Arf! ARF! ARRRROOOF! (Translation: Calling for singers, song leaders, and songwriters impacted by the foreclosure crisis!)

Arts Responding to Foreclosure (ARF!) is looking for people to share their story through community singing and documentary photography about how the foreclosure crisis has impacted them. 

ARF! is partnering with the Frogtown Neighborhood Association and the St. Paul Fair Lending Coalition to offer FREE art workshops to people who want to share their foreclosure story.  Participants who attend all 6 workshop sessions and show their art at the end of the workshop will recieve a stipend of $300. 

The Community Singing and Songwriting workshop is Thursdays, July 12-August 16, from 6-9 p.m. at 1080 University Ave (at Lexington).  Lead by Conie Borchardt (yep, me!), participants will practice the folk art of community singing in the oral tradition and create new songs that tell today's foreclosure stories and educate others.  Applications are due on Thursday, June 7.  Forms are available at the Frogtown Neighborhood Association or online.  Interviews for the 15 slots will be conducted on Thursday evening, Jun 14, and Saturday morning, June 16.

The Documentary Photography classes will be held on Thursdays, September 13-October 18, 2012.  Minnesota State Arts Board Teaching Artist Barry Kleider will be leading this workshop.  Watch for more details on applications and interviews in future emails. 

For more information about these Arts Responding to Foreclosure (ARF!) workshops, including Sheronda's lead-off series using Spoken Word, the artists teaching them, and its history, please direct your browser to http://artsrespondingtoforeclosure.wordpress.com/. 

This activity is funded, in part, by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Arts Board through the arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.  

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! 

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!

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