meet kim

welcome y’all!
i’m “planty kim”— weaver of community, educator, eater of weeds, believer in collective liberation.
proud southerner, story teller, gentle yoga teacher, somatic energy worker, community herbalist. devoted haw river watershed resident. curious, grateful, and life-long learner.
occasionally DJ K Luv :-)

True to the spirit of my southern ancestors of diverse lineages, you’ll always find me carrying around wild “goodiments” to share (like this wild greens pesto, a crowd favorite on spring plant walks: recipe here)

What a blessing to grow up walking the woods, fields, and waterways near Pokeberry Creek in Chatham County, NC where my beloved grandparents Margie and D.A. lived all my life

Young Kim collecting hickory nuts :-) The smell of their husks still takes me back to childhood joy and the nut milk is my favorite
warm wild beverage to sip and share
on fall & winter tree walks

My grandparents met on a community dance floor in Nash County and kept dancing all their lives. Growing up, many a family gathering involved shaking a tail feather - inspiring me to co-create the Pittsboro Community Dance Jams

I am committed to creating community where every body experiences safety, dignity, health, belonging, care, and freedom. May my life and offerings contribute to a more loving, just, and life-sustaining world for all

Concluding a powerful 9 year apprenticeship with friend and mentor Suki Roth and fellow apprentices Lea Clayton and Frances O’Halloran

teachers and trainings

(thanks to all my teachers and teachers’ teachers…)

  • Reciprocal relationships with the plants and trees, our living Earth, my human family and ancestors

  • Classes with herbalist and wildcrafter Will Endres 2000-2001

  • Apprenticeship with community herbalist Suki Roth, 2002-2010

  • Green immersions with planetary plant teacher, Frank Cook, 2000-2009

  • Ongoing studies in botany, ethnobotany, and dendrology through UNC, NC State, NC Botanical Garden, and countless plant conferences and workshops, including impactful teachers Doug Eliot, Alan Weakley, Steph Jeffries, and especially friends Marc Williams and Sam Thayer!

  • North Atlantic Isles instructors helping me reconnect with western european ancestors: Lucy O’Hagan,
    Courtney Tyler, Tara De Roiste, and Mark Williams

  • See more recommended plant teachers and books on my Resources page

  • Massage Therapy Diploma Program at Body Therapy Institute, 2004

  • Somatic Energy Healing & Polarity Therapy Training with Janice Durand of the Tree of Life Center, 2004-2009

  • Body, Mind, and Spirit Yoga Teacher Training with Lisa Clark and David Beadle, 2004-2005

  • Dismantling Racism workshop, 2009

  • Racial Equity Institute workshops: November 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019

  • Deep Rest Silent Meditation Retreats with Jaya Ashmore of Open Dharma, 2008-2023

  • International studies and volunteer opportunities in Ghana, Guatemala, Cuba, Southern Africa, India, Thailand, and Europe have deeply influenced my sense of connection and understanding of our world

  • BA International Studies (Anthropology and African Studies), UNC-Chapel Hill in 1994

Dad’s Chatham sculpture studio was in the former blacksmith shop at Fearrington where McIntyre’s Books now stands

Karen Calhoun Road off 15-501 was named in honor of my mom and her community arts dedication after her early death

roots in chatham county

During a lifetime of moving all around rural North Carolina, I am proud and grateful that Chatham County has always been my anchor and sense of home through my beloved grandparents D.A. & Margie Calhoun who lived in the woods near Pokeberry Creek where my granddad served as a progressive minister at Mt. Gilead Baptist Church before I was born.

Grandad also worked as the director for the local job corps program, assisting youth in finding training and employment–I still meet folks who benefited from his passion and service so many years ago. Grandma Margie did a little of everything with flair and finesse. I highly recommend reading her obituary here :-)

My father, Dempsy Calhoun, spent his middle and high school days roaming the woods and waters of the Haw River which would later inform the Pomeroy Possum nightly bedtime stories he would make up to the delight of me and my sister.

Dad moved our family back here when I was in elementary school. For the next several years, as he worked in Fearrington Village as both a construction laborer and artist, I waited for the school bus at the end of Launis Street, directly across from Chatham Mills (once the largest cloths label mill in the world).

As my mom, Karen Calhoun, commuted to UNC for her degree in Fine Arts and worked as a substitute teacher, I learned to climb & fall out of trees, ((taught my sister, Vanessa, to ride a bike)), and won a blue ribbon at the Chatham County Fairgrounds (the longest running African American owned fair in the country) for my canned green beans and artwork.

I didn’t get to finish at George Moses Horton Middle School before my parents, sister and I moved again, yet I stayed connected with this community through the years through my paternal grandparents. I returned to live in Chatham County in 2004, and in 2007, decided to move my healing arts practice here to become a more engaged resident of this vibrant community.

I am inspired by the abundance of creativity and sustainability related efforts around Chatham County. I love to witness the glory of Debbie Roos’s Pollinator Paradise Garden as I enter our Chatham Marketplace Co-op located in the renovated textile mill (across from my old bus stop) which also houses the Chatham Mills Studio where I now teach gentle yoga classes.

From 2008 to 2020 I co-organized the Pittsboro Community Dance Jams with my beloved friend Zulayka Santiago where all kinds of folks came together on the dance floor (stay tuned for a comeback in January 2027 in honor of Grandma Margie’s 100th heavenly birthday!). In 2023 we were honored to DJ the first Pittsboro Pride.

I’ve taken classes in sustainable agriculture, permaculture, green building, and biofuels at Pittsboro’s Central Carolina Community College (where I also taught plant field classes for 7 years). I worked for a year at Perry-winkle Farm, ((learning organic farming methods from Cathy Jones and Mike Perry)). In 2016 I was a part of a multi-racial group of concerned residents who formed CORE (Chatham Organizing for Racial Equity) to offer local workshops to build awareness and co-create change. The list of locally grown goodness goes on…(check out my Resources Page for more inspiration).

2026 update: I’m daily heartbroken to witness woods disappearing and folks pushed out by increased cost as Chatham Park and other “development” is destroying ecosystems and contributing to gentrification of the county.

I am also incredibly grateful for: the over 4 decades of education and advocacy by the Haw River Assembly to protect our watershed; Indigenous-led 7 Directions of Service fighting to protect the rights of nature and sacred Indigenous sites; western chatham neighbors coming together across lines of difference to fight a proposed pipeline; Hispanic Liaison organizing residents to protect our immigrant neighbors from ICE raids; and Chatham Climate Action Network fostering resilience to face the mounting climate crisis (we’re in a hot-as-hell exceptional drought as I write).

May we remember how deeply we’re connected to each other and our precious Earth. 💚

One of my many ancestor altars. I’m on a powerful, lifelong journey to know, honor, and heal my complex lineages. Learn a little about my 50th birthday ancestor plantcestor pilgrimage here.