BIPOC COmmunity SING PRESENTS: Aaron jOHNSON

We invite you to this singing gathering FOR BIPOC COMMUNITY to experience the power of song as medicine, as a tool for liberation, and to simply fill your well of joy and connection. We believe singing is a birthright and welcome all levels of experience. We teach songs on the spot, usually through call and echo, that are sourced from the modern community singing movement or have come through the song leaders themselves.

TICKETS HERE

This offering is evolving in response to the emergent needs and alive energy of the community showing up to it. We often include moments of authentic sharing and community connection to inform, weave into, and deepen the experience of song.

We may sing some songs in Spanish! ¡Cantamos algunas canciones en español!

We may invite a space for song-sharing from the community.

We hope you will bring the wholeness of who you are to this embodied experience of singing with full permission to be in movement, grief, laughter, and more.

We understand that this country has a legacy of taking cultural/musical gifts from BIPOC folks and using them inappropriately, out of context, or for profit. We will do our best to sing songs with permission, to acknowledge context wherever possible, or simply NOT sing certain songs if it feels at all harmful. We also understand that many of us have connections to community singing through religious contexts. This may still be meaningful or may be alienating. To create more inclusivity, we will avoid explicitly religious content. We do invite a spiritual space but do our best to sing from common ground.

WHO THIS SPACE IS FOR:

This singing event is for BIPOC-ONLY. Mixed-race folks are welcome. At this time, white-presenting folks are also welcome who understand the privilege that comes with being so. We will request that we share our ethnic backgrounds with the group to calm hyper-vigilant nervous systems and also to hold the integrity of our container as a strictly BIPOC space. If you are mostly white (here I will loosely define “mostly white” as 75% or more of white European descent) this may not be the space for you.

As part of registration, you will be required to answer a few questions. If you drop in to the offering, we may ask you these questions in person. If you have ALREADY answered these questions in the past, you DO NOT have to answer them again. Just put “already answered” or just simply put “–” in the response field.

If you are still unsure whether this space is for you, know that we welcome anyone who experiences dehumanization, discrimination, restricted access, the harm of implicit bias, and micro-aggressions for their non-whiteness whether that be expressed in their familial upbringing, way of speaking, name, or physical features. We are doing our best to hold a sanctuary where those accustomed to code-switching and trauma-response strategies can rest, grieve, and feel safe expressing their joy.

If you are struggling with the pain of not knowing where you belong, I assure you, you belong to community singing. Please understand that this specific offering is to allow the BIPOC community a chance for deeper resourcing where, in most other spaces, extra energy is spent tending to the stresses and disadvantages, the wear and tear on the soul, of navigating predominantly white spaces and living inside of white supremacist culture, mentality, and institutions as a non-white person.

If this offering is not a fit, please consider attending one of Sing People Sing!’s all-inclusive events, currently happening ever other month. The next will be on April 16 at the Historic Alberta House.

***I reserve the right to adjust the language of and approach to this offering based on my evolving understanding of it, my needs as a leader, and the needs of the community I am intending to serve. It is still new and finding its settling place. So stay tuned and thank you for your grace.