Located just one hour from Palm Springs, three hours from Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and under four hours from Phoenix, Twentynine Palms is easy to reach yet pleasantly off the grid. The city offers a variety of lodging options—from classic desert motels and boutique hotels to character-filled short-term rentals—ideal for festival stays, book launches, and informal meetings.

Held November 13–15, the annual festival takes place during one of the desert’s most beautiful seasons, with clear skies, warm days, and cool evenings—perfect for outdoor readings, conversations under the stars, and relaxed encounters across town.

The festival pays homage to California as a source of stories. From desert adventures and road journeys to memoirs, crime fiction, Indigenous storytelling, and children’s literature, the program celebrates the many ways writers have captured the spirit and pioneer imagination of the Golden State.

Small in scale but rich in character, the Twentynine Palms Book Festival celebrates California’s storytelling traditions in the relaxed setting of a desert town that continues to inspire writers, artists, and travelers alike.

https://www.29pbf.com

Jesika von Rabbit, LANDROID, and Carnal Circus take the stage for a night of strange sounds, theatrical energy, and Halloween revelry.

This Halloween, something wicked is stirring in the desert…

The Haunted Masquerade takes over Coyote Run Studio for a bewitching night of live music, costumes, dancing, mystery, and late-night revelry.

Three wildly different desert acts — Jesika von Rabbit, LANDROID, and Carnal Circus — come together for one unforgettable night of psychedelic spectacle, cinematic dreamwave, theatrical chaos, and rock ’n’ roll.

Jesika von Rabbit brings her deliciously weird collision of psychedelic pop, electronic beats, rock ’n’ roll, and theatrical spectacle.

LANDROID conjures cinematic dreamwave from the Mojave Desert, weaving haunting vocals, hypnotic synths, and shoegaze textures into an immersive wall of sound.

Carnal Circus rounds out the night with their own brand of provocative, theatrical mayhem.

And when the bands stop, the night doesn’t. SunTribe DJs take over and keep the dance floor moving late into the night.

Come costumed and ready to dance.

Doors at 8pm • Bands at 8:30pm • Dance party ’til late

Three bands. One haunted night. Anything could happen.

Welcome to the Haunted Masquerade.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/haunted-masquerade-tickets-1998697901226

October 16–18, 2026 | Desert Hot Springs, California

3 Days. 10 Hotels. One Immersive Wellness Experience.

This October, Wellness Weekend transforms Miracle Hill into a three-day destination for wellness, discovery, connection, and restoration.

Experience back-to-back programming across 10 participating hotels and mineral spas, bringing together wellness practitioners, medical professionals, movement instructors, sound healers, educators, and thought leaders.

One ticket. An entire weekend of experiences.

https://miraclehillspas.com/wellness-weekend/

1010-77 A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME 10/10 @ 6:pm

RARE PRINTS SHOW &
ROBERT TURNS 77

SATURDAY 10/10 @ 6 PM
61821 29 PALMS HWY JT

In this moving and deeply personal work, Lisa Schyck reflects on a life transformed life from addiction, loss, and a defining moment of reckoning into over a decade of sobriety, purpose, and creative rebirth. Grounded in resilience and guided by an unwavering commitment to growth, her journey becomes a powerful testament to the possibility of healing and starting over.

That transformation ultimately led her to Joshua Tree a place as striking as it is soulful. With its otherworldly landscape of vast open skies, sculptural boulders, and desert terrain, Joshua Tree draws a certain kind of person those seeking authenticity, creativity, and deeper meaning. For many, including Schyck, there is an immediate knowing upon arrival: a quiet yet undeniable sense of belonging. This energetic pull, often described as a vortex, becomes the catalyst for both personal evolution and creative expression.

Part memoir, part visual journey, and part cultural documentation, Women of the Mojave emerges from this connection. At its heart are the women of the desert artists, entrepreneurs, healers, and visionaries modern-day pioneers living boldly and authentically. Through intimate glimpses into their homes and workspaces, Schyck reveals the seamless intersection of environment and identity. These spaces are more than aesthetic they are reflections of courage, vulnerability, and a commitment to living from the soul.

What elevates the work is Schyck’s personal lens. Her own story quietly underpins the narrative, adding depth and sincerity without overshadowing the voices of the women she features. The result is a balanced and heartfelt portrayal of a community rooted in perseverance, generosity, and a shared desire to bring light into the world.

Set against the raw beauty of the Mojave, the book positions the desert not merely as a backdrop, but as an active force one that challenges, shapes, and ultimately transforms those who choose to call it home. While life here comes with its hardships extreme climate, economic uncertainty, and isolation Schyck reveals a deeper truth: faith, trust, and community sustain and uplift.

The collaboration with photographer Bill Brewer brings a refined visual clarity to the project, capturing the quiet power and nuance of each space, while writer Zara Kand adds a thoughtful, connective depth through her essays. Together, they create a multidimensional portrait that captures not only how these women live, but why.

Ultimately, Women of the Mojave reads as an invitation into a place, a community, and a way of being. It encourages readers to reconnect with themselves, embrace possibility, and live with intention and courage. In a time when many are seeking deeper meaning, this book offers both inspiration and a gentle call to action: to live authentically, create boldly, and trust that transformation is always within reach.

By Crystal Harrell

3M Studios Palm Desert is becoming one of the desert’s most dynamic creative hubs. Co-founded by lifelong musician and certified audio engineer Mark Gregg alongside Mandy Calvano and Misty Howell, the studio represents both a new chapter and a natural evolution of a decades-long career in music.

Originally envisioned as a rehearsal and music recording space, the studio quickly adapted to meet a different demand. “It became clear that the music scene here wasn’t developed enough to keep us as busy as we’re able to be,” Gregg explains. Instead, 3M Studios found its stride in video production, commercial work, and podcasting—services that are now booked nearly every day.

“It feels so important to be able to share someone’s message with the world through the technology we use in the studio. Technology is always changing and bringing a new perspective to stories we can tell,” shared 3M Studios engineer and videographer Dominick Calvano, who is also a musician and has worked with the local organization Shelter from the Storm on the song “Run Baby Run” for domestic violence awareness.

The studio works with local creators as well as national productions, including viral content creators The Old Gays, whose combined social media views and the Silver Linings podcast through Heart Radio reach into the billions. Through industry-standard platforms like Source-Connect and Riverside, 3M Studios seamlessly records with producers in Los Angeles, New York, and beyond, making geography far less limiting than it once was.

Gregg’s technical expertise plays a central role in that success. Trained through Berklee College of Music and certified in Logic Pro, he returned to formal study to ensure he could collaborate at a professional level with engineers across the country. The studio continues to embrace emerging tools, including artificial intelligence for editing and content creation. Gregg views AI as a transformative force in audio and video production, one that can streamline workflows, reduce costs, and empower musicians and content creators to maintain a consistent, professional presence online.

Beyond its technical capabilities, 3M Studios is intentionally designed as a welcoming, creative environment. Gregg and his partners, entrepreneurs who also operate a successful healthcare business, share a commitment to professionalism and community engagement, including educational programs for local youth.

“From the minute I stepped foot here, the people embraced what I did,” Gregg says. With 3M Studios Palm Desert, he’s returning that support—offering a space where local talent and global production meet, and where desert creativity finds a worldwide audience.

by Natasha Brie Beranek

For the first time since 1969, Jim Morrison returned to California’s Hi-Desert. At least in spirit.

In recognition of the 25th anniversary of the Hwy 62 Open Studio Art Tours, Yucca Brevifolia Magazine and Lisa Schyck, Lisa Rae Black and Natasha Beranek designed The Lizard King Immersive, a multimedia event merging the talents of Joshua Tree artists, held at Mojave Gold on February 18th. Featuring regional musicians’ renditions of The Doors, selected readings of Jim Morrison’s poetry, and original art by Patrick Hasson., many of the Hi-Desert’s most talented musicians sonically fueled the evening, including: Los Poncho Tones’ Jon Ossman (bass) and Denny Weston (drums), Paul Forrester and Robert Garson (guitar), Bobby Furgo and DJ Gray (piano), and backing vocals by The Blue Ladies. Produced by Lisa Rae Black and organized by Black and JT City Limits Presents, sponsors included Juniper Arts, the Joshua Tree National Park Association and 3M Studios,, with 50 percent of ticket proceeds benefitting the continuation of MBCAC’s Art Tours.

Jim Morrison wrote, “Real poetry doesn’t say anything, it just ticks off all possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through any one that suits you.” It offers lines of escape from the limited ways in which we see and feel. Like many of this region’s creatives, Morrison experienced the desert as poetry, as a catalyst for transforming the most intangible elements of life into their chosen art form. 

As the narrator of “The Lizard King Immersive,” I, in collaboration with JT City Limits Lisa Rae Black and Lisa Schyck , could think of no more fitting way to celebrate Open Studio Art Tour’s 25th anniversary than to pay tribute to Hi-Desert artists through a musical gathering grounded in Morrison’s transfiguring ethos. 

It’s Time for the Desert Wild

In the canon of American music history, The Doors are thought of as quintessentially LA, a rock quartet whose members coalesced in mid-60s Venice Beach, played in clubs along the Sunset Strip, and broke bread with Laurel Canyon contemporaries such as Joni Mitchell, Mama Cass Elliot, and Frank Zappa. But Morrison’s profound connection to the desert and the American Southwest is much less explored.

Indians scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding
Ghosts crowded the young child’s fragile eggshell mind

Morrison’s  belief that he became possessed by the spirit of a shaman in the New Mexico desert as a 4-year-old was, in his words, “the most important moment of my life.” It set the stage for his approach to creativity—relentlessly pushing himself to the edge— and his mission to heal others through musical ritual. The desert, as well as coyotes, snakes and lizards, are recurring motifs throughout his writing, representing freedom, primal and untamed forces, and spiritual potency. His poetry carries a strong sense of place with “the city” as a location to escape from and “the desert” as a source (albeit a precarious one) of emancipation and enlightenment. 

The screaming maggot
Group-grope called life
It’s time for the desert wild 

Morrison further invoked these images and themes in his 1969 film, HWY: An American Pastoral, portions of which were shot in Joshua Tree. Many desert scenes from HWY, most notably those featuring Morrison driving through Joshua Tree National Park in his light blue 1967 Shelby GT500, more recently gained widespread visibility in the 2009 Johnny Depp-narrated documentary When You’re Strange, which won a Grammy for Best Long Form Video in 2011. 

HWY, a film that Morrison described as “more poetic” than carrying a storyline in a traditional sense, follows a hitchhiker (played by Morrison) from Tahquitz Canyon in Palm Springs along Highway 74 in Coachella Valley up through the mountain into the Hi-Desert before driving west back to Los Angeles. Like Morrison’s hitchhiker, the film meanders without any apparent goal. In one scene, he dances and sings with young children, while in another he peruses a rack of paperback novels in a gas station. He kneels on the side of the nighttime highway, passing a diving rod over a map, seemingly seeking guidance on his next movements. He stops to watch an injured coyote lying on the side of the road (a parallel to the fear a young Jim felt when he observed dying Native Americans from his parents’ car). 

The Lizard King Immersive

Is everybody in? 
The ceremony is about to begin 

Lisa Moncure’s silky vocal rendition of “Light My Fire,” accompanied by Bobby Furgo on keys, launched the evening, a placid and dreamlike start belying the acoustic intensity that would shortly follow. Against projected background magery of The Doors’ frontman, Dr. Natasha Beranek initiated the poetry reading, laying the foundation for the gathering’s narrative themes: Jim Morrison’s creative and philosophical worldview, his shamanistic role in rock music ritual, his commitment to personal autonomy at all costs, and his spiritual connection to the desert.

What are you doing here?
What do you want? Is it music? 
We can play music
But you want more
You want something and someone new.

You want ecstasy
Desire and dreams … 
Let’s recreate the world
The palace of conception is burning

Liesl Clouse/Madame Harlequin commanded the room with her thunderous version of “The Changeling”—the opening track of The Doors’ final album LA Woman (1971), which was a stylistic departure, bringing a rather James Brown-esque, funk element to their previously predominately psychedelic catalog. The song is a declaration of Morrison’s lone wolf status and his desire to evolve and cast off the shackles of rock stardom,his strident rejection of adhering to any one persona. 

Next was “Shaman’s Blues” (from The Soft Parade, 1969), a waltzy, jazz-rock exploration of Morrison’s solitary shamanistic path. Robert Garson’s rich vocals carried “My Eyes Have Seen You” (Strange Days, 1967) ,one of The Doors’ shortest songs, a frenzied, parlour piano-driven jaunt through Morrison’s voyeuristic line of sight as he gazes on a city under television skies from a rooftop in Venice Beach. What at first pass appears to be a song about obsession and longing from afar is actually Morrison’s lyrical snapshot of a topic he explored at length as a UCLA film student: the socio-psychologically pacifying role of cinema. 

The Lords appease us with images. 
Through art they confuse 
us and blind us to our enslavement [. . . ]

There are no longer ‘dancers,’ the possessed. 
The cleavage of men into actor and spectators
is the central fact of our time [. . . ]
We have been metamorphosed from a mad
body dancing on hillsides, to a pair of eyes
staring in the dark

What did “breaking through” mean to Morrison? It’s a restless search for portals of escape so that we may transcend the limiting social scripts that we’ve been taught by authority figures and social institutions.“Morrison,” Beranek states, “saw Doors’ concerts as a way to spark reflection in his audiences.” As Morrison explained, “It was never really an act, those so-called performances. It was a life-and death thing; an attempt to communicate, to involve many people in a private world of thought.”

Following Bingo Ritchie’s vocals on “Break on Through,” Lisa Moncure and the Blue Ladies launched a woman-led interpretation of “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar),” both of which were originally tracks on The Doors’ eponymous 1967 debut album. Robert Garson returned to the mic for “Love Her Madly,” followed by a piano-only version of the Baroque pop-influenced “Love Street” (Waiting for the Sun, 1968) performed by DJ Gray. Garson closed out the second set with “The Crystal Ship,” one of The Doors’ most ethereal ballads. 

Beranek set up the evening’s third act by invoking eerie imagery from one of Morrison’s darker spoken word poems about a murderous desert traveler from An American Prayer (1978).

The hitchhiker stood by the side of the road
& levelled his thumb in the
Calm calculus of reason 

Listening to Kevin Bone’s vocals on “Not to Touch the Earth” (originally part of an extended performance piece by The Doors called “Celebration of the Lizard”) was a trippy, sonically surreal ride. A tale about a primal, powerful desert figure who operates outside of conventional reality, it was the avant-garde jewel of the evening. “Queen of the Hi-Desert” Jesika Von Rabbit was up next with “Waiting for the Sun,” an initially gentle, but increasingly impassioned plea for spiritual rebirth and better times ahead.

Beranek’s final trip to the mic was an entry to the evening’s concluding set: “The End” (performed by charismatic desert rock mainstay and spoken word Svengali, Sean Wheeler) and the atmospheric “Riders on the Storm” (vocals by Brad Parker). 

After 4 yrs. I’m left w/a 
mind like a fuzzy hammer [ . . .]

The joy of performing has 
Ended [. . . ]

Which of my cellves
will be remember’d

Good-bye America
I loved you 

“Jim spent the final months of his life in Paris, returning to poetry,” Beranek told the crowd. “The last letter he wrote, a postcard to his lawyer, featured a desert scene from Morocco where he and his girlfriend Pamela Courson had just visited. It is fitting,” Beranek reflected, “that the desert was the alpha and omega of Morrison’s life.” 

A Strange Kinship

Car stopped in a clearing,
Ribbon of life, it was nearing.
I saw the boy break out of his skin.
My heart turned over and I crawled in.

Patti Smith, herself a devotee of California’s Hi-Desert, always felt a creative bond with Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison. On Horses’ “Break It Up” (1975), Smith recounts a dream she had of Morrison as a winged, Prometheus-like figure, fused to a slab of marble and struggling to liberate himself. When the stone dissolves and Morrison flees, she expresses her yearning to achieve a proximity to Morrison, something she could only achieve through encounters with his poetry and performance. On Wave (1979), Smith further explored Morrison’s impact on her work through “Dancing Barefoot.” The song is an ode to the liminal space between male and female power, their love for each other, as well as their mutual love for the Creator.

She is re-creation
She, intoxicated by Thee
She has the slow sensation that
He is levitating with she

Smith first saw Morrison perform in 1967. Speaking to her inexplicable affinity with Morrison, she says, “You have to figure – I was just a girl from South Jersey working in a bookstore. . . Of course I admired [him] . . . Jim Morrison was one of our great poets and unique performers. His work will always endure.” 

By Lisa Schyck

Sabrina and Tobi are sisters-in-law, longtime business partners, and women entrepreneurs whose work has helped shape Yucca Valley’s growing wellness community. Together, they co-own Cedar & Sage Wellness Studio and The Desert Mystic Collective, while Tobi and her husband Randy also own The Yucca Tree Eatery. Across yoga, healing, retail, food, and community gathering, their businesses reflect a shared devotion to service, connection, and the transformative spirit of the Mojave Desert.

Lisa: What first drew you to the desert, and what made you stay?

Sabrina: My husband Steve’s work as a firefighter first brought us to the desert. We eventually found our way to Yucca Valley because it was more affordable and closer to family. At first, I didn’t see the beauty here, but over time the desert became home. We raised our two boys here, built friendships, and created a life I can’t imagine leaving.

Tobi: I moved to Yucca Valley 23 years ago for work and to raise my children. What made me stay was the community, the connection to nature, and the sense that this land was calling me to grow, create, and keep expanding.

Lisa: How has the desert shaped your healing journeys and your businesses?

Sabrina: The desert opened doors I can’t fully explain. Motherhood, family, and community have shaped me deeply. Opening Cedar & Sage in 2017 was one of the greatest gifts of service I could offer this community.

Tobi: The desert transformed me. I came here as one version of myself and became another. It stretched me, refined me, and helped me grow into a woman, grandmother, entrepreneur, and community builder.

Lisa: What do your businesses offer?

Tobi & Sabria: Cedar & Sage Wellness Studio offers yoga, sculpt, breathwork, sound healing, meditation, and wellness classes in a sanctuary-like space. The Yucca Tree Eatery serves organic, nourishing food with gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, smoothie, juice, and wholesome menu options. The Desert Mystic Collective is a curated crystal and artisan shop featuring local makers, jewelry, gifts, and desert-inspired treasures.

Lisa: What inspired you to become entrepreneurs?

Sabrina: I never set out thinking, “I’m an entrepreneur.” I became a yoga teacher and dreamed of creating a space for healing. It felt like we manifested each business when the time was right.

Tobi: Entrepreneurship has been a calling. My husband and I often ask, “What would you do for free?” Following that answer has guided us. I believe abundance follows passion.

Lisa: What challenges do small businesses face in the Mojave?

Sabrina & Tobi: The slow summer months are difficult, especially for businesses connected with tourism. Their answer has been to build strong relationships with locals, stay true to their values, and create spaces that serve residents and visitors alike.

Lisa: How do you define healing?

Sabrina: Healing comes from a higher source. We are vessels. Yoga is a path of self-liberation, inner freedom, and service.

Tobi: Healing is remembering who you truly are reconnecting with God, consciousness, unity, and the truth that what we seek often already lives within us.

Lisa: What advice would you give women starting a business here?

Tobi & Sabrina: Look for what is missing. Offer something authentic. Respect the community. Don’t step on toes. And be ready, the desert can be tough, but the women here are strong, determined, and deeply resilient.

Tobi and Sabrina’s hope for the high desert community is to keep growing with intention, offering meaningful experiences, heartfelt service, and spaces where people feel welcomed, nourished, inspired, and connected.

Through Cedar & Sage Wellness Studio, The Yucca Tree Eatery, and The Desert Mystic Collective, Sabrina and Tobi have created more than businesses. They have built gathering places rooted in love, healing, nourishment, creativity, and service, a reflection of the Mojave itself: resilient, expansive, soulful, and alive with possibility.

Documentary Short Preview, Lectures & Non-Profit Information Booths

Event Date(s)

2026-09-26
Event Location/Address:The Santuary, Joshua Tree Retreat Center, 59700 29 Palms Hwy, Joshua Tree, CA 92252
Event Organizer’s Name Sant Khalsa with Desert Forest & Casey Kiernan with Visit_Joshua Tree
Event Organizer’s Email santkhalsa.art@gmail.com and info@joshuatreeonfilm.com

Event Details

Joshua Trees: Past, Present & Future

An Evening of Vision, Insight, and Community Voices

Joshua trees are among the most iconic symbols of the American West. Yet today, they face multiple threats which are redefining their future. Join us for an evening of presentations and a documentary short premiere exploring and celebrating the extraordinary species known as the Joshua tree.

5:00 pm: Doors Open with Meet and Greet with Non-Profit Environmental Organizations

6:00 – 7:30 pm: Program of Presenters and Documentary Short

Documentary Short Premiere: “Joshua Trees: Will They Survive” by Casey Kiernan

Presenters: Dr. Sean Milanovich, Sant Khalsa, Dr. Juniper Harrower, Kim Stringfellow

Organizations: National Parks Conservation Association, Center for Biological Diversity, Basin & Range Watch, Joshua Tree National Park, Joshua Tree National Park Association, Mojave Desert Land Trust, Desert Forest, Mojave Project, And More.