ARTS & CULTURE

ARTS &

CULTURE

Ellie Mae Mitchell, founder of Moonbow Medicinals

PHOTO: ED LYTLE

Moonbow Medicinals Aims to Provide Herbal Womb Care for All

Ellie Mae Mitchell founded Moonbow Medicinals to provide herbal care products that help wombs through periods, miscarriages, abortions, pregnancy and after birth

BY MACKENZIE MANLEY

Mugwort. Cramp bark. Wormwood. Raspberry leaf. Nettle. Yarrow.

These are just a few of the herbs Ellie Mae Mitchell, founder of Moonbow Medicinals, regularly uses in her practice as a womb worker.

Many of these same herbs historically have been used by midwives to assist women in all stages of childbirth. Mitchell — who is not a licensed midwife but a womb sovereignty herbalist — creates herbal products meant to aid and nourish clients through several aspects of womb care, from menstrual cycles to miscarriages, pregnancy and abortion. She sources plants from her farm sites and by foraging.

“Indigenous people all over the world have been using medicine to manage fertility,” Mitchell says. “Predating Christianity or any monotheistic religion, human beings have looked toward the earth in sacredness. There’s a deeprooted connection between human beings and using plant medicine.”

Moonbow Medicinals was founded last summer, but it wasn’t until a few months ago that Mitchell quit her “9-to-5 corporate farm gig” to pursue the small business. Her interest in herbalism, however, goes back 15 years. Raised on a farm in Appalachia, her family grew most of their own food and did animal husbandry.

“We were pretty self-sustaining. I got into herbalism as a teenager through practicing witchcraft,” Mitchell says. “I recognized that a lot of these plants that had magical properties also had medicinal properties. This opened up this whole world of, ‘What did people do before pharmaceuticals?’ We had village doctors that practiced herbal

medicine.”

Starting in 2017, Mitchell volunteered and trained through Planned Parenthood as an abortion doula (someone who provides support to those seeking or undergoing an abortion). At the time, Ohio was making headlines for its “heartbeat bill,” one of the most restrictive in the U.S., which would have banned abortions as early as six weeks gestation. Though Ohio’s legislature passed the bill in 2019, it was blocked by a federal judge and never went into effect.

Still, a study in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology found that about 26% of women in Ohio were unsure about the legality of abortion after the bill was passed — and then blocked. Another 10% thought abortion was outright illegal. According to the study, already disenfranchised groups were more likely to believe this, adding to the existing systemic barriers standing in the way of accessibility to proper women’s health care.

While volunteering with Planned Parenthood, Mitchell says she saw “the stark need for empathetic care within the medical paradigm.” But she found herself being called more toward supporting people at home.

She points out that having an herbal abortion was legal and commonplace in the United States for most of the 18th and 19th centuries. According to CNN, it wasn’t until 1880 that abortions became criminalized, a move led partly by American male physicians who sought control over women’s reproductive health and a tighter hold on the market, edging out midwives and herbalists.

Along with training from Planned Parenthood, Mitchell has taken courses at Midwest Herb Fest, the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine and The Wander School, as well as other independent studying. She’s also taken courses from Samantha Zipporah, a fertility, sex and cycle educator.

“I met (Zipporah) right when I started at Planned Parenthood. She was on a teaching tour around the country with a womb sovereignty course,” Mitchell says. “I hosted her at my farm. When that happened, I described it as a gong going off in my chest. Everything changed. I was like, ‘This is what I’m supposed to be doing.’”

The herbs Mitchell uses in her practice are cultivated in multiple locations, including at her home in Price Hill’s Enright Urban Ecovillage. Another site is a quarter-acre at the Woodcock Nature Preserve in Athens, Ohio, where she is growing 800 cotton plants alongside flowers, milky oats and clover as part of an alley cropping grant from Rural Action, which aims to develop Appalachia’s “assets in environmentally, socially and economically sustainable ways.” She plants her crops between chestnut tree saplings at the preserve.

“When I’m out there, I forage for yarrow (and roses) in the prairies,” she says, adding that she tries to use items either grown or foraged in everything she makes.

Her Moonbox is one piece of her overall mission. Mitchell gestures to the items included in the monthly CSA-style box, sent out to clients just before the full moon. Each handcrafted item — a cramp salve, blood-building tea, menstrual relief tincture and a handmade beeswax ritual candle — is meant to “nourish, soothe and bring balance to the body during and after menstruation.”

“I remember being so embarrassed the first time I menstruated because I wasn’t really taught what was happening,” Mitchell says. “It makes me really sad for all the people that have to feel like they have to hide it. I want to support people by having these tools that they can honor their cycle with and be a little bit in tune with it.”

One moon cycle’s worth — one month of supplies — costs $40, with additional share options available. A one-on-one herbal consultation is $30, and is recommended for “anyone interested in fertility awareness or other issues related to womb-care,” she says.

Mitchell is working to roll out additional products, such as reusable gender-neutral menstrual underwear and crescent-moon-shaped womb pouches that can be heated. Regarding the former, she explains that single-use plastics are one of the most detrimental things to our environment, and the majority of menstrual products happen to be full of the stuff. Most products on the market are made for ciswomen; Mitchell’s products will be genderless so that all people with uteruses can feel seen and empowered.

In June, Mitchell led a workshop at Wave Pool, a contemporary art fulfillment center in Camp Washington, titled “Witchcare: Plant Medicine & Reproductive Justice.” In the class, she discussed “the history of herbal abortion care, the medicinal properties of common plants, and the intersections

An example of a Moonbow Medicinals Moonbox PHOTO: ED LYTLE between witchcraft and midwifery,” according to its website. She’s also aiming to start teaching cervical self-examination courses this fall (these classes can be done as a group but Mitchell says she always has a private space for those who wish to do it alone).

Mitchell stresses that if individuals find themselves in a dire medical situation, nothing should be done without professional consultation.

“Always talk to your physician; talk to an herbalist before you do anything,” she says. “I am an herbalist and this is what I do. But don’t take something you don’t know. It’s dangerous.

“But I understand that fear and desperation pushes people to do really dangerous things, so we need more care like this in the world. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

Through Moonbow Medicinals, she hopes to support individuals’ rights to make choices for their own bodies. Community care, she says, is radical care.

For more on Moonbow Medicinals, visit moonbowmedicinals.com or @moonbowmedicinals on Instagram.

CULTURE Former Price Hill Masonic Lodge Now Home to ARCO Community, Art and Event Center

BY KATIE GRIFFITH

The former Price Hill Masonic Lodge that sat vacant on Price Avenue for 30 years recently gained a new identity and purpose.

Local neighborhood development nonprofit Price Hill Will (PHW) acquired the building in 2014 and by 2019 secured $10 million to renovate the structure. The redone space, now called ARCO, debuted July 25 as Price Hill’s new community and event center while hosting the annual Price Hill Creative Community Festival.

ARCO — a portmanteau of “arts” and “community” — will act as a social enterprise, says Rachel Hastings, PHW executive director. It will offer the community a place to convene, share art and ideas and also put those ideas to work. The building also now houses PHW’s offices and operations.

PHW partnered with The Model Group to co-develop the lodge, securing that $10 million through tax credits and a capital grant from the city.

“The spiritual feeling of bringing back this building for the community just really feels good,” Hastings says. “We are also hoping that this sparks other people to think creatively about what opportunities might be in Price Hill.”

PHW has served the East, West and Lower Price Hill neighborhoods since 2004 with a focus on civic, social, economic and physical development. It places an emphasis on incorporating and promoting the arts, a quality not found in other corporations like it, says Hastings. ARCO will complement PHW’s mission by providing much-needed space for groups to convene, as area recreation centers and library spots are limited and often overcrowded, Hastings says. The 21,000-square-foot building also offers leasable space for public events and private celebrations.

“We are really focused on equitable development and using creativity and the arts as a tool to bring folks together,” Hastings says. “So it’s really about growing opportunity for everyone who lives in Price Hill, particularly folks that have been left out of opportunities in the past. People of color, immigrants, lower-income families, those folks have often been left out, so we are trying to grow opportunities for them to be successful here in the neighborhood.”

ARCO houses two large ballrooms that boast original features of the building’s Neoclassical architectural style. On the first floor, the Shawnee Theater holds the building’s original, 16-foot-deep orchestral-style stage and grand floor space with a 344-person occupancy. The distinctive arched windows on the second floor are a notable feature of ARCO’s Iris Gallery and also contributed to the building’s namesake, as “arco” translates from Italian and Spanish to arch, arc or bow.

On the third floor, Myaamia Hall has a 32-foot stage that sits below a prominent set of three professionally restored, stained glass skylights.

Hastings sees a lot of potential for weddings and large-scale events in the ballrooms, which get their names from indigenous tribes. PHW partnered with the Greater Cincinnati Native American Coalition to name the spaces and draft a statement recognizing that the land originally belonged to indigenous peoples.

“We wanted to try to honor the people whose land we are sitting on and to recognize their long history in this community,” Hastings says. “And as much as we want to welcome newer populations of folks that come into this community, we also want to recognize people who lived on this land for thousands of years.”

Sheila Rosenthal, president of the East Price Hill Improvement Association, says ARCO will begin hosting the community council’s monthly meetings in September. The council focuses on civic engagement and the betterment of East Price Hill and the entire West Side of Cincinnati; the group previously met in the Price Hill Recreation Center.

Rosenthal is a Price Hill resident of 30 years and says just having the building restored is an enormous step forward, as its previous decrepit state was not positive for the neighborhood.

“East Price Hill in particular is the city’s most diverse community. We have a broad range of ethnicities and races, and we run the entire gamut of the socioeconomic strata,” Rosenthal says. “ARCO is going to contribute in a very large way to social and civic life here. It’s open to events for both local organizations, businesses and families and it’s focused on arts and community also. It’s for everyone both in and outside of East Price Hill.”

Hastings says that ARCO will rely on rentals from events like weddings and large celebrations to fund PHW projects and building maintenance, while community-centric meetings and groups can utilize the rooms at an approachable fee or sometimes at no cost at all. Revenue from rentals will be funneled directly back into ARCO and PHW programs, and at least one largescale event per week will be necessary to keep up with utilities, loan payments and other building upkeep, she says.

It’s also a major benefit for residents to have something close to host celebrations like retirement parties, birthday parties, celebrations of life or neighborhood gatherings.

“Folks have a love for this neighborhood,” Hastings says. “So when they have important family events, lots of folks want to do that close to home. Being able to do that here, where your home is, rather than having to go out of the neighborhood somewhere is really appealing.”

ARCO also is home to MYCincinnati orchestra, which provides children free access to music education. The afterschool program currently instructs 130 students who now can look forward to practicing and performing in the brand new building. Hastings thinks giving the students this space adds a layer of seriousness to their work, while honoring their dedication and progress.

“To have concerts in a formal, larger space and the opportunity to shine in a grand space is really exciting for young people,” Hastings says. She looks forward to a full building with multiple meetings and events as well as the birth of new ideas and projects that may come from individuals intermingling in the common spaces.

“You might have a neighborhood association on one floor and folks on another floor learning Zumba, and those folks can meet each other in the common areas or the parking lot. Opportunities for folks to connect are really important, especially in this COVID world where we are all desperate to see other people,” she says.

Following the excitement of ARCO’s grand opening, PHW will focus on the nearby Warsaw Avenue Creative Campus, for which fundraising is now complete. Eight buildings on Warsaw Avenue will see improvements as well as new affordable housing above commercial spaces. Hastings says construction starts in the Fall.

“Price Hill is a big neighborhood, we have a pretty robust residential community and then our commercial corridors unfortunately still have a lot of vacant spaces,” she says. “I think there’s more opportunity for stuff like this. For us it’s about seeing the value in creative pursuits and how that helps people grow as individuals and how they can build leadership skills together and then harnessing that so it has a positive impact on the community.”

ARCO has taken over the former Price Hill Masonic Lodge.

PHOTO: FACEBOOK.COM/ARCOCINCY

ARCO’s opening celebration

PHOTO: CATIE VIOX/PROVIDED BY PRICE HILL WILL

ARCO is located at 3301 Price Ave., Price Hill. More info: arcocincinnati.org.