Written by SilkE dot Jose
Read the summary below or listen: Interstellar Vision x Intellectual Minds, ep. 78
Starting Harmonic Harvest
Founder and CEO of Harmonic Harvest, Jenna Washuleski, started the organization through inspiration to connect people to the ways we are coming together as a community through social gatherings.
In living this work, she aims to highlight the things that create sparks in life such as creativity and getting people to find their purpose; ultimately finding the silver linings that are empowering them to continue through the up and down moments of life.
Her service is centered on helping create education of what charitable means and how our gatherings and ways that we are connecting in the community are charitable in nature by preventing community deterioration.
Her vision of building a community center, initially emphasizing a space for individuals in mental health and recovery, began as early as age 15 in response to the challenging home-life situations she was raised in. Through her career as a young professional in the drug courts, Jenna came to see that everything she was envisioning for supporting those in recovery actually applies to everybody, regardless of status or situation.
She became passionate to show that there are so many ways of coming together beyond the mental and behavioral health umbrella and that all social gatherings are important in strengthening communities and the people in them.
It was right before the quarantines imposed by COVID that she had decided to pull back and reflect on the next best steps to achieve her dreams in weaving silver linings.
Initial Launch
Launching on Giving Tuesday, November 28th of 2023, there has been so much more growth than expected in such a short period of time which allowed for Harmonic Harvest to give away $250,000 in the first 6 months of operation through their Luminous Loom grant which supports organizations who are using social gatherings to uplift their communities.
With the recent grand opening of the organization headquarters on April 1st, 2025, which is now an official proclamation in the founding city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin known as Weaving Silver Linings Day, Jenna expresses the feelings of blessed, grateful, and excited.
In utilizing this new headquarters space, Jenna invites others to come see us, interact, sit down, engage, learn, and connect.
The organization has established within the headquarters a Fundraising Marketplace that has over 400 products focusing on local, good quality, and meaningful collections to choose from; including yet not limited to: apparel, jewelry, cosmetics, accessories, candles, literature/books, cleaning supplies, and more. All of the sales generated through the Fundraising Marketplace enhances the organization’s ability to be completely self-sustaining and serve as a pillar of connection and creativity across the globe.
The early success of Harmonic Harvest is a testament to all the help Jenna and her brand have received through uplifting empowerment and opened doors that made possible a dream that never could have been accomplished alone.
Synergy
Jenna believes that she is living her life’s purpose, and that other people are too. She lives on the philosophy that when synergy and alignment come into play, you never know where things are going to go.
During her younger years, she used to have multi-year plans of what she wanted her life to look like such as, “in 5 years I will have” or “when I’m this age,” etc.; however as she has gotten older, she now moves in the viewpoint that your whole life can change tomorrow, which she has experienced in both tragic and beautiful ways.
She speaks on how ideas and happenings can help guide us where we need to go, and how they later make sense as we continue on our path. An example of this is the goal she had of operating a marketplace yet all the unknown blessings and connections led to unthought of opportunities such as the cosmetics collaboration with Au Naturale or the initial funding for the luminous loom grant.
Jenna emphasizes the value in learning how to move with the shifts of life and the importance of noticing the puzzle pieces of inspiration found by observing and interacting with others as we work toward the overall vision we are collectively creating together.
Cloud 9 Success Principles
Jenna recognizes a silver lining in people as anyone who is authentically and genuinely trying to make the world a better place; therefore the more we come together as we are weaving silver linings from person to person and community to community, the greater collective fore we will make. She truly celebrates and appreciates those who combat the various poisons of the world by killing negative energy with kindness.
In her alone time, Jenna uses prayer to ask for the people and resources that will help her live her life mission on the highest timeline for the overall collective and greater good. She has chosen to full send at her one lifetime by giving it her all, doing more, and complaining less.
When asked how someone can start to create the self-love needed to be a silver lining, she recommends starting with simply talking to the people in your life and asking them how you make an impact on them. In doing so, you’ll soon realize that you are already a silver lining in the lives of others. There are heartwarming special moments like this that naturally happen in the Renaissance Threads program where attendees use writing and fabric/textile art to express the silver linings of their life; which at times has turned out to be the person sitting directly next to them during the workshop.
Jenna also shares the light and warming impact that can arise between random people on the street with a simple act of a smile or compliment; which may be a life-saving moment for someone battling through the dark phases of life. By being intentional every day with the acts we put out, we own our power to make big impact and uplifting ripple effects on each other.
For those of us who are on the journey of building our high self-esteem, using positive affirmations, as both verbal and written good thoughts, is a fantastic place to start. In the beginning, when we may not fully know our alignment with these high value beliefs we are speaking, the opportunity is there to turn those attributes into goals of who to become.
Once we have that vision of who it is we know we are meant to be, we are better able to choose the actions that match our desired personality.
Jenna’s character has placed her in multitudes of amazing experiences and positions, which she utilizes daily in recognizing the inspiration and beauty of life, especially with the people coming around and how things are falling into place.
A recent highlight stems from Bottega Venetta’s donation of brick-and-mortar furniture and their visit a few days before the grand opening in which Jenna stayed up until 2am preparing for. In the closing moments of that late night, she noticed a footprint in the concrete of the maker’s space floor, exactly where someone will be sowing fabric and weaving silver linings; a sign of reassurance that she is exactly where she needs to be.
Weaving Silver Linings
With the ribbon cut and Harmonic Harvest headquarters now open, Jenna is excited to get into the everyday routine, meet the community, see what people’s silver linings are, how they choose to create art on fabric, and what resonates with them through the space and mission.
Serving as a non-profit, the organization is appreciative of volunteers, who are essential in the grounding process of the systems that are currently developing, with a key area of support needed being in the tapestry sowing on silver linings.
Another fun way to support is by shopping in the marketplace, which as shared previously, is designed to make Harmonic Harvest self-sustaining and overflow into our funding sources to provide grants for other organizations unifying culture through social gathers.
The core purpose of the headquarters is to serve as a third space you know you can go to see and support the different realms of our community which will come in the form of conversations, panel discussions, gatherings and pop-ups for fashion, authors, and artists.
Paperclips (Meet the Team)
Brittney Zaragoza, social impact specialist for Harmonic Harvest, speaks on her years seeing the brand grow from a small seed being watered into something much bigger than ever expected in such a short amount of time. A special impact that stands out to her is watching the love of the organizations helped through the luminous loom grant being positively reciprocated back. She’s also excited to see the atelier development as it came together so naturally in acquisition.
Jazmine Holifield, public communications specialist, came on board initially to help with PR and communication. As a Milwaukee native, she enjoys giving back to people that she knows and that truly need the support. Her vision for Harmonic Harvest is to be a resource of accessibility where people can get what they need in creative, business, and mentorship needs. Jazmine appreciates how the workshops serve as a resource for building teams to connect with each other, share an art and creativity outlet, and all the healing behind it.
Britni Fletcher, one of multiple initially hired weavers, first met Jenna at a birthday party of a mutual friend (and now Harmonic Harvest board member) Melonie Ricks, months before the existence of Harmonic Harvest. Her first impression of Jenna was genuine, inclusive, and an openness to getting to know everyone. From the beginning, Britni recognized how everything Jenna is working towards is about intersectionality and interconnectedness through harmonies, harvesting and creating communities regardless of size.
Britni is thankful to use the space to encourage others to thrive and feel positive and happy, while learning life lessons. She notes that Harmonic Harvest breeds a space to leave a mark and connect in helpful ways, irrespective of employment position, which emphasizes her perspective that Jenna is amazing at building something for everyone to flourish in.
Christina Pemberton, general manager of Harmonic Harvest, first saw the organization on Instagram while she was living in Phoenix. While scrolling through the social media feed, she noticed how the brand is immersed in the arts and creativity, uplifting artists and various communities, and the big footing backing her vision.
Through suggestion of mutual friend, artist, and Harmonic Harvest board member Autumn Lundberg, Chirstina connected with Jenna at a gallery night during the soft opening with interest in working in management in the brand’s expansion and accepted the starting path through the weaver position which she was recently promoted from prior to the grand opening.
Due to the synchronicities and resonation with organization values, Christina is, for the first time since living back home here in Milwaukee, excited to plant roots here to stay and invest in this community building.
As general manager, she is excited to bring organization and seamlessness, maximize the profits of the Fundraising Marketplace, coordinate the events calendar while bringing in makers and artists for pop-ups and consignment; giving people opportunities to be involved in community conversations and other workshops.
Ricki Hart, a MIAD (Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design) student, is a new hire in the weaver position who first met Jenna through a workshop that Harmonic Harvest ran at one of her poetry classes. Ricki felt the motive and message of the brand to be very inspiring and helped her to reflect on who she is identity wise and how she wants to contribute to the community. She instantly recognized Jenna’s warm aura and regretted not reaching out immediately in that initial meeting to see how she could contribute as she saw that Harmonic Harvest is her ideal employment with how it intertwines art, expression, and community.
Soon after, she heard of and pursued the weaver hiring opportunity due to alignment in morals and values. As a mutli-media artist, Ricki is most excited to use various materials and mediums such as painting, watercolor, oil pasters, charcoal, pen/pencil to help the mission of Harmonic Harvest, along with creation in the digital arts to aid the expansion of the brand in social platforms.
Jade Bell, another team member onboarded as a weaver, feels the breath of fresh air that Harmonic Harvest provides to be a space where creativity and new ideas are encouraged. She is excited for the Community Connections program and bringing people together, with a specialty emphasis towards utilizing the phenomenal sunlight filling up headquarters and her background in yoga.
Jennifer Fjelsted, a former weaver, now stepping in the director role at the Boerner Botanical Gardens, is super grateful for her time at Harmonic Harvest, coming together with so many talents and wonderful personalities. She speaks on how it felt like she met more people in her first days around the organization with gallery night and the weaver interest party than she did during her entire first year in Milwaukee, which really speaks on the brand’s success in bringing people together for social gatherings.
Jennifer talks about how Harmonic Harvest has helped her explore her creativeness and inner artist through the beautiful process of silver lining stories. Jenna asked her about her silver lining story during her weaver interview, which for Jennifer is her husband Javier, and the chance encounter, story of love that brought them together. She shares how the Renaissance Threads workshop makes it fun to translate a story into fabric and the freedom of expression that comes along with that.
Lastly, of the newest team members brought in as a weaver, is myself, Joseph “SilkE dot” Wilke, founder and CEO of Vision Minds Entertainment LLC, and host of the radio show we ran this interview on, Interstellar Vision x Intellectual Minds, on Riverwest Radio.
I became called to Harmonic Harvest through a series of chance introductions to Jenna, mainly at vocal artist events the organization was sponsoring including, F**k Seasonal Depression, Arts @ Large Open Jams, and Emmitt James Hoop 4 the Holidays.
Through each of these interactions, I saw Jenna’s light and love, and her intentional involvement in supporting artists. As an artist myself that operates in the entertainment space for the betterment of social justice and global equity, collaboration with Harmonic Harvest made all the sense in the world to me, no pun intended, yet literally the entire planet with its already international reach.
A few weeks prior to the weaver position posting, I had come in during the soft opening hours and sat down with Jenna in the magical, significant, historic energy of the vault to learn more about the organization and how I can become involved. After the conversation, I took along the items donated for the Hoop 4 the Holidays event that helped The Guest House community with winter apparel items, went about my regular days, and soon after saw the weaver position interest party which aligns directly with my skills and talents.
Being here at Harmonic Harvest, my main focus is to be an asset in whatever way I can. I have a background in education, which has brought me much mastery in curriculum development, class instruction, and emotional-behavior support, in combination with my experience as a hip-hop emcee, I’m excited to bring and execute any ideas forward that expands the brand’s recognition and utilization as a hub for weaving silver linings.
All Flow, No Force
Know that it shouldn’t be that hard and that it is completely acceptable to take a step back from space and happenings that create feelings of aggression or tension.
It’s important to set yourself in a place where you are pouring into your own cup as much as you’re trying to pour into others. As much as we wish to give, we must take care of our needs and put ourselves first; to allow ourselves to receive the abundance, love, and all the good we are trying to instill and want for others. We deserve to own our space on the planet and never sell ourselves short in imposter syndrome.
Always remember that we truly have only one chance at this small blip of human life in the 21st century, and that what we create can ripple effect for beyond our lifetime. A perfect example of this is the work of Bob and Bill through Alcoholics Anonymous and how their systems are used to this day even though they are not present at these meetings.
Jenna recognizes that she won’t be there for every gathering and silver lining story yet she will know that people are coming together and weaving silver linings far beyond her time.
Interview date: March 31st, 2025
