What's In A Name OR "How to say: Your story is important & you're welcome here"

What's in a name?  

So much meaning, including a sense of belonging.  

And it's also just a conglomeration of sounds smooshed together.  In a particular sequence, yes.  One that has been developed over time and shifted in changed in different times and contexts.  One that continues to evolve today and into tomorrow based on what we knew then and what we will learn in the future.   

Biracial & Rural was a phrase we started using to refer to the experience of living in a pre-dominantly white rural space as a person whose ancestry was from two different continents.  In 2019 we applied that phrase  to title an autobiographical transdisciplinary performance art piece of Conie's story.  

By 2020, we realized that one person's story could not encapsulate the breadth of experiences possible in that phrase, Biracial & Rural (BnR).  It took until the end of 2020 to be able to articulate that BnR was a community of care and storytelling space and that Conie's story in that was called Freeing Refrains.  

This year, 2021, we're realizing the limitations of using Biracial.  With a conversation partner from Midwest Mixed, we realized the wide net we were hoping to spread using Biracial might be more deterrent as some folks see themselves as multi-ethnic or mixed.  It is a complexity that needs space to unfold and real relationship to feel the inclusion.  

And begs the questions:  How wide do you want to fling the net?  And will you change the name?

Heart Songs Setlist from August 16, 2021

 Here's the songs we sang in-person on August 16:

1. Welcome to the temple (Doug van Koss)
2. Longing (Orion Mountain Dreamer/Nathan Holst)
3. Welcome to the zoom call (clb)
4. Put Your Roots Down (unknown)
5. Push (Wayfaring Stranger Remix) - Liz Digitale Anderson
6. Always (Grace Lee Boggs as quoted in Emergent Strategies by adrienne maree brown/Nathan Holst)
7. The Way Knows the Way (Lyndsey Scott)
8. Sweet Surrender (text: Saint Symeon/music: Sophia)
9. What we need is here (from The Wild Geese by Wendell Berry/Music: Amy McCreath)
10. We were made for these times (Clarissa Pinkola Estes/Linda Noonan)
11. Lead with Love (Melanie DeMore)
12. Always (Grace Lee Boggs as quoted in Emergent Strategies by adrienne maree brown/Nathan Holst)

Join us in-person on 9/13 (maybe last one?) or on zoom on 8/30 and 9/27.

Reflections on Healing before the 3rd Midwest Mixed Conference

Reader, I ask for your supportive witness at this time.

The following detail may not make sense to you if you haven’t done trauma work or read My Grandmother’s Hands. And that’s ok.

Some of you know I’ve been working on a project called Biracial and Rural, a community of care and storytelling space. It’s an urging that has been growing for several years and starting to take more shape as I have made space for more healing. I’m at a point

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.