Heart Songs Setlist from Dec 20, 2021

Here's the list of songs we sang virtually on Dec 20, 2021. 

1. Come, come whoever you are* (Rumi/Dale Zola)
2. Welcome to the table/zoom call (clb)
3. You are in the right place (Martha Burford)
4. What we need is here* (from The Wild Geese by Wendell Berry/Music: Amy McCreath) - led by Nancy (Also some thoughts from Ana Hernandez.)
5. Sweet Surrender (text: Saint Symeon/music: Sophia)
6. Honor the Dark (Lea Morris) - Previous link is YouTube; here's a link to Bandcamp.
7. Now the Day is Over (Kerri Meyer) - led by Nancy (scroll halfway down)
8. We were made for these times (Clarissa Pinkola Estes/Linda Noonan)

* Click on "Attached Resources" button

Want to know when we are gathering next?  Click here for the latest post OR here to sign up for the reminder email (Select Heart Songs from the list).  

Want to know what we sang at other gatherings?  Click here for a list of posts on the blog and here for a list sent to the email list.  

We're holding the possibility of other local in-person song circles that are BIPOC/mixed-centered, street justice-centered, or queer-centered. If you'd like to hear about those when scheduled, drop us a line on the Contact Us page.

Jan-Mar 2022 Heart Songs Dates

 

What: Heart Songs: Lament, Longing, & Love (a community space for you to bring your heart and your voice)

When: every other Mondays, 6:30-8p CDT (05-UTC)

• Jan 3, 17, & 31
• Feb 14 & 28
• Mar 14 & 28

Where: Online: https://zoom.us/j/431161455 (see call-in options below)

Gather for an informal singing time to re-center our hearts in community. Simple songs will be led paperlessly/taught by ear by Conie Borchardt, other song leaders, and you, if you have a song to share.

Join us. Bring friends. (Signup for the email reminder here; select Heart Songs)

Songs will be about the human experience and in that way, spiritual in nature, but not specifically religious.

This is a space intended for self-care, however that shifts for you in every moment. Bring water. Come and go. Sit in a chair, lie on the floor, or stand as you need to.

--

Fundraising for Biracial & Rural 2022!

Please check out the [Give to the Max Day / Giving Tuesday / Year End] fundraising campaign we have going for Biracial & Rural at https://www.givemn.org/story/Biracialandrural21-22.  

As of 11p CT on Sunday, November 21, 2021, we've raised $1,300 of a $6,000 goal.  We are thrilled at this most excellent start.  

Follow us at Instagram for more updates. <3

Setlist from Lutheran Outdoor Ministries, Nov 9, 2021

Hi there!

If you're reading this you probably attended the Tuesday night plenary of the Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Network Gathering with Conie and Ross Murray from The Naming Project.  Here's the setlist of what we sang (with links to online recordings!) and a few other resources we thought you might want to take with you... 

Song setlist!

• God Welcomes All (from South Africa)
• Come on in from the cold (unknown*)
• Hide not your love (Trish Bruxvoort Colligan)
• Welcome to the Table (Conie Borchardt for Table 229)
• You Are in the Right Place (Martha Burford)
• Our Stories (Paul Damico-Carper)
• In Hope, In Prayer (Batya Levine)
• When Times Are Hard (Liz Digitale Anderson)
• Sorry, Not Sorry (Galen Smith)
• Healing Is Possible (Orion Johnstone)

Conie's projects

Biracial & Rural - arts-centered community of care and storytelling space by, for, with folks who identify or connect with the experiences of living in multi-cultural rural spaces.  Dreams of community building retreats and ongoing support and visibility.

Freeing Refrains - extended solo version of the Biracial & Rural storytelling space.  Where the stories of a mixed Asian person with the songs that buoyed them, and you are invited to consider the forces that bind and liberate us, individually and communally.  An opportunity to meet other black, indigenous, people of color with similar and different experiences.  Next gatherings:  Sat, Dec 4, 10a CT

Other Resources

Music That Makes Community
- organization supporting individuals and ecumenical communities in the practices of paperless community singing to enliven spiritual lives.  Contact Paul Vasile, Executive Director, to host a 3-day retreat at your camp  with your counseling staff (or a collective of camps!) or find out where you can send your staff to a workshop.

Midwest Mixed - an organization that hosts monthly Dialogue events and biennial conferences for, by, and with folks who identity or connect with the experience of being biracial, multi-ethnic, mixed, or a trans-racially or -nationally adoptee.

• Priya Parker's The Art of Gathering: How We Meet & Why It Matters - an interesting, provocative book full of stories.  You'll see yourself doing well in some areas and realizing their opportunities for growth too.  
• Resmaa Menakem's My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma & the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts & Bodies - the settling exercise is grounded and inspired by the body-breath exercises from the book.  

I welcome follow up conversations about songs, the art, the stories.  I've been embracing an attitude of offering over an expectation of perfection.  May our time together have seeds of possibility, creativity, and curiosity for the future.  

p.s. if you have stills or videos from the plenary, we would love to see them!  Tag us on social media:  IG: @pointsoflight_mu | fb: PointsOfLightMusic. 

--

* "unknown" designations: Means this useful song has had an adventurous life where its source credits information has gotten disconnected or lost along the way.  We would love to know if song and creator info can be reconnected.  Drop us a line at listening@pointsoflightmusic.net.  

Partnership Highlight: KALI, A Space for Transformation in Stillwater, MN

Just a little post compiling the relationship we're building with KALI - A Space for Transformation in Stillwater, MN.  We are delighted to be collaborating with the owner who is a Korean adoptee who grew up in the area.  Check their many offerings on the website, https://kali.mn/.  

We'll have office hours on most Fridays, offering spiritual accompaniment/direction and voice coaching with a focus on healing from oppressive and toxic systems.  Please send us an email at listening@pointsoflightmusic.net or fill out the Contact Us form to setup a time to connect.

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A post shared by Conie Borchardt (@pointsoflight_mu)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Conie Borchardt (@pointsoflight_mu)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Conie Borchardt (@pointsoflight_mu)

Winter 2021-22 Heart Songs

What: Heart Songs: Lament, Longing, & Love (a community space for you to bring your heart and your voice)

When: every other Mondays, 6:30-8p CDT (05-UTC)

• Nov 8 & 22
• Dec 6 & 20 

Where: Online: https://zoom.us/j/431161455 (see call-in options below)

Gather for an informal singing time to re-center our hearts in community. Simple songs will be led paperlessly/taught by ear by Conie Borchardt, other song leaders, and you, if you have a song to share.

Join us. Bring friends. (Signup for the email reminder here; select Heart Songs)

Songs will be about the human experience and in that way, spiritual in nature, but not specifically religious.

This is a space intended for self-care, however that shifts for you in every moment. Bring water. Come and go. Sit in a chair, lie on the floor, or stand as you need to.

--
Other Zoom options:
Meeting ID: 431 161 455

pw: 55416

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Meeting ID: 431 161 455

Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/acAqU9jgfc

Oct 26: Board Repair Fair (5-7p CT)

We'll be in attendance! Come & learn more about Biracial & Rural at our Whova booth!

Awards, Residencies, and Partnerships (Summer 2021)

We are excited to recognize the following partnerships, awards, and residencies that we are a part.  The witness, support, encouragement, and faith of these organizations is overwhelming.  Read on for more ... 

Oct 24: Street Justice Singalong @ Open Streets Minnehaha

What:  Street Justice Singalong (fb Event link)

When:  Sunday, October 24, 2021, 1-4 p.m.

• 1-2 p.m. with Liz & Conie
• 2-3 p.m. Dances of Universal Peace with Adam & Conie
• 3-4 p.m. with Liz & Conie 

Where:  Minnehaha Ave @ 42nd Street, Minneapolis 
as part Open Streets Minnehaha

Who are our leaders?

Liz Digitale Anderson (she/her) I write songs for community singing. They're songs for the streets, to keep us going in the struggle for justice, songs to remind us another world is possible and carry us through to liberation. I hope you'll find some friends and sing these together.  Hear my songs here:  https://soundcloud.com/lizdigitaleanderson. 

Adam Wolter (he/him) Adam is a musician, astrologer, and a certified leader of the Dances of Universal Peace. He's an initiate in the Sufi Ruhaniat order, and facilitates monthly (1st Sundays) sacred musical gatherings, and works to build good mystical musical community with the Dances of Universal Peace North America.  

Conie Borchardt (she/they) is a mixed Asian Public Heart Artist, a listener and vibration holding space for truth, pain, and delight while inviting creative expression in sound, movement, and color within themselves and in others.  Learn more about them by checking out this website.

Heart Songs Setlist from October 11, 2021

Here's the songs we sang in-person on October 11 near Lake Nokomis. Its in no particular order because it was hard to write in the dark lol and it hard to recreate the order after sleeps.

• Come, come whoever you are (Rumi/Dale Zola)
• Light & Darkness (unknown) - haven’t found an online recording yet though they are on the “Coming Home” CD by the Flowering Women & “Morningstar Singers” available from https://www.barbaramcafee.com/store.html
• For all that has been (unknown) - led by Liz DA who learned it from Sarah Jane Bradley - also haven’t found an online recording yet
• Simply Trust (Kobayashi Issa/Harmony Grisman)
• Hymn for the Russian Earth (Yuri Zaritsky and Eugene Friesen) - here's a recording of the Dances of Universal Peace
• The Way Knows the Way (Lyndsey Scott)
• Ridin’ My Bike (Laurence Cole)
• Scramblin’ (Whitney Bembenek) - led by Liz

It's likely that was the final outdoor in-person sing of Heart Songs for 2021. Heart Songs will continue online on alternating Monday nights through the winter.

We're holding the possibility of other local in-person song circles that are BIPOC/mixed-centered, street justice-centered, or queer-centered. If you'd like to hear about those when scheduled, drop us a line on the Contact Us page.

Oct 28 Freeing Refrains: Open to ALL Folks

All Bodies, Black, Brown, White, and everything in between are welcome to the October 28, 2021 Freeing Refrains gathering.  

Please register here at least an hour before the event starts.  Zoom information will be sent to you.  

See you at the gathering for conversation, stories, and songs!

Moving to 4th Sundays: Spirit of Peace Public Meditation Practice

Life is a dance that is constantly listening and adjusting to its partners.  

One thing we're paying attention to here at Points Of Light Music is the viability of doing a ongoing public meditation that we call the Spirit of Peace.  If you haven't heard about it before, you can read about it here.  

Making space for this in the middle of the week in the middle of the day has not been easy.  Nor has it drawn folks probably because this timing is hard for many.  So we're gonna try something different...

New time:  4th Sunday of the month, 2 p.m. in the afternoon

Location:  Minnesota State Capitol Grounds, St. Paul

We'll try this for a bit and review.   

In the reflection for this change, we wanted to name why this practice of coming together still feels important.  

• It allows us an opportunity to reflect on the inherent worth of every person we meet and practice seeing that in each person.  (because if we're honest, it's hard to do that sometimes ... er, a lot of times)
• Coordinating our breath to sing and our bodies in movement is a practice of settling our bodies together.  In Resmaa Menakem's book My Grandmother's Hands, these actions describe the weaving of time and space that creates trust and a container for feeling safer in our bodies and in spaces to be able to heal past trauma.  We believe healing is slow and incremental, creating huge shifts in tiny movements.  

As the seasons shift into winter, we'll review if the location is good or if we'll migrate to zoom or find other places to practice this.  

In the new year, we'll check-in about the time.  

Thanks for reading along.  

Oct 7: MGH community convening

What:  A gathering for folks who have read My Grandmother's Hands (MGH) with Conie and PLM or Music that Makes Community (MMC) over the last year.  To check-in and support each other's journey's, grow community.

When:  Thursday, October 7, 2021, 1 p.m. EDT.   
(10 a.m. PDT // 11 a.m. MDT // 12 noon CDT)

Length: 90 minutes

Where:  online via zoom.  To get the link, send a note via the Contact Us form or reply to the email you received.

Help Wanted: Advisory Board Members

 

Help Wanted:

Creating new  

Biracial & Rural* culture 

through storytelling events & retreats.

Do you fit the description of 

being black, indigenous, person of color 

who experienced otherness 

in predominantly white rural spaces. 

AND 

(pick one or several)

- desire to create more community and care 

for and with others like yourself?

- want to dig into the Mixed Bill of Rights and 

the Oath of Responsibility by Maria P.P. Root

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A post shared by Conie Borchardt (@pointsoflight_mu)

- want to explore the somatic practices 

within Resmaa Menakem's My Grandmother's Hands book

with other mixed folks?

- love to share your artistic practice with others?  

Or accompany folks on their artistic explorations?

- have space and interest to plan and implement logistics 

for an arts-centered retreat for next summer?

 

* Read more about our thoughts on inclusion, 

the limitations of names, 

and what we're doing about it here.

Help Wanted: Spreading the Word

Help Wanted:

Spread the Word of 

Biracial & Rural* 

to those that fit the description of 

being black, indigenous, person of color 

who experienced otherness 

in predominantly white rural spaces. 

* Read more about our thoughts on inclusion, 

the limitations of names, 

and what we're doing about it here.

What's In A Name OR "How to say: Your story is important & you're welcome here"

What's in a name?  

So much meaning, including a sense of belonging.  

And it's also just a conglomeration of sounds smooshed together.  In a particular sequence, yes.  One that has been developed over time and shifted in changed in different times and contexts.  One that continues to evolve today and into tomorrow based on what we knew then and what we will learn in the future.   

Biracial & Rural was a phrase we started using to refer to the experience of living in a pre-dominantly white rural space as a person whose ancestry was from two different continents.  In 2019 we applied that phrase  to title an autobiographical transdisciplinary performance art piece of Conie's story.  

By 2020, we realized that one person's story could not encapsulate the breadth of experiences possible in that phrase, Biracial & Rural (BnR).  It took until the end of 2020 to be able to articulate that BnR was a community of care and storytelling space and that Conie's story in that was called Freeing Refrains.  

This year, 2021, we're realizing the limitations of using Biracial.  With a conversation partner from Midwest Mixed, we realized the wide net we were hoping to spread using Biracial might be more deterrent as some folks see themselves as multi-ethnic or mixed.  It is a complexity that needs space to unfold and real relationship to feel the inclusion.  

And begs the questions:  How wide do you want to fling the net?  And will you change the name?

Heart Songs Setlist from August 16, 2021

 Here's the songs we sang in-person on August 16:

1. Welcome to the temple (Doug van Koss)
2. Longing (Orion Mountain Dreamer/Nathan Holst)
3. Welcome to the zoom call (clb)
4. Put Your Roots Down (unknown)
5. Push (Wayfaring Stranger Remix) - Liz Digitale Anderson
6. Always (Grace Lee Boggs as quoted in Emergent Strategies by adrienne maree brown/Nathan Holst)
7. The Way Knows the Way (Lyndsey Scott)
8. Sweet Surrender (text: Saint Symeon/music: Sophia)
9. What we need is here (from The Wild Geese by Wendell Berry/Music: Amy McCreath)
10. We were made for these times (Clarissa Pinkola Estes/Linda Noonan)
11. Lead with Love (Melanie DeMore)
12. Always (Grace Lee Boggs as quoted in Emergent Strategies by adrienne maree brown/Nathan Holst)

Join us in-person on 9/13 (maybe last one?) or on zoom on 8/30 and 9/27.

Reflections on Healing before the 3rd Midwest Mixed Conference

Reader, I ask for your supportive witness at this time.

The following detail may not make sense to you if you haven’t done trauma work or read My Grandmother’s Hands. And that’s ok.

Some of you know I’ve been working on a project called Biracial and Rural, a community of care and storytelling space. It’s an urging that has been growing for several years and starting to take more shape as I have made space for more healing. I’m at a point

Fall 2021 Dates for Freeing Refrains!

We're excited to get some dates out there to share Freeing Refrains!  Check the below dates against your calendar and then make your reservations at Eventbrite!

Freeing Refrains is a song circle and storytelling gathering. During this event you will be hearing about Conie's rural mixed Asian story, learn songs that have buoyed her (if you'd like), and then dialogue with others about the challenge of speaking our truth.

This story launches Biracial & Rural (BnR), a community of care 

and storytelling space. Through Freeing Refrains, Points of Light Music is calling in other rural BIPOC folks to come together for support, encouragement, skill sharing, and connection. Read more at http://www.pointsoflightmusic.net/p/biracial-rural.html.

The current BnR dream is to come together in arts based retreats over the summer and continue the connection virtually over the winter. Retreats conclude with participants sharing their story at an Open Mic/Variety Show to foster community dialogue.

Register up to an hour before each gathering at Eventbrite. The zoom link will be available an hour before.

These free events are supported by a SPARK fund grant from the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) and Rosy Simas Danse.