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*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:  Oc...

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Summer Dog Days: ARF! ARF!

Just raising the signal on a project I will be a part of this summer, Arts Responding to Foreclosure (ARF!)
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We're having an open community gathering and info session on Thursday evening, April 12, at Frogtown Square!  Join us! 

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Call for new text: general farewell-well wishes-Godspeed on tune of OLD 100th

We have some special people in our community who will be moving away soon.  Wanting to give them a special St. Mary's sendoff, the rector asked if new texts could be written to a familiar tune so we have something we can pickup to sing when this happens (hopefully rare!). 

You're up for a challenge, aren't you?

So sharpen your pencils, open up your rhyming dictionaries and put on your wordsmithing caps.  Your mission is to write a verse about wishing good people Godspeed on their journey and with fond wishes that we'll meet them again some day.  The tune to fit these words into is OLD 100th, which is also known as "Praise God from whom all blessings flow" or the Doxology.  For those of you who know poetic meter, Old 100th is LM (long meter).  Translation:  four lines with 8 syllables each.  Wikipedia has a nice & short article on hymn meters you can read up on, if you wish. 

The deadline for this challenge is next Sunday, April 15, 2012, noon.  Please email your entry(ies) to conie at saintmarysepiscopal dot org, hand it to me at church, or post it here if you wish.  We'll premiere the finest verse the following week.  (and if your holy muse is opposed to things like deadlines and other logistics, feel free to drop a note any time:). 

Blessings on the final day of the Triduum!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Sing Heavenly Harmony Evolution

There's a Sing Heavenly Harmony event today, Sunday, April 1, 2012, from 4-6 p.m. in room 108 of the O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library at the University of St. Thomas.  Join us to have fun singing and learn some songs by heart.

A few weeks ago, I attended a Music that Makes Community (MMC) workshop in South Minneapolis presented by All Saints Company.  There 50-some folks from the Twin Cities metro, Iowa, Wisconsin, Vermont and Oregon gathered to learn more about a movement to include paperless singing in worship.  The workshop also prepared lay persons, musicians, and clergy, in the basic leadership tools of this practice. 

Having attended this workshop previously, I knew the next step beyond the fundamentals is having a community of practice to hone one's skills.  Can you guess where I'm going next?  Yep, I'm opening up SHH to any leader who attended MMC to bring songs they're working on to this monthly gathering. 

So, come!  Come if you'd like to get some kinks out of your voice.  Come if you'd like to learn some new songs.  Come if you'd like to lead some songs with a grace-filled, singing-loving group. 

What:  Sing Heavenly (or Hearty) Harmony -- SHH! in the Library
When:  April 1, 2012, 4-6 p.m. (and every first Sunday of the month hereafter)
Where:  O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, University of St. Thomas
- northwest corner of Summit Ave and Cleveland Ave, St. Paul
- Room 108, the O'Shaughnessy Room