Singing into fall
In this Newsletter: The Well Tree Musical by Heartwood Trio, Open Hub Singing Club Fall Series, Iowa City sing with Lyndsey Scott, Viroqua Community Sing, meet Emma, new book sneak peak, and more!
Warm Autumn Greetings to you, Friends!
The crisp season of color and coziness has arrived. It’s time to sing with friends some favorite autumn songs: Turn into Fall by Heidi Wilson, Migration by Sarina Partridge, Winds of the West by Ayla Nereo, Fall aka The Road is Calling by John Krumm, and so many more!
The Eskimo Shaman named Orpingalik said it so right:
Songs are thoughts,
sung with the
breath when people
are moved by great
forces and ordinary
speech no longer
suffices.
Some big news from here this season is that I’ve just finished writing a book about community singing! It’s at the printer right now and I’m excited to share it with you all very soon. It is my best attempt to pass along some of the things I’ve learned over the years about ways to share songs. Song Carrier Toolkit is meant for anyone who is bringing or might might like to begin bringing songs to the many spaces that could use them, be it on the street, in a meeting, at a house of worship, at a family table, or anywhere else.
As Mary Oliver said:
I believe in kindness.
Also in mischief.
Also in singing, especially
When singing is not necessarily prescribed.
I’m looking forward to singing with you soon! Maybe at Musicland (full), or near Madison Oct 4, or in Iowa City Oct 12, or in Viroqua Nov 1, or in Decorah when the Heartwood Trio comes in November. See below for more on all of these, plus Open Hub Singing Club’s fall season beginning Oct. 20.
In Gratitude for Songs and for You,
Liz
In early September I co-led a training for emerging song leaders with Annie Schlaefer, Linnea Champ, Sarina Partridge, and 32 wonderful participants. Click on the photo to see a video of us singing a song by MaMuse! “How’s about we work this thing together? All hearts in in service of all learning! How’s about we work this thing together? Can I count on you? You can count on me!”
Come sing with me!
Oct 4 near Madison, Oct 12 in Iowa City with Lyndsey Scott, Nov 1 in Viroqua
October 4: Folklore Village Community Sing
Date and Time: October 4, 6:30-8:30 pm
Location: Plum Grove Chapel at Folklore Village, 3210 County Road BB, Dodgeville, WI 53533
Event Details: Come experience the joy of singing in community, with a group of aspiring songleaders, as well as folks who simply love to sing!
Cost: $20, no one turned away due to lack of funds, get tickets here!
October 12: Community Song Circle with Liz Rog and Lyndsey Scott
Date and Time: October 12, 10 am-12 pm with potluck to follow
Location: Shelter #6 at Lower City Park, 200 Park Rd, Iowa City, IA
Event Details: You are warmly welcomed 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. 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. Here’s the Facebook event.
Cost: You are welcome to come for Free // & Donations will be gratefully accepted. We will pass the hat!
November 1: Community Song Circle in Viroqua
Date and Time: November 1, socializing at 6 pm, singing from 6:30-8 pm
Location: The Landmark Center, 500 E Jefferson St, Viroqua, WI 54665
Cost: Pay at the door, sliding scale $10-20, students $5, children free
We’re Hosting Heartwood in Decorah!
November 8: Heartwood Trio Participatory Concert
Date and Time: November 8, 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 - learn more and get tickets here!
November 9: 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, Iowa
Event Details: 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.
Cost: Tiered pricing, please choose the level that is generous and affordable for you - get tickets here!
Meet Emma!
We welcome Emma Koeppel to the Center for Belonging family! Emma joined us in June as the admin assistant, receiving the torch from the beloved Liliana Coelho. Emma lives in Waukesha, WI where she leads monthly song circles and is slowly exploring the work of grief tending. When she’s not helping with the Center for Belonging, she’ll be deepening with a cohort through Earthkeeper Wisdom School’s A Year in Ceremony this year. She loves improvising on the piano, singing spontaneous songs to the trees, listening deeply, and resting. Check out more of what she’s up to at her website.
Open Hub Singing Club Fall Series
For local Decorah area folks! You are invited to join Open Hub Singing Club, eight Sundays this fall 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! Sundays from 3:30-5 pm: October 20 and 27, November 3, 17 and 24, December 1, 8, and 15. Cost is sliding scale $40-$80 for all 8 sessions, pay what is generous and affordable for you. No one turned away for lack of funds.
The Opening
By Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
for Holiday, in the James Turrell Skyspace at Cheekwood Gardens
Each moment of the day
a song is looking for its singer—
song before the eyelids rise,
song of hunger, song of dream,
song of waiting for the phone to ring,
song of groping in the dark,
song of walking through the garden,
song of trying on silver hats,
song of seeing the city’s edge.
And still so often we miss the song,
but today when Holiday
opened her mouth and began
to sing of cumulonimbus,
her clear tune spiraled through the small
white room with such astonishing
rightness I brimmed with gold
and cloud and kin,
her bright-winged notes soaring
in my body like a murmuration,
and I opened like dawn, like sky,
as if when one person dares
to be found by the song of the moment
and sing it true, they teach
the rest of us how to do it, too,
how to sing, sing wild, sing
ourselves alive, as if
it’s what we’re here to do.
More of Rosemerry’s poems at A Hundred Falling Veils