Song Circle with Ahlay Blakely

Ahlay teaches songs call & echo. Singing is a birthright and all levels of experience are welcome (including no experience). These songs are sung together collectively as invitations to move stagnated emotions in the body and to be in our bodies as we notice what arises for us as we sing together. Ahlay's song container invokes connection that serves as a catalyst to digest topics in our culture, and movements for collective liberation.
No matter your gender, sexual orientation, abilities, race, or housing status, you are welcome here.
Arrive and settle in:
6:30-7pm
Song container:
7-9pm

Cost:
$22-66 sliding scale
Teen Ticket: $10
Thank you for finding the sweet spot that's both generous & affordable for you! Your support covers ahlay’s travel and allows this medicine to keep serving the collective.
(( If this range is not accessible, please reach out -- no one will be turned away for lack of funds. ))
Children are welcome to attend (for free) and play on the periphery of circle / join the circle in singing (please be mindful of distractions).
Land and people acknowledgment:
This event is taking place on the sacred ancestral lands of the Ho-Chunk people.
Accessibility:
This venue is ADA accessible.
Please let us know if there are any other ways we can support your access to this offering.
Parking:
Parking lot available, and street parking if lot is full.
Community care:
This event is in main shelter, a large stone open-sided park shelter at the top of the hill near the parking lot. There are picnic tables available that we will use to help create our circle space, please bring what you need to be comfortable, including chairs/blankets to sit on (picnic tables will provide some seating), water, and bug spray. Please come without Covid symptoms. You are welcome to mask and distance to your own comfort level. Restrooms are located at the parking lot. The park shelter is a short distance up hill from the parking lot.

What to bring:
Water bottle
Bug Spray
Any cushions, blankets, and layers to help your body feel comfortable
Contact your host: [email protected]
ABOUT ARTIST:
ahlay (alexandra blakely) is a dreamer of Whale, Tsunami, and Rain, an apprentice to Lightning and Fire, an artist, singer-songwriter, community organizer and soul guide in training. She is a descendent of Ashkenazi, Scandinavian and British folk and a commitment to breaking the cycles of intergenerational trauma both caused and endured by her ancestors. This commitment unfolds through the mediums of authentic relationship, song and storytelling, ritual and spell casting in ways that acknowledge our varied and intricate histories and identities, emphasizing a devotion to remembering our symbiotic relationship within the natural world.
ahlay has been deeply involved in community activism, communal grief tending and community singing. She is a lifelong student of decolonization, anti-racism and her own ancestral deracination preceeding diasporas. She gets curious about how the individual psyche, embodiment, shadow and trauma responses can be applied to collective and cultural bodies. She has trained with generative somatics, Education for Racial Equity, Animas Valley Institute, The Work that Reconnects, Holistic Resistance, Francis Weller and Laurence Cole. Her community singing albums encapsulate songs for the community to transform, ask questions, and seek to lead lives in service to the future ones. Her upcoming 2024 community singing album, WAILS: Songs for Griefwas recorded in July 2023 with a choir of 200 voices.
To stay informed about her ongoing offerings, sign up for her monthly newsletter.

Host or Publisher Sarah Burgess with Madison Community Singing