est. april 2022

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about

Side Yard Sessions began April of 2022—hosted in a side yard in Santa Fe, New Mexico—created with the desire and intention of providing a different way for community to gather, share and learn.

Continuing on and expanding beyond the yard’s confines, Side Yard Sessions is now a recurring, laidback ‘lecture’ series, allowing for knowledge-share, continued education and community cross-pollination. It showcases 3-5 presenters that are given 15 minutes max to share a topic of their choice, with a Q&A to follow. Presentation topics can range from simply a presenter’s interest and passions— to a subject they are educated in or an experience they have had. The sky’s the limit for presentation topics.

The venue locations for Side Yard Sessions change each time in an effort to have every session feel like its very own unique gathering where no two sessions feel too alike. Hosting Side Yard Sessions at rotating venues also provides the opportunity to introduce attendees to different locations or businesses in Santa Fe.

The community that participates in Side Yard Sessions has grown organically, word-of-mouth being the primary way that people learn about it. This is intentional and essential to the ethos of Side Yard Sessions—that being: simply allowing what is, and what wants to emerge, to do so naturally and authentically, in its own time.

A dusk session in a Santa Fe side yard: string lights, adobe wall, deep blue sky
A speaker mid-talk, mic in hand
A full room listening from couches, folding chairs and rugs
Jewel-tone lanterns hanging over the crowd
A talk under the pressed-tin ceiling of a borrowed gallery
Warm lamplight over full tables between talks

talks

Below is a complete list of Side Yard Sessions speakers and the titles of their talks to date.

july 8, 2026

  • Laika Delore—Ordinary Magic & the Art of Immersion
  • Jeshaka—Learning to Love the Human Experience through Hotdogs
  • Tuffy Luffaguss—Growing Saffron in Northern New Mexico
  • Frank Rose—How to Walk Through Doors You Don't Understand
  • Genna Waldvogel—‘Science Rules!’ -Bill Nye

march 26, 2026

  • Calli Beck—Dreaming Big: Stark Raven & The Foundry Creative Spaces
  • Elizabeth Fagan—Behind the Red Curtain: the Making of The Magician
  • Lori Fox—From Burnout to Balance: Healing the Modern Nervous System with Ancient Wisdom
  • Ralph Melcher—A Solace in Sentences
  • Stephen Sweezey—Long Term Goals—100 Miles at a Time

january 7, 2026

  • Allonzo Armijo—Alive & Living
  • Jesse Haviland—Concerning the Epidemic of Loneliness in the United States—And How One Woman’s Exploration on this Topic Turned Into a Damn Good Time
  • Patience Pollock—Reflections, Unpopular Opinions & Variations on Water in the Age of Hypocrisy
  • Diane Stern—I Would Walk 500 Miles

august 7, 2025

  • Warren Langford & Katy Gross—Jumpstarting A Healthy Local-Journalism Ecosystem
  • Sigrid Moses-Jacobsen—The Art of Sensing
  • Tarin Nix—Save Democracy but Start Locally
  • Bernard Sanders—Why Human Space Travel is Stupid

april 23, 2025

  • Cary Cluett—The Making of ‘ripple effect’
  • Josh Davisson—The Death & Regeneration of Our Dreams
  • Kristi Lynn Johnson—Costume Design & Management for Opera
  • Brooke Masek—The Secret Language of Antique Needlepoint Samplers

january 9, 2025

  • Jessie Baca—Do You Have the Guts to Slap Some Paint on Stucco?
  • Martin Blanco—20 years Filipino; 14 Years American
  • Alicia Ortiz—Life as a Servant Leader: in the Driver’s Seat at MVD
  • Sedona Rigsby—Why Slow Craft Creates Special Clothes

september 12, 2024

  • Jonathan Hayden—Conservation in the Land of Enchantment
  • Allen Hayes—Music as Medicine
  • Mike Litven—Human Design to the People!
  • William Miglino—Giving Back What We’ve Been Carrying
  • Sarah Turner—Dolphins: John C. Lilly’s Greatest Legacy

june 19, 2024

  • Jeremy Grey—Friend or Foe–or Other?
  • Ethan Ortega—Alma's Resistance
  • Michele Renae—The Fine Art of Co-Regulation
  • Robert Washington-Vaughns—Flowers to the People

march 7, 2024

  • Matthew Bradley—The Marfa Lights: Capturing Ephemera & Chasing Ghosts
  • Monique Derfuss—Vibrational Medicine
  • Niyia Mack—Freida’s Home Birth
  • Franziska Neumann—Tales of Reinvention

august 2, 2023

  • Kevin Abell—Not Just an Emo Dead-Stuff Collector
  • David Crosby—My Dog Won’t Listen to Me! || Communication with Your–or Any–Dog
  • Michael Kass—Deep Story & the Nature of All Things
  • Ellis Margolis—The Stories That Trees Can Tell

april 13, 2023

  • Shawn Patrick Boyd—The Healing Power of Creating a Comic
  • Anthony Colombo—Creating Life-Changing Transformations through Nighttime Dreaming
  • Johan Ehde—Psychedelic Capitalism: Entheogens & Pop Culture
  • Alima Lopez—Traditional Fermentation: Supporting Local Food One Pickle at a Time

february 2, 2023

  • Gian Carlo—The Art of Adapting To Change
  • Lester Fu & Christine Remy—Meditation & Hypnosis: A Mindful Process
  • Jordan Snyder—Volunteer Fire, Rescue & EMS in Santa Fe County
  • Mike VanAartsen—“They need to run with scissors.” || Safety and Risk Models Used in Performing Arts

november 16, 2022

  • Chadette Pfaff—Fall Meditations on Raptor Migration
  • Natalie Sept—Dr. Plantlove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Native Plants
  • Chase Stafford—Brewing Coffee at Home - All Things Considered
  • Daniel Tittmann—Living off the Grid

september 8, 2022

  • Phil Gensler—A Brief Look at New Mexico's Fossil Past
  • Jared Hagood—Much About Seeds
  • Wade Harrell—Invertebrates in Education
  • Harirai Khalsa—The Fermi Paradox; or, Where Are All the Aliens?
  • Mikey Rae—“JUST A Joke…?!” || Sincere Irony, Existential Slapstick & the Paradoxical Nature of Being Cool

june 16, 2022

  • Allie Armitage—Somatics 101: How to Love Our Bodies through Change
  • Max Mishkin—Understanding Ravens
  • Lindsey Rotche—Human-Centered Avalanche Mapping
  • Kirsten Rudberg—The Magic & Miracle of Beekeeping

april 28, 2022

  • Emily Reynolds—The Lesser Known Midwife
  • Natalie Sept—Political Roadie: Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail of 2016
  • Becky Smith—Outer Space Rock Talk
  • Chase Stafford—I'm Not a Magician, I’m a Coffee Roaster: Buying & Roasting Objectively