Our in-person, Bay Area section will meet weekly for two-ish hours. This time will be divided between work time, conversation time, and feedback time. At the end of the eight weeks we will have an exhibition opening/publishing event for friends and family and friendly public.

The remote section will meet weekly via Zoom, also in a combination of quiet work time, active conversation, and 1-1s. You’re encouraged to have a local study group or study buddy — get in touch!

Conversations will also happen virtually/asynchronously through our Circle and Perusall platforms, which will be open to both sections.

Virtual office hours with Diana and guests will also be open weekly, to both sections, and other appointments in person or via Zoom.

All participants will receive a hard-copy, zine reader/packet, and also a copy of the Folk Yourself publication.

Over the course of 8 weeks, you will generate and iterate a focus (from the Latin word for “hearth”) project, that arises from a question that is important to you. This question will emerge from exercises and conversations in class.

For us, a focus is a tangible object that, like a hearth, acts as a small place. It could be an altar, a book, a patch of garden, a piece of jewelry… somewhere for you to collect your thoughts and develop your folk tools, and continue to work with after the course is over.

Each week, you will experiment with a different aspect of folk work that will contribute to your focus, based on a provided prompt. Prompts will be designed to give you ideas about the kinds of folk practice that you are already doing, as well as the things that excite you. Some will emphasize more on tangible skills, like interviewing or working with seeds, while others will be more abstract or intuitive.

We will emphasize process over product, using the focus as a way to generate possibilities and learn by doing.

Our main way of working will be to practice listening and asking questions: of texts, of the people in our lives, of our lineages and imaginations, and of the places we inhabit. In addition to a syllabus, you will receive personalized recommendations through a weekly process of feedback and conversation.

At least one time during the course, an outside practitioner will join the group to give their own perspective and offer resources.

At the end of the course, you will be invited to share your process and/or your focus itself in an exhibition and publication intended to generate dialogue between the course and the outside world. These will be incubators for future courses, projects, and ongoing conversations about the future of folk, which we’re making, together.

Diana Ruta Lempel has a lifelong love of folklore and folk traditions.

Diana Ruta comes to this work out of academic training in history and social sciences, and more than a decade of professional practice in local, community based history curating, education, and storytelling. She has an MUP in Urban Planning, an MA (ABDPhD) in Landscape Studies, and an MFA in Nonfiction Writing; she considers her home field to be oral history. She has taught research methods to high school students, graduate students, and adults; most recently by creating a training program for community storytellers funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Diana Ruta has recently returned to Ohlone land, where she was born and raised, and lives now along Codornices Creek, in Berkeley, California. She previously lived for 20 years along the Charles/Quinobequin River in Cambridge, MA, and along the Connecticut/Kwinitekw River in Western Massachusetts. Some of the identities she holds are: mother, woman, materialist feminist, descendant of the Italian and Jewish diasporas, as well as early settler-colonizers and 19th century European farmers, Californian and New Englander, and neurodivergent.

Learn more about Diana at dianalempel.me and conventicle.substack.com

The application is a way for you to show me and for me to show you that we’re serious about committing to work together, and to give me the information I need to tailor the course materials for you. This is intended to make you feel like a valued student, not a customer. If that’s not the effect for you, or you have any questions, please get in touch. Everything about Folk Yourself is a prototype.

We aren’t looking for prior knowledge or experience, or a particular pedigree. Instead, we are looking for community members who are:

• ready to be “bad students” and pursue their own interests rather than what is “best”

• from all educational backgrounds and with any level of traditional schooling, but with proficiency reading, writing, and listening in English

• open to receiving feedback, iterating ideas, and revising their opinions and assumptions

• interested in ideating and creating in the physical world

• willing to extend their work and thinking beyond introspection, and into their community

• looking for direct interaction with a guide/teacher

Applications will begin to be reviewed on January 5, and will be open until all spaces (12 per section) are filled.

No deposit is required until you’re accepted.

If you want to ask any questions, get in touch any time before the start of the course in February.

Payment for the course is in three, self-nominated tiers.

$400 - if this is a significant undertaking to pay for a class

$800 - if you are comfortable but not in a position to pay it forward

$1200 - if you have more than what you need and can support another to participate

Admission for the course is need-blind. Please be honest about your ability to support this work, after you are accepted.

Lowest tier spots will close Jan 21 if there is already enough enrollment to run.

Additional discounts are available!

20% for applications received before Dec 21

20% per student for study buddies and groups in the remote section

and trade arrangements for virtual and in person students.

Sister Oak Folk School is an experiment in how to support and sustain the thinking, feeling, and presence that we and our communities need in order to exist in the world we live in.

SOFS has emerged out of Diana Ruta’s study of Medieval monasteries and midcentury artist colonies, 19th century Transcendentalist salons and 70s feminist publishing collectives, mid-20th century radical schools, and also the result of training interns, students, teachers, and guiding friends to connect to intuition, creativity, and intellect. SOFS is an activation of a network of creative, intuitive, magical, academic-adjacent creators, and also a network of our places and tools for thinking.

If we can smuggle things into the future, if we can save the things that need saving, if we can invent what we need that doesn’t exist now, Sister Oak Folk School is the place where will learn to do it.

Sister Oak Folk School will evolve in the coming years after 2026. Folk Yourself is a prototype and prerequisite for the School’s courses, which will cover folk methods and topics such as:

. memory keeping (through family history and beyond)

. lineage work and ancestors of the mind

. archives and record keeping

. craft, music, and food

. story and symbol

. listening to land

. bioregionalism

. architectures of time (calendars, holidays, rituals and ceremonies)

. creating and maintaining spaces

. language

. divination and intuition

. futuring and transition design

. parenting and care work

. teaching and curriculum development

. community institutions like museums

. oral history

You may be drawn to one of these, or more than one, or all of them. Folk doesn’t demand expertise. You can get started from where you are.

How will this course relate to my existing spiritual/religious practice?

Your investigation in this course will be supported by your existing capacities for presence with the great mystery, and no expectations will be placed on adhering to any particular traditional text, dogma, or ritual. However, if you feel that right now you’re not interested in beginner questions or being around beginners, this might not be the course for you at the moment. Stay tuned for future offerings that might be more in sync with your goals.

I am an atheist, is this program for me?

This course will emphasize how you relate more than it will focus on what you believe, focusing on the mystery, joy and wonder in the natural world and the wisdom of human traditions. Some texts may also use the term “God” to refer to these ideas, but that doesn’t describe what you need to believe, only the way the text was originally created. If you are willing to engage with the unknown - in whatever language you choose - and ask questions about why things are the way they are, and trust that not everything that is important is what you can prove or see, then you’ll be fine with Folk.

Where does the money go?

The start up funds for Folk Yourself are coming from my (Diana’s) personal savings from income generated by previous employment. Tuition income from Folk Yourself will pay for program costs, and subsidize the startup of Sister Oak Folk School. Because I do not need to make an income for my own living, my portion will be redistributed and reinvested into folk-affiliated initiatives.

I cant make the times, but I’m interested -- why don’t you have nights or weekends?

I am mother to two very intense kids and also sustain family and community commitments locally. It is not possible for me to have a work life at all unless it takes place during very specific hours. If you are interested in learning about asynchronous options for this iteration of Folk Yourself, please get in touch.

I don’t love reading. Will I struggle in this class?

You might! But you won’t do it without loving support. My hope is that if reading is challenging for you, this class might help.

Most of our text-reading will take place during class hours, with plenty of instruction. We will also have a guest/supplemental instructor who has specific expertise in guiding adult learners through difficult texts. Many of the sources will also be available in audio form.

What if it doesn’t work out for me? What’s your refund policy?

If you withdraw from the course before it begins, I’ll return your money. If you enroll and find you can’t attend sessions or complete your focus in the allotted time, please get in touch, or I will get in touch with you! We can figure out a different way for you to get what you need out of the course, if you’ve already received resources and I’ve already received your payment.

Who is Sister Oak?

My house is under a massive California Black Oak (quercus kelloggii), which previously gave its name to a beloved local bookstore. One of its owners lived in my home before me. Near my home is also Live Oak Park, which is home to many majestic and charismatic California Live Oaks (quercus agrifolia). The oak is a beloved sacred tree in many places and cultures.