Upcoming events
Open Hub Singing Club: Winter Series
Open Hub Singing Club: Winter Series
Sundays: 10 consecutive Sunday’s starting on January 12th
Time: 3:30-5 pm
Location: TBD
Cost: sliding scale $50-$100 for all 10 sessions, pay what is generous and affordable for you. No one turned away for lack of funds. You may also choose to register here and select “Pay via Check” below.
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You are invited to join Open Hub Singing Club, ten Sundays this winter from 3:30-5 pm.
Whether you are an experienced singer or someone new to singing, community singing offers a "no practice, no performance" experience. We celebrate uplifting songs with meaningful messages taught in the simple and ancient aural tradition so that everyone is singing together in no time. We learn by listening as a group. No singing experience or training is required – just a desire to sing with others in community. All voices are welcome, including yours!
As Bobby McFerrin says, “One of the simplest and most direct ways of praying and meditating is through singing, and singing in community is especially powerful. You get people together in a room singing, and you instantly knock down all the walls—the creeds, the gender, age, and race differences, everything. You’re all one at that point, lifting your voices.”
In singing together we give voice to our shared humanity. Our common joys, longings, sorrows, and hopes fly from our mouths and mingle in the air. Come, help us sing in harmony to enliven spirit, build community, and create personal and cultural change.
In each session we will:
Learn joyful, diverse, easy-to-memorize songs
Connect with our singing community through a shared joy of song
Build confidence in our voices in a welcoming, supportive space
Release the stress of living and open space for the week to come
Exercise our bodies and minds through the practice of group singing
Build memory retention through oral tradition singing
Enjoy a fun, relaxed, and accepting environment
The Heartwood Trio Presents “The Well Tree” Musical
The Heartwood Trio Presents “The Well Tree” Musical
Date: Saturday, November 9
Time: 5:00 potluck (optional), 6:00-8:00 The Well Tree Performance
Location: Good Shepherd Church, 701 Iowa Avenue, Decorah, IA
Cost: Tiered pricing, please choose the level that is generous and affordable for you — Adults @ $15, $30 or $45, Kids 5-12 @ $5, Sponsor @ $100
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Join folk trio Heartwood for an all-ages, immersive, participatory journey through song and story. The Well Tree is a three-person musical, illustrated by a ‘crankie’ - an illuminated, papercut, hand-cranked scroll. It is an original 'singing story' about wild journeying and remembering kinship -- the tale of a young woman moving beyond the fog of isolation to meet songbirds, snails and ancient trees as she travels through these unraveling times, finding her way home. The three members of Heartwood – Heidi Wilson, Willy Clemetson, and Sarina Partridge – are the actors, musicians and the crew that runs the crankie (created by papercut artist Jen Jones) – and the audience will be invited in to help sing pieces of the story.
Heartwood Trio Participatory Concert
Heartwood Trio Participatory Concert
Date: Friday, November 8th
Time: 6:30-8:30 pm
Location: Fireside Room at First Lutheran Church, 604 W Broadway St, Decorah, IA 52101
Cost: Tiered pricing, please choose the level that is generous and affordable for you — Adults @ $15, $30 or $45, Kids 5-12 @ $5, Sponsor @ $100
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Join Willy Clemetson, Sarina Partirdge, and Heidi Wilson for a delightful evening of music! Much of what they share will invite audience participation, so expect to be woven into the creativity of the night.
Here’s a glimpse into the heart of their trio, in their own words: “The three of us met in 2019 while touring and teaching with the group Northern Harmony, singing traditional harmony music from around the world. As a trio we explore the music flowing through us now — growing out of the woods, the water, the rock, and the trees. We come together in wild places to collaborate with the landscape, creating music for performance and community singing.”
Listen to their album, Heartwood, or visit their website to learn more!
Micaceous Clay Pottery
Micaceous Clay Pottery
created and hosted by Sohpie Rog & Ida Rotto through Red Oak Outdoor School
For Adults and Teens 16+
With Sophie Rog
Two weekends in November:
November 2nd from 10 - 5
November 3rd from 10 - afternoon*
November 9th from 10 - 5
November 10th from 10 - 1
Come explore the ancient art of handbuilding pottery, engage with the earth and yourself in a new way, and make your own clay pot that can be used for cooking on your stovetop or in your oven. This is a special opportunity to connect with the body of the earth through your own hands and heart.
In this class we will learn the traditional coil and scrape method of hand building pots. We will use micaceous clay from New Mexico and build in the Jicarilla Apache style, in the lineage of master potter Felipe Ortega. The techniques we will use are transferable to other clay bodies, and we may get to play with some regional clays as well! We will also learn about making blessings for the clay and our hands before we begin, about the Jicarilla Apache and Pueblo people who traditionally make these pots, and about techniques and recipes for cooking in clay.
People have been making clay vessels for thousands of years, and before metal pots became widely available, people the world over cooked in clay pots. However, cooking in clay is easy and in some places people still do it every day. Food cooked in clay is special and delicious–the clay helps maintain moisture, helps it cook evenly, and imparts an indescribable unctuousness! Clay pots are especially good for slow cooked dishes, stews, beans and grains. It is said that beans and coffee cooked in clay are less acidic due to the alkalizing properties of the minerals in the clay.
Students can expect to go home with one medium sized serving bowl and one small to medium cooking pot. There may be the chance to make more items for a small additional materials fee.
*our end times each day will depend on how far along our projects are. On the 3rd and the 9th, it is possible some students may finish earlier or later.
Register Here!
Tuition Guide: Because we want to make sure that everybody who wants to can join, we are using a 3-tiered payment system. For each program there are a certain number of spaces in each tier (see registration forms.): (1) Supporting Community: This tier is for those who might have the resources to stretch a little farther in order to support others who would not otherwise be able to join. (2) Covering Costs: this tier is the basic cost of running the program. (3) Supported by Community: This tier is intended to allow participants to join who would not otherwise be able to.
EarthSong
EarthSong
created and hosted by Ida Rotta & Sohpie Rog through Red Oak Outdoor School
A day for women to explore kinship with the land
build connection with each other
and raise our wild voices
With Ida Rotto and Sophie Rog
Sunday October 20th
9-4pm with a potluck lunch- please plan to spend the whole day
Women*, we invite you to a day of exploration and connection through vocal expression and song, fire making, wild crafts, ecological awareness practices and games. Cultivating a sense of intimacy with the earth is just as important for adults as it is for children, yet it can be challenging to make space for it in our lives. But we too belong to the natural world and are called to explore our place within her beauty and wildness. As autumn unfolds toward the quiet of winter, come gather to practice nourishing the wild around us and within us. Be ready to get silly and expressive, quiet and still, wild and tender, as we tune our bodies to the land.
Minimum enrollment: 6
*All nonbinary, transgender and cisgender women welcome.
No previous singing experience needed.
Register Here!
Tuition Guide: Because we want to make sure that everybody who wants to can join, we are using a 3-tiered payment system. For each program there are a certain number of spaces in each tier (see registration forms.): (1) Supporting Community: This tier is for those who might have the resources to stretch a little farther in order to support others who would not otherwise be able to join. (2) Covering Costs: this tier is the basic cost of running the program. (3) Supported by Community: This tier is intended to allow participants to join who would not otherwise be able to.
Community Song Circle with Liz Rog and Lyndsey Scott
Community Song Circle with Liz Rog and Lyndsey Scott
Community Song Circle with Liz Rog and Lyndsey Scott
Sat Oct 12, 10am to Noon (with a potluck to follow!)
𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭-𝘢𝘯𝘥-𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘓𝘪𝘻 𝘙𝘰𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘺𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘦𝘺 𝘚𝘤𝘰𝘵𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴! 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘵, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 + 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 + 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺-𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘺𝘯𝘤 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 - 𝘸𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩.
♥︎ COST
You are welcome to come for Free // & Donations will be gratefully accepted. We will pass the hat!
♥︎ LOCATION:
Shelter #6 at Lower City Park
200 Park Rd, Iowa City, IA
(See the map below for details on where to park).
Restrooms are nearby, and water will be on hand (byo water bottle). There are benches for sitting.
♥︎ POTLUCK
If you’d like to linger and meet people who like to sing too, feel free to bring a dish, snack, or dessert to share (as well as your plate & silverware
♥︎ YOUR HOSTS:
LIZ ROG lives in the Driftless region of Northeast Iowa. As a cultural activist Liz uses song, ritual, festival, and nature to create welcoming spaces where we can remember together how beautiful we can be. In 2020 she and Daniel Rotto created the Center for Belonging Folk School where they host gatherings rooted in nature and song. Liz spends part of her time helping to weave local neighborhood and community in parks and around kitchen tables, and part of her time traveling to other communities to nurture belonging through song.
LYNDSEY SCOTT: Here for the year in Iowa City as the Grant Wood Fellow in Interdisciplinary Art, Lyndsey Scott is an artist and ritual-maker devoted to priestesSing the Heartland, (literal and figurative). She’s teaching a class in the School of Music called Community Singing as Collective Power, and she catches and records singalong music with a strong beat to empower earth-based intelligence and sensual devotion. You can listen to her albums Well Held and prodigal daughter wherever you stream. https://www.lyndseyscott.earth/
♥︎ QUESTIONS For more information, feel free to comment in the facebook event or email Adina Levitt adinajoylevitt AT gmail.com
To stay connected to ongoing Iowa City Community Singing, you can join their facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/267741506947451
Songleader Training at Folklore Village
Leading as a Way of Listening: A weekend of learning for emerging leaders of community singing
*note: there will be an optional evening community singing experience with the wider community on Friday, Oct 4th from 6:30-8:30 pm.
Are you interested in learning to be a song leader? Consider this weekend of learning for emerging community song leaders.
Liz Rog is thrilled to offer a song leader training weekend for Folk School Leaders and Folklore Village community members, equipping them with the skills and confidence needed to incorporate community singing into their programs.
At this workshop you will find connection to other emerging songleaders; a chance to learn and practice the tools of songleading among supportive peers; songs and resources galore; and encouragement to go home and continue on the path! We’ll talk about the history and culture of community singing. We’ll consider the singing wounds of our society and how we can be part of the healing. We’ll prepare to offer and receive hospitality through singing in community!
We gather around these questions, and the form we use is songleading. We stand as witnesses to each other’s stepping up, celebrating the different strengths and styles of each and all. The tools we practice can be used in everyday settings: around a kitchen table, in houses of worship, in healing spaces, in movements for change. Our workshop is a circle of belonging, and each person returns home with their own version of what it means to hold space with grace, energy, and ever-growing skill. This is the beginning.
Skill Level:
No experience necessary, simply an earnest interest in learning to lead community singing, and the ability to carry a tune!
Early-bird Regular Registration Fee (by September 16, 2024): $135
After September 16: $150
Special Folk School Alliance Registration (limited to a maximum of 5 participants):
The Folk School Alliance is partnering with the Center for Belonging Folk School to offer in-person training aimed at seeding community singing in folk schools in exchange for thoughtful participatory action research. Our goal is to empower folk schools like yours to create deeper connections and lasting bonds among participants through the power of community singing. For this opportunity, please contact The Center for Belonging: centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com
Songleader Training at Marine Mills Folk School
Leading and Listening: A Weekend Workshop for Emerging Community Songleaders
Join Annie Schlaefer, Linnea Champ, Sarina Partridge, and Liz Rog to learn and practice together the tools of community songleading. We will touch on many of the skills involved in successfully getting other folks singing including: teaching in a clear call & response style, picking the right song for the moment, finding a good starting pitch, showing the rhythm and melody in your body, building confidence, and modeling joyful and welcoming humility.
Find more information and register HERE!
Also! There will be a Friday evening song circle on September 6th from 6:30-8 pm, open to all song leader training participants and the wider community. Learn more and register HERE!
If you are a part of a folk school, and would like to stoke song-leading in your community, do reach out to centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com as we may have a funded spot for you!
Community Song Circle at Marine Mills Folk School
Special Guests Liz Rog along with Annie Schlaefer, Linnea Champ and Sarina Partridge will lead and teach simple songs, in the aural tradition (no lyric sheets or music to read). This will be an opportunity for all those people interested in Song Circles from our local community AND those who have registered for the Song Leader Training beginning Saturday, September 7, to come together and raise up some songs. . All are welcome, whether or not you think of yourself as a singer! We will sing songs that celebrate Nature, and being Human; songs that bring us together in the magic and medicine of singing with others. We will listen deeply and together we will make beauty!
This Song Circle is a separate event from the Saturday and Sunday Songleader Training. It requires a separate registration so we can plan for the correct number of participants.
Age Requirement
Singers of all ages are welcome to attend. Children under age 16 must attend with an adult.
Skill Level
This is for people of any skill level and it is great when there is a mix of inexperienced and experienced singers! In community singing we hold each other up. All are welcome.
Location Details:
Marine Mills Folk School
550 Pine St., Marine on St. Croix, MN 55047
Cost Details
Please consider a free will donation to support the great work of these dedicated instructors. Suggested $15 to $30 donation. No one will be turned away due to ability to donate.
Learn more and register HERE!
Songs of Comfort and Healing
Kitchen Table Singers Presentation
First Congregational Church at 2503 Main St, La Crosse WI
Would you like to learn a pocketful of songs that you and a few friends could bring to others in your community during times of need? Join Liz Rog to learn short, simple songs of comfort, healing, and courage.
Liz comes to us from Decorah, Iowa where she leads a small group of everyday singers--including people who are joining a singing group for the first time--called the ‘Kitchen Table Singers.’ In groups of 6-8 singers they go to homes, hospitals, parks, and any other spaces where they are invited to bring songs in service of love. They sing those who are ailing, healing, dying, grieving, moving, ending or beginning a job or a relationship, celebrating a milestone, preparing for a journey...in short, for any of life's thresholds, small or large. It is among the oldest, easiest, and most accessible ways of using song for weaving community care.
Liz will share the practices that her group has learned over the 14 years they’ve been offering this gift to their community. Participants will learn some wonderful songs and receive recordings by email following the event. The Kitchen Table Songbook will be available for purchase.
Cost: Sliding scale, pay whatever is both generous and affordable for you: $15, $30, $45
This workshop date and time was chosen to function as a pre-fest workshop before the Great River Folk Fest, August 23-25. For more information about the Fest, use this link.
Emotional Empowerment: Taking Control of Your Feelings
Emotional Empowerment: Taking Control of Your Feelings
August 21, 2024
6—9 pm at the Center for Belonging Folk School near Decorah, IA
You’d like to have less bad days and not worry so much when you have one. You want to let go of things that happened in the past and have more fun. You’d like to sleep well so you’re energized for the things you enjoy – your relationships, work and free time.
But the problem is that emotions like grief or resentment pull you into the past and prevent you from moving forward. You avoid people when you feel sad, embarrassed or frustrated. You binge watching, doom scroll or stress eat when you’re upset. And anxiety keeps you up at night, tossing and turning as you worry about work, family, finances or the future.
In Emotional Empowerment, you’ll get tools to connect with the emotion in your body, rather than getting lost in the story, going over what happened again and again, analyzing why you still feel upset, guilty or heartbroken, which you know doesn’t really help… You’ll learn how to take the steering wheel back from your emotions, putting you back in the driver’s seat and turning your emotions into allies who move you in the direction that you want to go, rather than sabotage you. We’ll explore how to navigate beyond the thing you still can’t get over from the past, whether it’s a break up, the passing of a loved one, or a past mistake. You’ll get tools that will help you with emotions like loneliness, anxiety or guilt. And you’ll learn techniques to move emotions through your body, freeing up your energy and allowing you to live from your values, passions and goals so you can enjoy your relationships more deeply and have more fun!
Workshop fee: sliding scale: $20, $29 or $39.
Thank you for finding the sweet spot that's both generous & affordable for you! If this range is not accessible, please reach out - no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
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Petrina Eger is passionate about nurturing relationships with presence, authenticity and compassion. She combines mindfulness with psychology and neuroscience to help people live with more joy, vitality and connection. Her background includes embodiment coaching, brainspotting therapy, attachment style repatterning, and mindfulness. Petrina taught mindfulness and emotional intelligence at Taylor's University in Malaysia for five years prior to starting her own coaching and training company.
Song Circle with Karly Loveling
Join us for an evening of community singing with Karly Loveling!
Come, gather under the gazebo in the woods. If you’d like, come early and bring a picnic, and/or stay afterwards and camp for free.
Karly Loveling is whole-hearted lover of life who weaves song into being and brings harmonies to life. She is a thriving member of the Ubuntu Choir Network, leading Singing Heart Harmonies in Chanchifin (Eugene, Or), online, and at Community Singing gatherings, as well as feeling and tending the full spectrum of human emotion with courage and care in community connections, classes, and events. Karly’s meaningful, accessible, layered songs are close companions for singers and songleaders from Appalachia to Ireland. Hear some of them here: https://karlyloveling.bandcamp.com/album/let-me-be-the-love-2
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Feel free to arrive anytime after 4:30 pm to picnic and enjoy the land. Camping overnight after the circle is also welcomed. Children under age 7 are welcome to attend for free and play on the periphery of circle / join the circle in singing (please be mindful of distractions).
What will be provided:
Water
Hot water and tea
Chairs
Restroom facilities
What to bring:
A water bottle and/or hot tea mug
Any cushions, blankets, and layers to help your body feel comfortable
Contact your hosts: centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com
Engage and Connect: Mindfulness for Enhanced Communication
Engage and Connect: Mindfulness for Enhanced Communication
August 7, 2024
10 am-2 pm at the Center for Belonging Folk School near Decorah, IA
Communication is the lifeline of fulfilling, healthy relationships. The way to have those stronger relationships that you want, where you can be authentic and open with your friends and family. The thing that’s going to allow you to be closer to your partner and have more fun together. And the ability you want to communicate confidently, and keep your cool in triggering conversations.
But sometimes you feel unheard or misunderstood. Difficult conversations trigger you and you’re not able to think clearly. Sometimes you blank out and don’t know what to say until later, or you impulsively say something you regret. When a loved one is hurting, you wish you could offer more support but aren’t sure what to say... You’ve had misunderstandings get in the way of friendships and wish things had turned out differently.
In the Engage and Connect workshop, you’ll learn practices that will give you tools to be able to:
Support loved ones as they go through the challenges of life.
Navigate conflict with your partner in a constructive way.
Remain calm and clear during difficult conversations and find the words you want.
Enjoy closer relationships that are more fun!
This workshop is suitable for anyone looking to increase their communication skills. We’ll be exploring mindfulness practices that help us get more clarity so we can communicate clearly, practices for deep listening, and centering tools for nervous system regulation.
Workshop fee: sliding scale: $20, $29 or $39
Thank you for finding the sweet spot that's both generous & affordable for you! If this range is not accessible, please reach out - no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
*Please pack a lunch.
Schedule
9:30-10 Arrive and settle in
10-12 Session 1
12-12:30 Lunch, please bring your food
12:30-2 Session 2
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Petrina Eger is passionate about nurturing relationships with presence, authenticity and compassion. She combines mindfulness with psychology and neuroscience to help people live with more joy, vitality and connection. Her background includes embodiment coaching, brainspotting therapy, attachment style repatterning, and mindfulness. Petrina taught mindfulness and emotional intelligence at Taylor's University in Malaysia for five years prior to starting her own coaching and training company.
An Evening Singing in Community with Song Leader Alexandra "Ahlay" Blakely
Ahlay teaches songs call & echo. Singing is a birthright and all levels of experience are welcome (including no experience). These songs are sung together collectively as invitations to move stagnated emotions in the body and to be in our bodies as we notice what arises for us as we sing together. Ahlay's song container invokes connection that serves as a catalyst to digest topics in our culture, and movements for collective liberation.
No matter your gender, sexual orientation, abilities, race, or housing status, you are welcome here.
Arrive and settle in:
6:30-7pm
Song container:
7-9pm
Cost:
$22-66 sliding scale
Thank you for finding the sweet spot that's both generous & affordable for you! Your support covers ahlay’s travel and allows this medicine to keep serving the collective.
(( If this range is not accessible, please reach out -- no one will be turned away for lack of funds. ))
Children are welcome to attend (for free) and play on the periphery of circle / join the circle in singing (please be mindful of distractions).
Community care:
This event is outdoors! Come without Covid symptoms. You are welcome to mask and distance to your own comfort level.
What will be provided:
Water
Hot water and tea
Chairs
Restroom facilities
What to bring:
A water bottle and/or hot tea mug
Any cushions, blankets, and layers to help your body feel comfortable
Contact your hosts: centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com
ABOUT ARTIST:
ahlay (alexandra blakely) is a dreamer of Whale, Tsunami, and Rain, an apprentice to Lightning and Fire, an artist, singer-songwriter, community organizer and soul guide in training. She is a descendent of Ashkenazi, Scandinavian and British folk and a commitment to breaking the cycles of intergenerational trauma both caused and endured by her ancestors. This commitment unfolds through the mediums of authentic relationship, song and storytelling, ritual and spell casting in ways that acknowledge our varied and intricate histories and identities, emphasizing a devotion to remembering our symbiotic relationship within the natural world.
ahlay has been deeply involved in community activism, communal grief tending and community singing. She is a lifelong student of decolonization, anti-racism and her own ancestral deracination preceeding diasporas. She gets curious about how the individual psyche, embodiment, shadow and trauma responses can be applied to collective and cultural bodies. She has trained with generative somatics, Education for Racial Equity, Animas Valley Institute, The Work that Reconnects, Holistic Resistance, Francis Weller and Laurence Cole. Her community singing albums encapsulate songs for the community to transform, ask questions, and seek to lead lives in service to the future ones. Her upcoming 2024 community singing album, WAILS: Songs for Grief was recorded in July 2023 with a choir of 200 voices.
To stay informed about her ongoing offerings, sign up for her monthly newsletter.
Leading and Listening: A Weekend of Learning with Emerging Community Songleaders at Land Alliance Folk School
‘Sound is Touch at a Distance.’
Do you like to sing? Would you like to learn to use singing as a tool for connection in your community? Have you experienced Community Singing and wondered about how you might bring a bit of this practice into spaces where you live, work, and play with others?
Join Community Songleader Liz Rog and 8 others for a special weekend for sharing tools for community songleading. We will practice many of the skills involved in successfully getting other folks singing including: picking the right song for the moment, finding a good starting pitch, teaching in a clear call & response style, showing the rhythm and melody in your body, building confidence, and modeling joyful and welcoming humility.
Location: Land Alliance Folk School in Oxford, IA
Cost: $150/person
Special pricing note: if you are connected to a Folk School or other organization that shares learning in community, please reach out to the centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com to secure a no-cost spot, should space allow! We have graciously received funds from the Folk School Alliance to cultivate community singing in Folk Schools across the country.
Meals: each participant will be matched with one other to provide one meal for 9.
Accommodation, if needed: $89/person for a single room, and $49/person for a shared room.
At this workshop you will find connection to other emerging songleaders; a chance to learn and practice the tools of songleading among supportive peers; songs and resources galore; and encouragement to go home and continue on the path!
We’ll talk about the history and culture of community singing. We’ll consider the singing wounds of our society and how we can be part of the healing. We’ll prepare to offer and receive hospitality through singing in community!
We can learn to serve in brave, humble, and collaborative leadership. This weekend is a time to begin, using the simple tools of song, conversation, slow-time, and good food. I have something to offer: how do I prepare myself to hold space? What practical and spiritual tools do I need? How can my leadership empower others? How do I listen well to the voices around me even as I am asking for their listening? When is it time to rest?
We’ll gather around these questions, and the form we use is songleading. We’ll stand as witnesses to each other’s stepping up, celebrating the different strengths and styles of each and all. The tools we practice can be used in everyday settings: around a kitchen table, in houses of worship, in healing spaces, in movements for change. Our workshop is a circle of belonging, and each person returns home with their own version of what it means to hold space with grace, energy, and ever-growing skill. This is the beginning.
If you feel called to begin learning how to lead others in song, can hold a tune reasonably well, and have some rhythm, this is for you. You certainly don’t need to be a school-trained singer/musician (I’m not!), but even if you are, there is still plenty for you to learn at this workshop.
Open Hub Singing Club, Decorah, 2023
Words from past workshop participants:
“I learned that song leading is a form of radical presence to the moment, and to the people holding this moment with you. That the success of leading a song depends upon an immense receptivity to the hearts & voices in the room, to their collected energy, to the group as it seeks wholeness, adventure, harmony. And a willingness to trust the group to co-create the moment with you.”
***
“I learned that song leading is also a way of listening, a way of listening in together for a way towards each other, dreaming new and more loving ways of relating in and beyond the group. That we catch songs, but they also catch us, entwine us in new & beautiful & bewildering forms of intimacy & growth.”
***
“I've been feeling so much gratitude for the way we learned that singing can open up space for challenge, for vulnerability, for the silence of unknowing. How the "leader" component of song leader also emerged through our grappling with some of the complex and crucial questions of our times: cultural appropriation, sexual violence, rage, love, justice... how song community can respond or attend or witness. It makes me glad to know that the ways we will all lead songs include these questions, and a willingness to hear many truths, to feel, to adjust our perceptions, to struggle with finding words that suffice, to not give up the struggle, and to notice how different it feels when it is shared.”
***
“I especially appreciated how for a couple days I felt what it's like to live in a world filled with song. It felt as though a song could begin at any moment--and in many of the moments a song did begin! Songs for blessing meals and blessing each other, songs for late night fun, songs for waking up, songs to support friends, songs for expressing rage, songs to get to know each other better, songs to tell stories, songs for saying goodbye... That's what I've been thinking about since. How can I use the specific song leading tools I learned to spread that magical feeling throughout more of my life?”
***
“I appreciated the format of the course, which included personal sharing from participants, learning and singing songs, gaining practical knowledge of technique, and also an opportunity for students to teach a song to the group. It was the right amount of singing vs. spoken information.”
REGISTRATION
COMMUNITY SING with Songleader Liz Rog at Land Alliance Folk School
When: Friday, June 21st
Time: 6-8
Where: 1259 Rohret Road SW, Oxford IA 52322
Description:
Please Join us in singing songs for joy, love, play, and peace. This is an inclusive and warm singing space, open to all regardless of experience. All songs will be taught by ear and you’ll be singing in no time! Or, or come to just listen and enjoy!
Some of you might be wondering, what kind of songs will we be singing together? The short answer is: simple, soul-nourishing songs learned by ear, that come together in just a few minutes. They are songs that were made to nourish and enliven us, to connect us back with the beauty of this earth, to help us heal and grieve, and to hold our hand as we find our way home to a sense of belonging and joy.
REGISTRATION
(No cost necessary, contribute what you’d like!)
Big Sing!
Come one come all, join us at The Big Sing!
Liz Rog and the Open Hub Singing Club invite you to join us in the sheer joy of singing together with friends new and old.
Please Join us in singing songs for joy, love, play, and peace. We are an inclusive and warm singing community open to all regardless of experience. All songs will be taught by ear and you’ll be singing in no time! Or, or come to just listen and enjoy!
Open Hub Singing Club has been singing weekly for 5 weeks. Come help us celebrate! Stay for tea and treats!
Some of you might be wondering, what kind of songs will we be singing together? The short answer is: simple, soul-nourishing songs learned by ear, that come together in just a few minutes. They are songs that were made to nourish and enliven us, to connect us back with the beauty of this earth, to help us heal and grieve, and to hold our hand as we find our way home to a sense of belonging and joy.
DATE: Sunday, May 26th
TIME: 3:30-5pm
COST: Donations welcomed for Guatemalan Basics Fund
The Guatemalan Basics Initiative provides a 50-pound bag of rice and a 25-pound bag each of black beans and corn flour tortilla mix to local immigrant families.
REGISTRATION NOTES: no registration necessary
LOCATION:
This event takes place in the beautiful outdoor gazebo at the Center for Belonging Folk School just 7 miles north of Decorah, IA.
ADDRESS:
1591 Manawa Trail Rd Decorah, IA 52101
UPON ARRIVAL:
We’ll be there to greet you and show you the way!
PARKING:
In the driveway and on the road.
ACCESSIBILITY:
Depending on where you park, there’s a 3-5 minute walk on natural earth including a slight downhill slope for about 15 yards.
It is also possible to drive right to the site; if you are planning to do this please let us know in advance so we can show you the way
Shireen Amini: Community Song Circle
Join Shireen Amini for a community singing experience rich in soulful truths and joyful liberation. As a leader, bridge-builder, and humble student of the modern community singing movement, Shireen has found her work as a musical artist spiraling toward re-anchoring music as a sacred container in which intergenerational and systemic grief can be felt and expressed. Employing music to help us unhinge our life-taking conditioning and energize visions of a more thriving world is what she aims to be up to. She creates a field of firmness, care, and flexibility for the nuanced realities we walk into the space with, to increase the potential for safety and bravery. The most authentic and honest nature of your being is welcome and wanted, where withholding can be laid down to whatever level of trust you are able to feel.
Shireen shares stories behind the songs that have come through her as medicine, those arising out of pain, reclaiming of power, and irrepressible feelings of joy. Then she leads them skillfully and spiritedly. In kinship with the natural world, spirit, and community, she has received these songs knowing that if their medicine has brought her one step closer to healing, it just may for others as well. Evidence has shown this to be true with songs like “I Am Free in my Body,” “Gather Your Resilience” and “The Sun Song” rippling out far and wide. She comes with a fresh harvest of new song medicine for re-wholing ourselves and our belonging to humanity, to life.
All prostrations welcome: sitting, standing, walking, shaking, dancing, laying flat, as the body has full permission to do what it intelligently knows to do to pray and release. Come sing for your curiosity, your broken heart, your anger, and your belly laughter. May you come away just a little more free.
In this container:
We believe singing is a birthright and welcome all levels of experience. We teach short-form songs on-the-spot, usually through call and echo.
No matter your race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexual orientation, size, neurodivergence, abilities, or housing status, you are not only welcome and wanted here, you belong here.
Evening flow:
Arrive and settle in: as early as 5pm (bring a picnic supper, walk the trails, relax :)
Song container: 6:30 – 8:30pm
Cost:
Regular Ticket: $15-65 sliding scale
Pay what you can / No one turned away Ticket: $0-$14 >> enter Access Code: CARETICKET
Land and people acknowledgment:
This event is taking place on the unceded territory of the Ojibwe/Anishinaabe (Chippewa), Báxoǰe (Iowa), Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Omāēqnomenēwak (Menominee), Myaamiaki (Miami), Nutachi (Missouri), Umoⁿhoⁿ (Omaha), Wahzhazhe (Osage), Jiwere (Otoe), Odawaa (Ottawa), Póⁿka (Ponca), Bodéwadmi/Neshnabé (Potawatomi), Meskwaki/Nemahahaki/Sakiwaki (Sac and Fox), Dakota/Lakota/Nakoda, Sahnish/Nuxbaaga/Nuweta (Three Affiliated Tribes) and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Nations.
About the Venue:
This event takes place in the beautiful outdoor gazebo around a campfire at the Center for Belonging Folk School just north of Decorah, IA. We will be in the woods, under the roof of the gazebo, rain or shine.
Accessibility:
Depending on where you park, there’s a 3-5 minute walk on natural earth including a slight downhill slope for about 15 yards. It is also possible to drive right to the site; if you are planning to do this please let us know in advance so we can show you the way.
Please let us know if there are any other ways we can support your access to this offering.
Parking:
Upon arrival you will be greeted and shown the way! Parking in the driveway and on the road.
Community care:
Come without Covid symptoms. You are welcome to mask and distance to your own comfort level.
What will be provided:
Water
Hot water and tea
Seating
Restroom facilities
What to bring:
A water bottle and/or hot tea mug
Any cushions, blankets, and layers to help your body feel comfortable
Bio:
Shireen Amini (non-binary using she/her) is a queer Puerto Rican-Iranian American, earth-loving song creator, rhythm maker, and community facilitator based on unceded Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and Grande Ronde territory, aka Portland, Oregon. As a human, she carries a deep commitment to her own liberation path and vision of a more just world. As an artist, she believes strongly in music’s power to propel cultural revolution. She blends pop, rock, hip hop, latin, and roots sensibilities with socially-conscious themes as a singer-songwriter and creates modern medicine music for community singing. In song circles, she holds transformational space, leading joyful, groove-based songs, evoking tenderness, and often engaging her participants in the rhythm and ceremony of it all. She also teaches drumming and facilitates grief ritual as part of her community-based music empowerment project, Shireen Amini Music Medicine.
Spring Open Hub Singing Club
You are invited to join Open Hub Singing Club
6 Sundays this Spring from 3:30-5 pm at the Pulpit Rock Brewing Company Events Space!
Whether you are an experienced singer or someone new to singing, community singing offers a "no practice, no performance" experience. We celebrate uplifting songs with meaningful messages taught in the simple and ancient aural tradition so that everyone is singing together in no time. We learn by listening as a group. No singing experience or training is required – just a desire to sing with others in community. All voices are welcome, including yours!
Harmony happens in community! Songs sow solidarity. Songs sung with intention, like seeds planted with care, can take root in an individual or community and flower into unexpected fruits: simple joy, healing balm, increased sensitivity, awe and wonder, a re-enchanted and revitalized spirit, a grounding and centeredness, a deepening of compassion. The art and practice of community singing draws us outside of ourselves and at the same time deepens us within.
As Bobby McFerrin says, “One of the simplest and most direct ways of praying and meditating is through singing, and singing in community is especially powerful. You get people together in a room singing, and you instantly knock down all the walls—the creeds, the gender, age, and race differences, everything. You’re all one at that point, lifting your voices.”
In singing together we give voice to our shared humanity. Our common joys, longings, sorrows, and hopes fly from our mouths and mingle in the air. Come, help us sing in harmony to enliven spirit, build community, and create personal and cultural change.
Dates
April 14, 28
May 5, 12, 19, 26
Registration and Payment
Sliding scale $30-60, pay as is generous and affordable for you by PalPal here using the 'Family + Friends' option. Please write ‘Open Hub Singing Club Spring 2024' and share your e-mail. Or, send us a check at:
The Center For Belonging / Liz Rog
1591 Manawa Trail Rd. Decorah, IA 52101
No one turned away for lack of funds
Winter Open Hub Singing Club
You are invited to join Open Hub Singing Club, 10 Sundays this winter from 3:30-5 pm at the Pulpit Rock Brewing Company Events Space!
You are invited to join Open Hub Singing Club, 10 Sundays this winter from 3:30-5 pm at the Pulpit Rock Brewing Company Events Space!
Whether you are an experienced singer or someone new to singing, community singing offers a "no practice, no performance" experience. We celebrate uplifting songs with meaningful messages taught in the simple and ancient aural tradition so that everyone is singing together in no time. We learn by listening as a group. No singing experience or training is required – just a desire to sing with others in community. All voices are welcome, including yours!
Harmony happens in community! Songs sow solidarity. Songs sung with intention, like seeds planted with care, can take root in an individual or community and flower into unexpected fruits: simple joy, healing balm, increased sensitivity, awe and wonder, a re-enchanted and revitalized spirit, a grounding and centeredness, a deepening of compassion. The art and practice of community singing draws us outside of ourselves and at the same time deepens us within.
As Bobby McFerrin says, “One of the simplest and most direct ways of praying and meditating is through singing, and singing in community is especially powerful. You get people together in a room singing, and you instantly knock down all the walls—the creeds, the gender, age, and race differences, everything. You’re all one at that point, lifting your voices.”
In singing together we give voice to our shared humanity. Our common joys, longings, sorrows, and hopes fly from our mouths and mingle in the air. Come, help us sing in harmony to enliven spirit, build community, and create personal and cultural change.
Dates
*please note that the dates are not consecutive*:
January 7 January 14 January 21 February 4 February 11 February 18 February 25 March 3 March 10 March 17
Registration and Payment
Sliding scale $50-$100, pay as is generous and affordable for you by PalPal here using the 'Family + Friends' option. Please write ‘Open Hub Singing Club fall 2023' and share your e-mail. Or, send us a check at:
The Center For Belonging/Liz Rog 1591 Manawa Trail Rd. Decorah, IA 52101
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Kitchen Table Singing
Do you love to sing? Or, have you always wanted to sing but been told you couldn't? Whoever you are, you are welcome to come join in song to build connection to earth and spirit.
Join Songleader Liz Rog for a weekend retreat
There are songs in the air, and when we gather to sing them with others we remember that we belong.
Come learn simple songs that you can carry back to your community: songs for the thresholds of life, loss, and love; songs for the turning of the seasons of earth and her creatures; songs for courage, comfort, healing, and joy.
This retreat will include tools and encouragement for those who are interested in starting a ‘Comfort Choir’ where they live: a group of singers who go to homes, hospitals, and other places where an individual or family is in need of a song.
Fee includes meals and room.
Song of the Wild: A Family Day of Music and Nature!
Sat, October 21, 2023/ 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Followed by an optional 5pm potluck!
You are welcome to come for the whole day or just for any part that you can.
Event Description:
Join co-hosts Liz Rog and Ida Rotto for a day of singing, playing, and making community together. We will play games, explore, busy our hands with wild crafts, listen to one another and the voices of the woodland, and lean into our innate human capacity to be at home together on the land.
Singing is an ancient form of human connection that helps us to remember on a cellular level that we are not alone. The songs we sing will be playful and silly, songs with heartful messages, songs for the earth and her creatures, and more, and do not require prior musical experience. Spending time outside brings our senses alive in ways for which they have been wired for millennia. By waking up our curiosity and engaging our bodies with meaningful tasks and exploration (not to mention having FUN!) we will build relationships with the more-than-human world, remembering that we are a part of the song of the wild.
Our day will rotate between whole-group time, separate kid/parents activities, and breaks. Come alone or come with friends or family. Whether you have children to bring along or you simply love being outside or singing or both, this place is for you!
Agenda:
A one-day event with free camping offered on either end
10:00 am-10:30: Arrival
10:30-12:30 pm: welcome and singing!
12:30-1:30 pm: lunch (bring your own)
1:30-4:30: Activities including whole group games, kids adventure on the land, adult conversation circle and more singing
4:30-5:00 pm: Closing Circle
Location:
Center for Belonging Folk School, 1591 Manawa Trail Rd, Decorah Iowa 52101
7 miles from Decorah, Iowa
Parking: in the driveway and on the road.
Directions on arrival: We’ll be there to greet you and show you the way!
Accessibility:
Depending on where you park, there’s a 3-5 minute walk on natural earth including a slight downhill slope for about 15 yards. It is also possible to drive right to the site; if you are planning to do this please let us know in advance so we can show you the way.
We will be in the woods and under the roof of the gazebo, rain or shine.
Outhouse nearby.
Donation:
Please choose the level that is generous and affordable for you. If you prefer to bypass Eventbrite ticketing fees you can PayPal here using the 'Family + Friends' option. Please write ‘Song of the Wild' and share your e-mail, names and ages of everyone in your party. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Individual: $30, 40, 50
Family: $50, 70, 90
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/song-of-the-wild-a-family-day-of-music-and-nature-tickets-702348201377?aff=oddtdtcreator
Accommodations: If you are coming in from out of town, you are invited to camp on the land of the Center for Belonging for no-cost. Please be in touch with Liz (liz@decorahnow.com) beforehand to reserve your campsite.
Fall Open Hub Singing Club
You are invited to join Open Hub Singing Club, 8 Sundays this fall from 3:30-5 pm .
Whether you are an experienced singer or someone new to singing, community singing offers a "no practice, no performance" experience. We celebrate uplifting songs with meaningful messages taught in the simple and ancient aural tradition so that everyone is singing together in no time. We learn by listening as a group. No singing experience or training is required – just a desire to sing with others in community. All voices are welcome, including yours!
Harmony happens in community! Songs sow solidarity. Songs sung with intention, like seeds planted with care, can take root in an individual or community and flower into unexpected fruits: simple joy, healing balm, increased sensitivity, awe and wonder, a re-enchanted and revitalized spirit, a grounding and centeredness, a deepening of compassion. The art and practice of community singing draws us outside of ourselves and at the same time deepens us within.
As Bobby McFerrin says, “One of the simplest and most direct ways of praying and meditating is through singing, and singing in community is especially powerful. You get people together in a room singing, and you instantly knock down all the walls—the creeds, the gender, age, and race differences, everything. You’re all one at that point, lifting your voices.”
In singing together we give voice to our shared humanity. Our common joys, longings, sorrows, and hopes fly from our mouths and mingle in the air. Come, help us sing in harmony to enliven spirit, build community, and create personal and cultural change.
Open Hub Singing Club meets in the Pulpit Rock Brewing Event Room for 8 Sundays from 3:30-5pm.
Dates *please note that the dates are not consecutive*:
September 10th
September 17th
September 24th
October 8th
October 22nd
October 29th
November 12th
November 19th
Cost is on a sliding scale: $40-$80. Pay as is generous and affordable for you.
In each session, we will…
Learn joyful, diverse, easy-to-memorize songs
Connect with our singing community through a shared joy of song
Build confidence in our voices in a welcoming, supportive space
Release the stress of living and open space for the week to come
Exercise our bodies and minds through the practice of group singing
Build memory retention through oral tradition singing
Enjoy a fun, relaxed, and accepting environment
Please join us! Register online via Eventbrite, or send a check to:
The Center For Belonging/Liz Rog
1591 Manawa Trail Rd.
Decorah, IA 52101
Aimée Ringle and Samara Jade: Songs in the Woods
We are grateful to host Aimée Ringle and Samara Jade at the Center for Belonging for a concert and song circle. Aimée is coming to us all the way from the west coast, and Samara all the way from the east coast!
This concert and song circle takes place in the beautiful outdoor gazebo at the Center for Belonging Folk School just north of Decorah, IA. This event will be from 6-8pm.
Tickets: Sliding scale $10-$20, pay as is generous and affordable for you. If you prefer to bypass Eventbrite ticketing fees you can PayPal here using the 'Family + Friends' option. Please write ‘Aimée and Samara' and share your e-mail. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Address:1591 Manawa Trail Rd, Decorah Iowa 52101
Parking: in the driveway and on the road.
Directions on arrival: We’ll be there to greet you and show you the way!
Accessibility:
Depending on where you park, there’s a 3-5 minute walk on natural earth including a slight downhill slope for about 15 yards. It is also possible to drive right to the site; if you are planning to do this please let us know in advance so we can show you the way.
We will be in the woods, under the roof of the gazebo, rain or shine.
Outhouse nearby.
Kids: Children are welcome as long as they're not disrupting the circle -- so yes, we welcome playing on the periphery and/or participating in the singing.
Accommodations: If you are coming in from out of town, you are invited to camp on the land of the Center for Belonging for no-cost. Please be in touch with Liz (liz@decorahnow.com) beforehand to reserve your campsite.
Village Song: A One-Day Camp for All Voices!
Come circle up in the woods under the sheltering roof of the gazebo at the Center for Belonging for Songs+Beauty+Play+Nature+Relaxation.
We'll sing to connect with each other, to bear witness, to make beauty, to share stories, to grieve, to celebrate. We'll sing because we are alive together and we have voices to put to use. We'll sing because there are important things to say, and song brings them power. We'll sing because it makes us laugh, and cry, and this feels good. We'll sing because we have been doing it for millenia. We'll sing because we love to sing!
The songs that we sing are easy to learn, and are taught to everyone who wants to learn them. They are often not long, but once they have been taught they become a playground that we can explore for as long as we want. Most often songs are taught using call-and-response. Whether you are a classically trained singer, a bathroom shower singer, or have never sung before, you will be able to follow along with the group, held up by the many other voices singing alongside you.
We love harmony, we love improv, we love listening for the places to be quiet together and the places that call for loudness, and finding our way as a group of listeners in creation together. You are welcome to join us in this continual experiment!
There will be two song circles with a break for lunch:
10:00-10:15am arrivals
10:30 am-12:30 pm song circle
12:30-2:00 pm lunch, relaxation, walking, games
2:00-4:00 pm song circle and closing circle
Folks are welcome to come Saturday night and camp on the land. Contact Liz for details at liz@decorahnow.com
*Please pack your own picnic lunch.
An Evening Singing in Community with Song Leader Alexandra "Ahlay" Blakely
We are grateful to host Alexandra "Ahlay" Blakely who is coming to us all the way from Seattle on her midwest tour, Ahlay teaches easy-to-learn songs in an a cappella style and the group echoes them back. These songs are sung together collectively as invitations to move stagnated emotions in the body and to be in our bodies as we notice what arises for us as we sing together.
This workshop takes place in the beautiful outdoor gazebo at the Center for Belonging Folk School just north of Decorah, IA.
Tickets: Sliding scale $22-$66. If you prefer to bypass ticketing fees you can paypal here. Please write ‘Ahlay Song Circle' and share your e-mail. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Schedule:
6:00-6:30 pm Arrival: get settled in and connect
6:25 pm Gates close and we open the circle.
6:30-8:30pm Song Circle led by Alexandra "Ahlay" Blakely
Address:1591 Manawa Trail Rd, Decorah Iowa 52101
Parking: in the driveway and on the road.
Directions on arrival: We’ll be there to greet you and show you the way!
Accessibility:
Depending on where you park, there’s a 3-5 minute walk on natural earth including a slight downhill slope for about 15 yards. It is also possible to drive right to the site; if you are planning to do this please let us know in advance so we can show you the way.
We will be in the woods, under the roof of the gazebo, rain or shine.
Outhouse nearby.
Kids: Your children are welcome as long as they're not disrupting the circle - so yes to playing on the periphery or participating in the singing. Please be mindful of this.
About the Songleader
Ahlay (she/her) is a song carrier remembering that which was meant to be forgotten in her lineages: song technology as connective tissues of the communal body. She blends song, body percussion, dance, stillness, breath & silence with the intention to support others in remembering their inherent birthright to song which she believes is fundamental in the expansion of one’s internal capacity to participate in the collective shift towards life-affirming conditions. Website. Wails Summer gathering.
Some of her mentors: Whale, Mycelium, Rue, Lightning, Rain, Oak, Redwood & Rosemary
Learn more about Ahlay at her website here
Grieving Ourselves Free: An Embodied 2-day Grief Ritual (FULL)
UPDATE: This event is full
"Grief is natural: to grieve the loss of what we love is as natural as peeing, eating, singing, dreaming, running, or looking under rocks for bugs to feed your frog. More importantly, grieving is necessary: when there is real loss, grieving should never be avoided or postponed; grieving is absolutely necessary. Without grief the world would cease to renew itself; the world would cease to exist. Grief is not a preference, for choosing to not have grief when grief is there is to defer and burden someone else with having to do your grieving. This makes the world a sick place. To truly and freely grieve as an entire people can revive an entire culture just as much as it can bring back to life an individual.” ~Martín Prechtél
Where does it hurt?
Let’s aim our love, our listening, our Song, our care right there.
Welcome to this natural, necessary, liberatory work.
Together we are powerful to tend and move the grief that heavies our souls ~ from the particular losses and traumas of this lifetime to the terrors inside the lineages we each inherited. Collective grief ritual is a cutting edge of soul activism, a way to support each other in moving energy that otherwise might stagnate or get repressed. It’s way too much heavy lifting to do alone – but when we join together in community and ceremony, we alchemize suffering into tremendous bandwidth for Love.
Come explore with us, where your tender places are welcome ~ held in connection, community, and lots of Song.
Facilitated by Joanna Laws Landis and Lyndsey Scott, this 2-day embodied grief ritual will welcome us into co-created sacred space through altar craft, ancestral honoring, land connection, and ritual practice. Our bodies already know how to do this —- in all of our bones’ is the knowing of how to let go through wailing, drumming, dancing, holding, being held. We will spark this remembering in a brave and clear container that includes solo reflection, sacred witness, somatic practice, song medicine, solo time in nature, and rest.
+++ Your full participation for the entirety of both days is required. +++
The ritual is inspired and informed by the Dagara tradition as carried to the states by Sobonfu Somé and Malidoma Somé. With humility and profound gratitude, we intend to honor this lineage by stewarding the technology they brought as much needed medicine for the western world. We are also weaving wisdom from teachers Francis Weller, Martín Prechtél, Laurence Cole, and Joanna Macy.
Details:
Option to come early for evening song circle and camping, Friday June 16. (More info upon registration.)
Ritual:: 9am Saturday to 5pm Sunday, June 17-18, 2023
Free camping is available on-site.
COST:: $282-444*
282 ~ community supported
383 ~ break even
444 ~ community supporting
6 meals & camping space included.
*$$ sliding scale wide variation meant to welcome people of diverse age, and economic experience. Notice your positionality and please choose the sweet spot that is both generous & affordable for you.
Two spaces are saved for partial scholarship; inquire if it's for you!
Payment plan available as needed.
Max: 22 participants (30 including team)
Register by MAY 31.
If you would like support in discerning if this ritual is a fit for you, welcome to call Lyndsey or Joanna for a quick discernment conversation prior to registering.
Lyndsey: 217 898 3777
Joanna: 717 368 0143
Further directions for preparation will be sent upon registration.
No refunds after June 7.
More about your facilitators:
🧡 Lyndsey Scott (she/her) is a cis-white womxn artist + songleader, born raised and residing in central IL, devoted to priestesSing the Heartland, (literal and figurative). She weaves community singing to empower earth-based spiritual consciousness, and gathers soul circles that, through Song and sacred listening, decompose oppressive scripts that get in the way of freely living the Love we are. With jams that get you skipping easily between the sacred, sexy, and sssssilly : your inner child, exiled banshee, and wise elder are all very invited to the circle! Listen to her new album Well Held for twelve luscious singalong earworms to nourish your journey. @ Nevertidy she creates imagery to nourish the soul journey; @ The We Belong Community of Song, she gathers small groups for song & story in real life and on zoom, and with @Earthkeeper Wisdom School, she tends grief and ceremony in service of social change. Visit her Patreon to learn more and support this prayer-in-process!
🧡 Joanna Laws Landis (she/her, white cis-woman) is a grief-tender and song-carrier with a deep belief in the transformative healing power of Welcome and Compassion. With depth of presence, heart-led facilitation, and playful engagement with What Is, Joanna welcomes you just as you are into a container of witness and healing. Leading community grief ritual since 2018, she is grateful to have learned from many mentors in the lineage of Sobonfú and Malidoma Somé who brought their Dagara grief ritual to the western world where they saw it was much needed. She currently lives in Santa Fe, NM where she is deepening her exploration of tapping the body’s innate wisdom for healing with Somatic Experiencing International, and is also a student of collective trauma integration with Thomas Hübl.
WisconSing
WisconSing is a community singing retreat nourishing mind, body and soul. It takes place at Bethel Horizons Retreat Center near Dodgeville, WI, located on more than 548 acres bordering Gov. Dodge State Park. Song leaders include Lia Falls, Sarah Burgess, Sarah & Claire Moore, Kva Mary, Liz Rog, and more. The children's program is built around the story ‘One Answer’ by Tracy Chipman. This is the second WisconSing gathering after a long break due to covid. We excitedly look forward to singing together in community once again!
We are offering a sliding scale payment in the hope that no one will be turned away for a lack of funds. ($176 - $401) The price is dependent on your lodging choice. Please choose what is affordable and generous for you. Your generosity in choosing the highest amount possible on the sliding scale helps enable others to attend and supports WisconSing as a whole.
If you are unsure if you can pay for your registration, please contact us at WisconSing2020@gmail.com and let us know of your situation. We want to make it possible for you to attend!
Early registration is encouraged. This is a not-for-profit event.
Weave a Black Ash Shaker Cheese Basket
Come spend a day in the gazebo in the woods at the Center for Belonging learning from a master basket maker! By the end of the day you'll have a finished basket. Free camping on site at Fern Hollow Wednesday night!
This basket is traditionally used to strain cheese but its uses know no bounds! Black ash splints are pounded out of a very straight branchless trunk. We will be cutting the pre-pounded splints into smaller lengths and widths. Then this hexagonal/plaited basket starts with a six-pointed star, turns up with a five-pointed star, and continues with our over-one, under-one pattern. We finish with a classic bound rim.
This one day workshop takes place just north of Decorah, in an open-sided gazebo at the Center for Belonging Folk School. There will be a half hour break for lunch.
Participants can bring crafting knife and scissors if they have them, though these are not required.
Please pack your own lunch.
Materials are included in the cost of the workshop.
Learn more about Zac and see his baskets on his Instagram account.
Introduction to Balkan Singing
Come acquaint yourself with an invigorating and unique vocal style, wrap your mind and mouth around new languages, and get a visceral glimpse into other cultures! We will learn songs from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Croatia, and Georgia (and maybe more). The harmonies and the styles in which these songs are sung are evocative and vibrant, making for a singing experience that many find exhilarating and delightful. Singing these songs is a beautiful way to honor and keep alive cultural traditions.
We will learn primarily through oral tradition of call and response--no music reading required. You will get sheets with lyrics, as we will be singing in unfamiliar languages, and seeing the words typed out can help in understanding and learning.
Sophie Rog has studied and shared these styles for over eight years and sung with Sevda Choir, directed by Willa Roberts, in Santa Fe, NM. It is her great delight to share this music in her hometown.
This workshop is 4 Wednesday evenings from 5:30-7:30 pm:
April 19
April 26
May 3
May 10
Cost (all four weeks): sliding scale from $100 to $50. Please pay what is comfortable and generous for you.
12 participants max
Note: the location is TBD but will be near Decorah, IA.
Learn more and register by contacting sophia.rog@gmail.com
Pay via Venmo to @Sophia-Rog
Spring Open Hub Singing Club
You are invited to join the circle of song, 8 Sundays from 3:30-5:00 pm from Apr 2-May 21. Register by Mar 26.
Whether you are an experienced singer or someone new to singing, community singing offers a "no practice, no performance" experience. We celebrate uplifting songs with meaningful messages taught in the simple and ancient aural tradition so that everyone is singing together in no time. We learn by listening as a group. No singing experience or training is required – just a desire to sing with others in community.. All voices are welcomed, including yours!
Harmony happens in community! Songs sow solidarity. Songs sung with intention, like seeds planted with care, can take root in an individual or community and flower into unexpected fruits: simple joy, healing balm, increased sensitivity, awe and wonder, a re-enchanted and revitalized spirit, a grounding and centeredness, a deepening of compassion. The art and practice of community singing draws us outside of ourselves and at the same time deepens us within.
Bobby McFerrin says, “One of the simplest and most direct ways of praying and meditating is through singing, and singing in community is especially powerful. You get people together in a room singing, and you instantly knock down all the walls—the creeds, the gender, age and race differences, everything. You’re all one at that point, lifting your voices.”
In singing together we give voice to our shared humanity. Our common joys, longings, sorrows and hopes fly from our mouths and mingle in the air. Come, help us sing in harmony to enliven spirit, build community, and create personal and cultural change.
Open Hub Singing Club meets in the Pulpit Rock Brewing Event Room for 8 Sundays from 3:30-5:00 pm beginning April 2.
Cost is on a sliding scale: $40-$80. Pay as is generous and affordable for you.
In each session, we will…
Learn joyful, diverse, easy-to-memorize songs
Connect with our singing community through a shared joy of song
Build confidence in our voices in a welcoming, supportive space
Release the stress of living and open space for the week to come
Exercise our bodies and minds through the practice of group singing
Build memory retention through oral tradition singing
Enjoy a fun, relaxed, and accepting environment
Please join us!
3 ways to register:
On Eventbrite
Email liz@decorahnow.com for tickets via Paypal
Send a check to:
SongTown/Liz Rog
1591 Manawa Trail Rd.
Decorah, IA 52101