Kinship Community Choir - Summer Gazebo Series

Woohoo it's gazebo season!! Come sing outside in the beautiful Welles Park Gazebo this July!!

This is a 5-week singing series of connection and community through fun and beautiful singing in the oral tradition. No prior singing experience necessary. All voices welcome!

Do you sing in the car? The shower? Always humming something?! Do you seek experiences of connection- whether with yourself and your own voice or with your fellow human kin, and maybe even the greater web of life? Do you want to cultivate a greater capacity for joy, embodiment, and aliveness?! If you said yes to ANY of these questions then this choir is for you!!

This is a community choir for all voices. This is a non-performing and non-auditioning choir, lead by Megan Eberhardt. The focus will be on the experience of group singing itself: the pleasure and power of sounding our voice in community, the connection we experience to ourselves and fellow singers, and the attunement we walk away with. We learn all the songs orally, call-and-echo. No sheet music!!

“Singing is the language of grief and praise, wonder and wisdom; we sing the world we want to inhabit, and we sing to understand the world we live in now.” -Sarina Partridge

WHEN AND WHERE?

5 Wednesdays

July 1st-July 29th

7:00-8:15pm

@ Welles Park Gazebo

2333 W. Sunnyside Ave.

WHAT IS THIS?

Kinship Community Choir is rooted in the contemporary community singing movement. We will learn the songs orally, no sheet music, standing or sitting in a circle rather than in formation. This is community choir redefined. Our focus is the felt experience of group singing rather than perfection and technique. We will be together for an hour and fifteen minutes which will include a simple opening song, a moment to connect with a neighbor, and then the rest of the time we sing.

WHAT SONGS WILL WE SING?

Most if not all of the songs we will sing are sourced from the contemporary community singing movement. We will sing songs that honor the natural world as well as the human experience. We will sing songs that layer melodies and harmonies and divide into different parts. We’ll also sing simple unison songs, rounds, and more. Meeting every week for 5 weeks means that we can build more complex layering songs over the course of our time together. Some of my favorite songwriters spent time in cultures that have ancient polyphonic singing traditions. They are catching and writing songs with beautiful complexities that are so fun to learn and sing together.

Your registration includes links to practice tracks of the songs we sing and their parts!

WHO IS THIS FOR?

Anyone who wants to sing! From new singers to shower and car singers to former choir singers looking for a relaxed environment to sing again.

“There is no good or bad singing, only free or less free.” -Orion Johnstone.

Not sure if this is for you? Contact me with any questions: [email protected]

REGISTRATION:

Cost is $80-120 sliding scale. This is priced with the assumption that most folks will miss at least one session (because, summer!) Your registration includes 5 nights of singing and a link to song recordings. You can pay by Venmo @rootedinthestars or Zelle to avoid fees. There are a limited amount of work trade and scholarship spots. If you need one of these please reach out to [email protected].

ABOUT MEGAN:

Megan Eberhardt is a community songleader and cultural activist dedicated to fostering aliveness, belonging, and connection within and among us and with the natural world. Some days this looks like leading a song circle, some days it’s facilitating community grief ritual, some days it’s teaching stargazing under dark skies around the midwest. And most days include singing up the sun, a good amount of heartache and joy, and homemade soup!

Did Megan spend her whole life in choirs and music rooms?! No she did not! Megan discovered group singing 10 years ago and the community singing movement in 2019. It's been a journey of heart, passion, and courage to get here. Megan's been leading community singing for 4 years, 3 years at the Old Town School of Folk Music. She's been teaching the stars to people for nearly a decade and more recently has begun facilitating community grief ritual.

Sign-up for Megan's email list here and check out her website here.

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