Setlist from May 2 Retrain Your Lizard Brain

Here are the songs we sang at the very first Retrain Your Lizard Brain: Somatic Singing for Trauma Awareness + Resilience at Walker/New City Church on Thursday evening, May 2, 2024.  Enjoy the links to online recordings for your at-home remembering pleasure!  

• Neuroplasticity Song (Ahlay Blakely)
• The Center Will Hold (text: Brene Brown, from Atlas of the Heart; music: clb)
• Do You Feel? Do You Heal? (Lu Aya Nephew, The Peace Poets + Deirdre Shabaaz)
• The Cure for the Pain (text inspired by Rumi; tune: Yam)
• Grief is Coming (Aurora’s Song) (Liz Digitale Anderson)
• The Shame Song (Ahlay Blakely) 

* no online recording available. If you discover one, please let us know in the comments!

Here are some of the Resources we promised to share:

• About the Card Decks: Having a tangible tool to sit with and reflect our feelings back to us helps us slow down, process, and make space for emotional work and intentions we otherwise tend to ignore. In May we spread out the Rest Deck by Tricia Hersey and the Artist Grief Deck, made by hospice workers in the pandemic.
• Instruments we use: 
• CajonTab by Louson Drum - Conie has a 12" CajonTab; Liz has one of the Pro series. Get to know a bit of the cajon's musical history here. Use Liz's affiliate link to get 10% off!
• Shruti Box, literally "sound" or "singing" in ancient Sankrit, replicates the sound of the Tambura, an East Asian Indian drone instrument. Part of the family of drone instruments that show up in many cultures, related to bagpipes and harmoniums. Conie's instrument is from Shrutibox.com run by Ron Kravitz of https://www.musicinthemoment.com/ in Philadelphia, PA.

Thank you to the crew who jumped in to retrain their lizard brain!  The right people were there, tenderness, grit, and support were shared. Community was tended. This is part of the world we're working towards!

Many thanks to Mni'sota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute for offering the amazing Strategies for Trauma Awareness & Resilience (STAR) training that Liz and Conie took in June 2023 and to being interested in partnering with us when we expressed interest in offering a hand-on offering.  Many thanks to Jean for their supporting hands-on support to bring this into being!  

We're planning to make this session monthly because the work of Trauma Awareness and Resiliency is long and slow!  The next Retrain Your Lizard Brain session will likely be Thursday, June 13, 2024; stay tuned for details on this blog as they unfold or sign up for the In-person Singing and/or the Good Trouble Songleaders newsletters

Keep singing and stay warm, hydrated and creative!

Love, Liz and Conie, a.k.a. Good Trouble