Sisters Singing Opening Celebration
PHOTOS AND VIDEOS
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Holy Cross Hall, Santa Cruz, CA
NEW! DVD CELEBRATING SISTERS SINGING
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO CLIPS FROM THE FILM
It was a night to be cherished. Over 450 people joined streamed into the Hall, still awed and breathtaken by the election of Barack Obama just four days before. Everyone was delighted just to be together and to celebrate the release of Sisters Singing.
Carolyn Brigit Flynn opened the evening with the sound of a Tibetan prayer bell, and thunderous applause for the president-elect. “A seven year cycle that began September 11, 2001 has ended,” she said. “We’re in 2008. And seven years, as you all know, is a completion. After seven years, you’ve gone to the next place. We have now stepped over. We’re now on the other side of that seven years. We are in a new land. And this book, as some of you know, took a teeny bit longer than we thought it might. So how lovely that we are here together now, and have the great honor to gather tonight and celebrate Sisters Singing, the voices of women, the poetry of women, song of women, the art of women.”
The medicine woman and writer Elenna Rubin Goodman, an intimate friend of Deena Metzger's, read a beautiful invocation from Deena, who was ill and not able to join the gathering. Her invocation was a teaching about how to live in this new time, and a beautiful prayer to the directions. "The new world is difficult, challenging, demanding, rigorous as the world that we have already put behind us," Deena wrote to those assembled. "And sometimes we will falsely mistake the new landscape and its mores for the old one and act out of fear and bad habits. If we do this too often, we will build another mirage of the past and live falsely in it, losing this opportunity of living within the sacred ecology that was and is always the essential nature of the universe and all life. How do we live here in the new vision? We do it, as this evening informs us, as sisters, as kin, and singing. And what do we sing? We sing the spirits and the spirits sing us. It is that continuous and constant motion again and again of calling and being called, of singing and being sung." (Please see the full text of Deena's blessing and invocation.)
Singer and healer Alysia Tromblay reminded us that when we stop singing, we can be easily “sounded” by others. She filled the room and called us to join her as throughout the evening as she gave us stunning music that moved the audience to tears and standing in applause. She offered “In This Body” by Mary Blaetter, “Testimony” by Ferron, and concluded the night with her own beautiful “Mother Mercy," which was inspired by the events of September 11. Her sung poetry ended the evening, Move a mountain with the humblest of seeds/ dare to whisper I’m willing to receive/ move a mountain with the simplest of needs/ Oh mother, have mercy on me. Please scroll down for a video of Alysica singing this beautiful song.
During the evening, sixteen poets wowed the room with spirit-filled, prayerful language that touched the sky. Readers included Gail Brenner, Ziggy Rendler-Bregman, Linda Holiday, Laura Wine Paster, Kate Aver Avraham (right), Andrea van de Loo, Patti Sirens, Connie Batten, Nancy Grace, Carolyn Davis Rudolph, Maria Papacostaki, Mary Camille Thomas, Marigold Fine, Lisa Espenmiller, Gretchen Sentry and Jean Mahoney.
Each poet read her work with grace and ease, in a completely silent hall where all listened with awe, respect and gratitude for these sisters who had, each in her own way, “entered the world of spirit and returned with a song.” Each poem led us ever more deeply into the mystery and beauty of creativity and the spirit.
Below poets Kate Aver Avraham and Jean Mahoney read their work.
Among many memorable events was the moment our beloved Nancy Grace, who just under a year ago was in a life-threatening coma after a serious accident, stood and read her poem, now titled, “I’m Alive”. The first stanza reads – What if I was innocent/ and everything I touched become/ more lovely?/ What if I chose colors to please me/ and when I went walking/ everything green and glorious thing/ was a dear part of my own self?
The video below features the poets Laura Wine Paster and Nancy Grace reading their work.
Kate Munger, along with the members of the Threshold Choir led the audience through several songs in Sisters Singing—“Guide Me” and “Earth is Woven Through My Body” written by Kate, and “Rain Fall Down” by Bayla Greenspoon. Kate then taught us a beautiful song she had just written for Barack Obama – May the depth and strength of our dreams/ Lift you up and keep you safe./ May the depth and strength of our hope keep you whole. The entire hall was filled with this prayer as Carolyn Brigit Flynn rang the Tibetan bell to bind the president-elect and his beautiful family in love and safety. See video below of Kate and the Threshold Choir.
Below Carolyn Davis Rudolph reads her poem "Green Onions."
Alysia Tromblay closed a remarkable evening with her song "Mother Mercy."
Eleven artists graced the hall with their original paintings, sculpture, photographs, altars and fabric art, including Carol Gaab, Diane Ritch, Jane Reyes, Holly Metz, Barbara Thomas, Susan Rothenberg, Kathy Pouls, Connie Batten, Karen Koshgarian, Carmella Weintraub, Cathy Williams, and Elizabeth Williams. Scores of people gathered around the art to admire and speak about the link between art and the spirit. A few of the many images below include, from left to right, work by Cathy Williams, Barbara Thomas, Carol Gaab and Susan Rothenberg.
These final lines from “We Must Insist” by Jean Mahoney rung out in the hall, the last poem of the night. |
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Find others Invite them over Light a fire of wood or wax Join hands It is most necessary. |
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