We can learn to serve in brave, humble, and collaborative leadership. Here’s a place to begin, using the simple tools of song, conversation, slow-time, and good food. I have something to offer: how do I prepare myself to hold space? What practical and spiritual tools do I need? How can my leadership empower others? How do I listen well to the voices around me even as I am asking for their listening? When is it time to rest?
We gather around these questions, and the form we use is songleading. We stand as witnesses to each other’s stepping up, celebrating the different strengths and styles of each and all. The tools we practice can be used in everyday settings: around a kitchen table, in houses of worship, in healing spaces, in movements for change. Our workshop is a circle of belonging, and each person returns home with their own version of what it means to hold space with grace, energy, and ever-growing skill. This is the beginning.
Although absolutely everyone can sing, this workshop is not a typical song circle; it is designed for a particular subgroup of singers. If you feel called to begin learning how to lead others in song, can hold a tune reasonably well, and have some rhythm, this is for you. You certainly don’t need to be a school-trained singer/musician (I’m not!), but even if you are, there is still plenty for you to learn at this workshop.
Instructions: Bring a notebook and, if desired, a recording device.
Dates: Saturday and Sunday, January 27 and 28
Time: 9:00 am - 4:30 pm
Lunch will be provided both days.
Ages: 18+
Location: Thoreau College Campus, 224 WI-56, Viroqua WI 54665
Sliding Scale Course Fee Guidelines:
Supporter Level Ticket: $230
Sustainer Level Ticket: $180
Supported Level Ticket: $130
Artist Bio - Liz Rog
Liz believes in singing together as an ancient technology for belonging, a simple and powerful tool for restoring our connection in community. She sings with all ages, teaching simple songs that can be woven into the seasons of the year and the changes and challenges of our lives in play, at bedsides, at rallies and in rituals. Liz delights in helping folks rediscover their ancestral birthright of group singing to nurture collective joy, courage and healing and supports songleading leadership practices to nurture our collective unfolding. In 2021, with friends and family Liz helped to create the Center for Belonging Folk School where people of all ages are welcomed to share stories, songs, food, handcraft, laughter and tears, all nested in a beautiful gazebo in a pristine wooded hollow near Decorah, Iowa.
Words from past workshop participants:
“I learned that song leading is a form of radical presence to the moment, and to the people holding this moment with you. That the success of leading a song depends upon an immense receptivity to the hearts & voices in the room, to their collected energy, to the group as it seeks wholeness, adventure, harmony. And a willingness to trust the group to co-create the moment with you.”
“I learned that song leading is also a way of listening, a way of listening in together for a way towards each other, dreaming new and more loving ways of relating in and beyond the group. That we catch songs, but they also catch us, entwine us in new & beautiful & bewildering forms of intimacy & growth.”
“I've been feeling so much gratitude for the way we learned that singing can open up space for challenge, for vulnerability, for the silence of unknowing. How the ""leader"" component of song leader also emerged through our grappling with some of the complex and crucial questions of our times: cultural appropriation, sexual violence, rage, love, justice... how song community can respond or attend or witness. It makes me glad to know that the ways we will all lead songs include these questions, and a willingness to hear many truths, to feel, to adjust our perceptions, to struggle with finding words that suffice, to not give up the struggle, and to notice how different it feels when it is shared.”
“I especially appreciated how for a couple days I felt what it's like to live in a world filled with song. It felt as though a song could begin at any moment--and in many of the moments a song did begin! Songs for blessing meals and blessing each other, songs for late night fun, songs for waking up, songs to support friends, songs for expressing rage, songs to get to know each other better, songs to tell stories, songs for saying goodbye... That's what I've been thinking about since. How can I use the specific song leading tools I learned to spread that magical feeling throughout more of my life?”
“I appreciated the format of the course, which included personal sharing from participants, learning and singing songs, gaining practical knowledge of technique, and also an opportunity for students to teach a song to the group. It was the right amount of singing vs. spoken information.”