to Bloom
Women who lead businesses, nonprofits, creative ventures, and community organizations take the stage for three minutes each to tell us what they’re doing, why it matters, and what they want us to know.
5:45PM-7:00PM
Closing Session
From Our Blooms, A Garden Grows
Featuring Trio Victoria, G Precious, Busy McCarroll, Indigie Femme, Mosaic Dance
The day may be ending, but the garden is just taking shape! Celebrate with music and joy!
GROUND YOURSELF
JOIN THE
BLOOM CREW
Desert Bloom is powered by community care and hands-on love. We’re looking for dedicated volunteers to help us build a welcoming experience for everyone. Our Bloom Crew will help set up the day before, support guest check-in, stage logistics, creative experiences, and more!
Once we receive your interest our Volunteer Manager will be in touch to get you started.
No Boundaries, Just an Invitation
To us, feminism is collective power in action: the visible and invisible dynamics of power, building positive power in the face of abusive power, shifting who holds power, how it is used, and what becomes possible when we come together. It is a lens, a perspective, an agenda and it’s a movement.
When we talk about “women,” our understanding is intentionally expansive, encompassing cisgender and transgender women, alongside those who hold fluid, evolving, and nonbinary identities. We treat the word as an invitation, never a boundary, to gather, celebrate, imagine, and create together.
