Our Mission & Story
Our Mission
To regenerate our cultural relationship with nature.
Our Vision
A world transformed through ecological revolution.
Our Name
Healing in the night, soothing for the dark.
Nocturnal Medicine speaks to the power of night. There is a potency in the dark hours that opens us up to shadowy ways of being, seeing, and feeling. We seduce through the senses and draw people to the heart of our wounded world. In that place, the medicine occurs—the balm that moves us towards transformation.
The Problem
Resolving the climate crisis demands an overwhelming amount of change at an unprecedented speed and scale. Every day brings new stories of environmental disaster and human suffering that can only be addressed by a fundamental transformation of society.
This constant drumbeat of catastrophe and collapse can be paralyzing, especially when you have to face it alone. The sense that the system is too big and too ingrained for individuals to change doesn’t help. In a culture built on the exploitation of nature and other people, so many of us have lost touch with the innate sacredness of the environment.
Hopeless, alone with our feelings, and disconnected from the natural world, we don’t realize how powerful it is to be part of something bigger than ourselves. No wonder we’re having trouble building a mass movement of coordinated action.
The Solution
Nocturnal Medicine is redesigning the cultural infrastructure that underpins our society and creating new ways of gathering that connect people to the natural world. The rites, rituals and spaces we create are a portal to the world we want, where life is rich with the intimacy and impact of a justice-oriented, collective relationship with nature.
We mourn what’s been lost, celebrate what remains, and bring forth visions of the future we long for. Directly confronting our difficult realities and the complex emotions they evoke fuels powerful feelings of catharsis and opens up space for the possibility of something new.
Each rite also forges new connections between people, building community, solidarity, and a mass movement towards a new cultural relationship with nature—one rooted in justice, liberation from exploitation, and reverence for Earth, each other, and ourselves. Together, we can break from the extractive patterns of the past and forge a regenerative, sustainable future for our planet.
Our Origins
Nocturnal Medicine was founded by Larissa Belcic and Michelle Farang Shofet. Formally incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in 2021, our work emerges from a decade of collaboration and exploration on the fringes.
Our story begins at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. While studying landscape architecture, our Co-Founders forged a collaboration that defied convention. Drawn to the darker aspects of the environment, we dove into boundary-pushing design to get to the core of the nature-culture relationship, merging activism, club culture, the healing arts, and the built environment.
Our work has been honed over years of making and learning. Since our beginnings, we’ve maintained our commitment to a practice that is radical, brave, and deeply feeling. Through it all, we’ve crafted visionary approaches to the challenges of our time that have drawn the attention of industry leaders, Canada’s Global News, and the New York Times.
Our transdisciplinary practice weaves across art, sound, and design, and our collaborators include DJs, performers, and activists. Together, we've journeyed into damaged landscapes, darkened nightclubs, and major cultural institutions alike.
We work to manifest the world we dream of for future generations and all life forms. The first step to healing Earth is hope. Let us be brave together.