Year End BnR Fundraising Gratitude & S T R E T C H!

This update is about a month overdue. Partly because of shock (we made our initial goal! What what?!?) and partly because it's a pretty busy time for church musicians everywhere.

We feel so appreciative of all our donors. The ones who gave $2,500 and those who gave $10. You're all the same to us. We're feeling the love and support for the Biracial & Rural community and the Freeing Stuck Refrains project at Points of Light Music pretty strongly. Thank you.

With four days left in the calendar year, we're putting out a stretch goal of $5,000. We'll only $605 short of that now. Those funds will go toward creating an in-person gathering of Freeing Refrains.

  

Can you help us reach this goal?  Donate here.

Nov 17: Give to the Max Day for Biracial & Rural projects

It's the Great Mni'sota Give Together, Give To the Max Day today! Points of Light Music (polimu) is participating with two projects: Biracial & Rural and Freeing Stuck Refrains.

Please read on to learn more about what we're dreaming for 2023... (or just hop over to this link to make a donation)...

***

Biracial & Rural continues to grow a community of care for mixed race and Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in predominantly white spaces. Over the last year we have continued to connect with folks who are yearning for kindred places to gather, share our stories, and do the healing work of shedding the ways we've internalized oppressive systems.

And there is more connection and healing to do.

In 2023, we want to hold six Freeing Stuck Refrains gatherings and invite 10 folks into a Biracial & Rural retreat space.

Would you help us connect, tell stories, and create arts-based healing spaces?

** 

Oct 27: Freeing Stuck Refrains - Open Zoom Rehearsal

You're invited to an Open Zoom Rehearsal!  

Rie Gilsdorf and I will be presenting Freeing Stuck Refrains: A Reflective Storytelling Space for "What binds us? What liberates us?" at the Overcoming Racism Conference, November 11-12, 2022 in St. Paul, MN.  

We know that not everyone can attend that, so we're inviting friends and colleagues to join us for an Open Zoom Rehearsal.  

When:  Thursday, October 27, 2022, 7-8:30 p.m. CT

Where:  Zoom (Meeting ID: 810 1908 8042 // Passcode: 344304) -- if you'd like a link sent to you, sign up for the Freeing Refrains newsletter here.  

This is a 90-minute reprise of the Freeing Refrains gathering we had in May.  

Meet Rie and her work at Embody Equity here.  

Nov 11-12: Offerings at the Overcoming Racism Conference

 

We're excited to offer two breakout workshops at the Overcoming Racism Conference* at Metro State this year.  

1.  Freeing Stuck Refrains: A Reflective Storytelling Space for “What Binds Us? What Liberates Us?” with Rie Gilsdorf on Friday, November 11, 1:10-2:40 p.m. 

* We're having an Open Virtual Rehearsal on Thursday, October 27, 7-8:30 p.m. on Zoom.  Use the Contact Us form to reach out and ask for the link, if you're not able to attend the conference!

2.  Songs for Truth Telling, New Narratives, and Cultural Composting with Liz Digitale Anderson (as song leading duo, Good Trouble) on Saturday, November 12, 12:10-1:40 p.m.

* Check out some of the other community singing gatherings we're having here!

Checkout the program (in-person & livestreamed) and register before midnight on Friday, November 4 (EXTENDED!) October 28.  

* The Overcoming Racism Conference is organized by the Facilitating Racial Equity Collaborative (FREC).  

Meet Rie

Points of Light Music (PLM) is inviting each Freeing Refrains storyteller into an public pre-conversation to help us get to know them before the event. 

Meet Rie, the storyteller for our May 19th event.

May 19: Freeing Refrains with Rie Gilsdorf: More Stories, Convos, & Song

We are delighted to welcome Rie Gilsdorf to share some of their story with Freeing Refrains.  RSVP below and then watch for our interview with them to drop.

Day:  Thursday, May 19, 2022
Time:  6:30-8:30 p.m. CT
RSVP free:  Eventbrite 

--
Bio:  Rie Algeo Gilsdorf, MS, MA, has broad experience as a principal, arts administrator, facilitator, coach, teacher of science and dance, and parent in innovative public, private, magnet and charter schools. She spent her early career delivering, designing and guiding arts-integrated, student-centered learning, and most recently spent five years at Courageous Conversation learning how to engage productively in equity work as a white woman.

Throughout her career Rie has also facilitated adult learning that develops capacity to achieve equity across race, gender, sexuality and ability in redesigned schools and progressive faith communities.

Mar 24: Freeing Refrains with Merle Geode: More stories, convos, and songs

We are delighted to welcome Merle Geode to share some of their mixed Asian story with Freeing Refrains in 2022.  Read more about them and then RSVP to attend.

Day:  Thursday, March 24, 2022
Time:  6:30-8:30 p.m. CT
RSVP free:  Eventbrite 

Merle Geode is a mixed race (Korean and white) disabled genderfluid poet/writer,

Winter Freeing Refrains: Feb 15 & Mar 24, 2022

We excited to announce the dates of the next two Freeing Refrains gatherings and our first guest storyteller!  

Freeing Refrains resumes on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. with Conie B sharing more stories from their rural-urban mixed Asian perspective.  RSVP here.  

On Thursday, March 24, 2022, we welcome Merle Geode to share stories from their mixed Asian life.  Mark your calendars and RSVP here!

Bio:  Merle Geode is a mixed race (Korean and white) disabled genderfluid poet/writer, shamanic practitioner, and multidisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis living with metastatic breast cancer. They have a B.S. degree in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where they were a UW-Madison Writing Fellow. They were a food and features writer for several years for Isthmus and Our Lives Magazine in Madison, but their storytelling is now taking a turn for more experimental and expansive forms. They are currently an MFA candidate in Poetry at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and a mentor in the Write Like Us program for BIPOC writers across five local community colleges. Their poems and essays appear in Love, Always: Partners of Trans People on Intimacy, Challenge and Resilience; MNArtists; and poetry.onl. Currently, they are working on a picture book about anticipatory grief and death as an author/illustrator.

Oct 28 Freeing Refrains: Open to ALL Folks

All Bodies, Black, Brown, White, and everything in between are welcome to the October 28, 2021 Freeing Refrains gathering.  

Please register here at least an hour before the event starts.  Zoom information will be sent to you.  

See you at the gathering for conversation, stories, and songs!

Help Wanted: Advisory Board Members

 

Help Wanted:

Creating new  

Biracial & Rural* culture 

through storytelling events & retreats.

Do you fit the description of 

being black, indigenous, person of color 

who experienced otherness 

in predominantly white rural spaces. 

AND 

(pick one or several)

- desire to create more community and care 

for and with others like yourself?

- want to dig into the Mixed Bill of Rights and 

the Oath of Responsibility by Maria P.P. Root

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Conie Borchardt (@pointsoflight_mu)

- want to explore the somatic practices 

within Resmaa Menakem's My Grandmother's Hands book

with other mixed folks?

- love to share your artistic practice with others?  

Or accompany folks on their artistic explorations?

- have space and interest to plan and implement logistics 

for an arts-centered retreat for next summer?

 

* Read more about our thoughts on inclusion, 

the limitations of names, 

and what we're doing about it here.

Fall 2021 Dates for Freeing Refrains!

We're excited to get some dates out there to share Freeing Refrains!  Check the below dates against your calendar and then make your reservations at Eventbrite!

Freeing Refrains is a song circle and storytelling gathering. During this event you will be hearing about Conie's rural mixed Asian story, learn songs that have buoyed her (if you'd like), and then dialogue with others about the challenge of speaking our truth.

This story launches Biracial & Rural (BnR), a community of care 

and storytelling space. Through Freeing Refrains, Points of Light Music is calling in other rural BIPOC folks to come together for support, encouragement, skill sharing, and connection. Read more at http://www.pointsoflightmusic.net/p/biracial-rural.html.

The current BnR dream is to come together in arts based retreats over the summer and continue the connection virtually over the winter. Retreats conclude with participants sharing their story at an Open Mic/Variety Show to foster community dialogue.

Register up to an hour before each gathering at Eventbrite. The zoom link will be available an hour before.

These free events are supported by a SPARK fund grant from the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) and Rosy Simas Danse.