Nov 8: Singing for Liberation Potluck!

SINGING FOR LIBERATION: 

Please join us the Friday after the election for a potluck and community sing for movement organizers and workers: everyone and every voice is welcome!

Friday, November 8th, 6-8 pm
Hosted by CTUL + Inquilixs Unidxs 

@ 3715 Chicago Ave, Minneapolis

Facebook link

Please bring a dish to share if you're able!

Liberation movements throughout history have taught us that singing together helps us celebrate, march, grieve, stay true to our vision, and the songs anchor our courage for the work to come. We're not singing to perform, we're singing because it changes us - every voice is needed in the movement.

This potluck is to help launch a winter series coming January 2025 to help train up more songleaders for movement work here in the Twin Cities -- we want to help organizers grow their confidence and toolkit of songs for justice and liberation work. Come find out more, experience the way your body shifts when singing hope in community, and try it out with us!

Setlist from October 10: Retrain Your Lizard Brain

Here are the songs we sang at the Thursday evening, October 10, 2024 Retrain Your Lizard Brain: Somatic Singing for Trauma Awareness + Resilience at Walker/New City Church. Enjoy the links to online recordings for your at-home remembering pleasure!

• May My Voice (Samara Jade)
• What are we gonna do with all this grief (main lyric from Prentis Hemphill’s book, “What It Takes to Heal,” tune by Liz with melodic frame influenced by Ana Hernandez’s “Set it right again”, Black Blues + Spirituals, and Whiskey Shivers’ “Who’s gonna dig these graves”)
• Stone by stone (Taya Ma)
• I am connected (Beautiful chorus) - and YouTube
• I am free in my body (Shireen Amini) - teaching parts at The Bird Sings

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. We typically spread out two: 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 hands-on offering. Please checkout their offerings and consider taking a webinar or the full training.

We're planning to make this session monthly because the work of Trauma Awareness and Resiliency is long and slow! Stay tuned for details by signing 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

*Dec 12*: Retrain Your Lizard Brain sessions for Fall 2024

What: Retrain Your Lizard Brain: Somatic Singing for Trauma Awareness + Resilience
When: Selected Thursdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m. 

     Dates:  October 10, November 14, December 12, 2024

Where: Walker/New City Church,
     3104 16th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55407 (map)
With: Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute and GOOD TROUBLE

REGISTER HERE: Eventbrite

How do we find our way through personal, cultural, and systemic trauma towards resilience? Our culture is honestly pretty terrible at having community rhythms to process this and tools to live towards growth. Singing and somatic practice are one container offering a space to practice working through our grief, pain, and conflict towards finding joy, courage and connection.

Inspired by the STAR* training, you’re invited to a monthly community song circle of simple songs, taught call and echo, and somatic practices to check in with how our bodies are processing. You don’t need to “be a singer” - we’re not singing to perform; we sing because it changes us.

Oct 8: Registration opens for The Blessing Way Aramaic retreat (Apr 25-27, 2025)

 

Click here for more details on this retreat and to register.

*Dec 1*: Dances of Universal Peace in St. Paul

Please join Conie B and Adam Wolter for Sufi Dancing, a.k.a. the Dances of Universal Peace on the first Sunday of the month at the Twin Cities Friends Meetinghouse in St. Paul.  

• When:  First Sundays from 6:30-8:45 p.m.
• Upcoming Dates:  Oct 6, Nov 3, Dec 1, 2024
• Where:  Twin Cities Friends Meetinghouse, 1725 Grand Ave, St. Paul.  

Join our group on meetup.com for upcoming events.

MMC News: Fall 2024

Here's a quick roundup of Music that Makes Community (MMC) news of this moment.  

What's inside:

• Events: around Turtle Island and TC local
• Important resources
• A Vision
• And an invitation to contribute to our mission.