Please bring a water bottle, but don’t drink or eat too much before you arrive. A heavy belly can feel uncomfortable when you are using your diaphragm the way we will be.

Wear comfortable clothing. Nothing restrictive, especially at the waist and shoulders. Warm layers are good, because just like any physical exercise, it’s hard to begin when we are cold, and as we practice, we warm up from the inside out.

Please bring your sense of humor and play! This work can be deep, but it is hard to get to the depth without a willingness to try new things and get a little silly sometimes. There’s no shame here, just a bunch of human beings coming together to experience ourselves and each other more completely.

Bring whatever is true and authentic for you. That may be grief, it may be rage, it may be fatigue, it may be joy, and it may be just being ok! It’s all welcome here.

As a music teacher, I have a fundamental belief that music is inherently woven into every human experience. There is a rhythm to be felt in everything, from the beating of our own hearts, to the gentle crashing of ocean waves. Melody can be perceived in the cadence of our own speaking voice to the trilling of birds as they call up the sun.

For so many of us in western culture, we have been taught from a young age to suppress our creative urges, and many of us have been taught to silence our voices as well.

Singing begins with listening, and the closer you get to the music, the more deeply you can hear it. Standing in a room full of resonant bodies, allowing the depth of their breath to sound into a tone, your body will feel those vibrations, and receive them on a deeper level than your thinking mind. Let that be the place where you remember the notes, and where you relearn to speak that language we were all born into.

It may feel risky to soften into the space our bodies naturally want to occupy, and it may take courage to set our voices free, but we are all in it together!

Although there will be songs traveling into this space that have varied history and culture, I am always striving to keep the lineage of the songs intact, including how they came to be meaningful to me. I will do my best to share about the origins, context, and cultural impact of the songs I share.

Some songs we know and love may have problematic history, or stories of systemic oppression built into them, but we are always learning, and sometimes recognizing and reshaping these songs is part of healing their history. Although cultures the world over have been influencing and inspiring each other for as long as human beings have existed, cultural appropriation can still do damage to those whose cultures have been suppressed. When a group of folks with privilege take inspiration from the music of those folks who they have historically oppressed, this highlights the imbalance of power and is not the same as an equal exchange of cultural ideas.

Please feel free to give me any feedback as we sing and learn together.

Singing together should be part of every person’s cultural heritage, and my wish is for children to be welcome in this space…

HOWEVER, this is a container where participants should feel held without being distracted by anyone who is not also fully participating.

Young people who want to be full, paid participants, are wholeheartedly welcome. Please clear it with me first, so we can make sure it’s a good fit for your young person.

Please do NOT bring non-participating children, unless they are quiet babies-in-arms, or you are a single parent with no child care available (I feel you!). I do not want lack of childcare to be a barrier to participation AND please consider if this will be a good fit for your child, as they will be unattended and will need to be quiet and self-directed.