Something New!
In this Newsletter: Red Oak Outdoor School adult classes, Heartwood in Decorah, upcoming opportunities to sing with me, and Song Carrier Toolkit available now!
Dear Friends,
Something new is brewing!
Our daughters Ida Rotto and Sophie Rog, big supporters of the Center for Belonging since the beginning 🙂, have begun offering some adult events and workshops through Ida’s Red Oak Outdoor School. We’re so pleased to tell you about two special offerings in the coming weeks, below! If you’re coming from afar and would like to spend the night before or after these day-long events, you are welcome to camp here (free) or rent our cabin.
The other big news is that Song Carrier Toolbox, the book I’ve written to support people who want to carry songs into their communities, is at the printer right now and if you want to order it, well you sure can and I hope that you will! More below.
If you live anywhere within an hour or so of Decorah, please come to the wonderful events we’re hosting with the Heartwood Trio on Nov. 8th and 9th. I’m telling you–these are some of my favorite musicians of all time. Come sing with them on Friday Nov 8th, come take in their musical ‘The Well Tree’ on Nov. 9th. I’ll see you there!
And for you Decorah area locals: come join me for 8 weeks of Open Hub Singing Club beginning Oct 20! Gathering to befriend through singing is one way we can bring some peace into the world.
Liz
Red Oak Outdoor School Events
EarthSong
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 non-binary, trans-gender and cis-gender women welcome.
No previous singing experience needed.
Micaceous Clay Pottery
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.
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.
We’re Hosting The Heartwood Trio 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
Event Details: 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!
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!
Come Sing With Me!
October 12: Community Song Circle with 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: Sliding scale $10-20, students $5, children free, get tickets here!
Song Carrier Toolkit
Available Now
Not so long ago, all of us came from communities where group singing was commonplace, where there was no such thing as ‘non-singers,’ where songs were woven through each day, each season, each celebration and sorrow. We’re got what it takes to do that again, and it’s happening!
If you are curious about how to bring group singing into the spaces where your local communities gather, this book offers some tools, connections, and encouragement to begin.
If you have already stepped into leading singing in community, here’s a chance to look at your experiences and questions within the wider scope of this growing movement.
If you are a seasoned songleader, perhaps this book will support you in sharing these evolving tools with others.
Whether your gift to song and community is through bringing simple singing into your neighborhood or family, or you are leaning toward becoming one of the traveling bards who carry seeds of friendship and music across the land, this is for you.
Folk Means People
The Center for Belonging is grateful to be part of a three-year project that seeks to strengthen community cohesion and collective agency across difference. Our role is to help bring more community singing into folk schools and other communities–something I happen to love doing! Other participants in the project included the African American Craft Alliance, John C Campbell Folk School, the Washington State Parks Folklore Program, and Life School House in Nova Scotia. The project is funded through the Folk School Alliance, the Folk Education Association of Ammerica, and Fielding University.
Whatever it is that you are doing to hold your household, neighborhood, community together, thank you. May there be singing.
Liz
Proclamation for Peace
by Kim Stafford
Whereas the world is a house on fire;
Whereas the nations are filled with shouting;
Whereas hope seems small, sometimes
a single bird on a wire
lefi: by migration behind.
Whereas kindness is seldom in the news
and peace an abstraction
while war is real;
Whereas words are all I have;
Whereas my life is short;
Whereas I am afraid;
Whereas I am free—despite all
fire and anger and fear;
Be it therefore resolved a song
shall be my calling—a song
not yet made shall be vocation
and peaceful words the work
of my remaining days.