Announcing the Eighteenth Annual Early Music Week at World Fellowship Center : Crossing the Channel

That’s the English Channel, of course, and all kinds of cultural emissaries crossed it for centuries in both directions, bearing cultural, artistic and specifically musical influences and works to and from the “Fair Isles.” From the importing of the Notre Dame repertory in the 13th century to the exporting of the ‘contenance anglois’ subsequent to Henry V’s victory at Agincourt to the ‘transalpine’ travel of the 16th and 17th centuries and Handel’s peregrinations, the blending of insular and continental influences has created some of the most appealing music in our repertoire Please join us to enjoy the results.

Classes for voice recorder, viol, lute, early wind and early keyboard (A=440Hz). For players who read music.  Small ensembles for adults; mixed ensembles of instruments/voices.

Faculty include: Pamela Dellal (voice), Jane Hershey (viol), Anne Legêne (cello, fiddle), Jay
Rosenberg (voice, lute, guitar), Roy Sansom, (recorder),Josh Schreiber Shalem (viol, Feldenkrais®),
and Larry Wallach (keyboards, recorder)

Please contact Larry Wallach for further info: 413-528-9065  

* Pre-Registration & Fee Required. $250 PP, $275 PP After May 15th.

Note that we welcome accompanying friends and family who do not have to enroll in

EMW to enjoy being with you at WFC.

Sunday to Sunday, June 23rd – June 30th, 2013

Back by popular demand, who else but Andy Davis!?

Andy Davis is far more than just your affable Co-Director of World Fellowship Center.

Andy roams the northern woods with a quiver of tales that include equal parts magical realism, personal experience and multicultural folklore.   He has entertained audiences as far east as Paris, as far south as Bamako, and as far west as San Diego. After exposure to one of his flights of fancy, one listener told him “At a certain point I realized we were at sea, but I didn’t know when we had left the shore.” Another said, “I love the way your playful, warped mind operates.”                                                          

 ”Andy is a storyteller of remarkable guile and wit,” says Joanne Piazzi, a Corner House storyteller, and past president of the League for Advancement of New England Storytelling (LANES). “He has a straight-faced, straight-forward, seemingly innocent way of delivering the most outlandish tales I’ve ever heard.”

Davis lives with his wife Andrea Walsh and their thirteen year old daughter Fiona, and the Wonder Dog Lucy, in the shadow of Mt. Chocorua, where he and Andrea co-direct the World Fellowship Center, a multigenerational educational camp and retreat center devoted to peace and social justice. He is a member of the Mountain Storytellers Guild, the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling (LANES), and the Professional Organization of English Majors (POEM).

Theater games to de-mechanize mind & body from static ways of being. Practice “disobedience” and learn about social justice while having fun! D. Farai Williams of Idjeli Intentions, a Boston-based company devoted to confronting internalized oppression.

Jim Russell, sociology prof at Eastern CT State, presents his novel of slavery, Texan War Independence, and slave escapes to Mexico.

Greg Klyma is a Rust Belt vagabond, an old-school troubadour who blends stories seamlessly into songs, calling to mind Mark Twain, Woody Guthrie and David Sedaris!

In this era of increasingly complex problems and shrinking resources, can we find meaningful and enduring solutions to the challenges we face today as individuals, communities and nations? Through sharing stories, we’ll explore what becomes possible when we walk out of limiting beliefs and walk on to build healthy and resilient communities. Deborah Frieze is an author, entrepreneur, social activist, and former co-president of The Berkana Institute.

How can we  integrate the art of  storytelling and our personal stories into movements for social change?  Norah Dooley is a storyteller, critically acclaimed children’s author and educator. She is co-founder of massmouth.com, an organization devoted to promoting the art of storytelling.

How do we prepare our communities for the dramatic changes in climate and economy that lie ahead? New England activists talk about their local activities. Carlos Espinoza is coordinator of the Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition program in Boston.

An evening of true stories told by a variety of tellers,  MC’d by storyteller/ activists Mary Hannon and Chuck Collins.

Mt. Chocorua Writing Week:  July 14 – 19, 2013

Whether you have been writing for decades or have never written before, this is an opportunity to try your hand at poems and essays and stories. Our non-competitive and nurturing workshops are designed to inspire you and offer tools to move your writing to the next step.

Each faculty member will give an evening reading from recent work, followed by a workshop the next morning that offers you a chance to try your wings in that genre of writing.

These Writing Workshops are open to all World Fellowship guests. No special registration is necessary. Join us for one event or the entire week.

Individual manuscript consultations can be arranged ahead of time with the writing faculty for a fee.    These events are Open to all WFC guests, without charge.

Schedule of Readings and Workshops

Monday, July 15, 7:30pm

Between Compassion and Ferocity: A Reading and Discussion. Ellen Meeropol’s work explores characters at the intersection of political turmoil, ethical dilemmas, and family life.  Her debut novel, House Arrest, was published in 2011, and her short stories and essays have been published in Bridges, Off Our Backs, Women’s Times…

Tuesday, July 16, 10:00am

Writing Across Borders: Workshop with Ellen Meeropol. Writing characters beyond comfortable safety zones can be dangerous territory.  Explore ways to develop characters across race and gender, class and sexuality.

Tuesday, July 16, 7:30pm

Writing the Fire Out : Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, author of Karma’s Footsteps. reflects on the transformative power of writing, talks about “Nommo”, the Dogon concept of the power of the word and how writing and performing poetry help her navigate life experience.

Wednesday, July 17, 10:00am

Blues Poems, with  Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie. This often misunderstood art is the perfect poetic form to explore identity, express complex feelings and share survival stories. Find what makes this unique music tick by listening to different styles of  the blues and reading blues poetry. Then take the leap to create our own versions of the blues.

Wednesday, July 17, 7:30pm

Dirty Whites and Dark Secrets: Sex and Race in Peyton Place – Sally Hirsh-Dickinson.

Thursday, July 18, 10:00am

Nonfiction in an Unbelievable World.  Explore how to tell the truth with Sally Hirsh-Dickinson.

Thursday, July 18, 7:30pm

Serving up Life with a Twist! -  Will Reiser, award-winning writer of the film 50/50,  explains how he turned a serious life experience into a comic film.  Life just happens, but fiction needs to be planned.  How do you mix the two? Will tells all!  Well, almost…    

Friday, July 19, 10:00am & 4:00pm

  The Writing Workshop concludes with participants reading their own pieces. This is a supportive time to share works in progress.

Presenters

Ellen Meeropol

Ellen Meeropol’s fiction explores characters at the intersection of political turmoil, ethical dilemma, and family life. Publishers Weekly gave her debut novel, House Arrest, a starred review, calling it “unflinching in taking on challenging subjects and deliberating uneasy ethical conundrums.” Ellen holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Southern Maine. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Drum, Bridges, Portland Magazine, Pedestal Magazine, Rumpus, and Shaking Lit. She is a founding Board member of the Rosenberg Fund for Children and wrote their dramatic program, “Celebrate the Children of Resistance.” www.ellenmeeropol.com

Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie has taught writing and performed her poetry in North America, Europe, and Southern Africa. She received a 2010 Queens Council on the Arts grant for her research on herbalists of the African Diaspora. Her first collection of poetry, Karma’s Footsteps (Flipped Eye Publishing), was released in 2011. Her work is the subject of the short film “I Leave My Colors Everywhere.

Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie

 http://www.ekeretallie.com.

Sally Hirsh-Dickinson, assistant professor of English and Communication at Rivier University in Nashua, and weekend morning host on New Hampshire Public Radio, discusses race, gender, and New England’s Puritan heritage and its evolution from high minded to hypocritical, and how the popular novel, Peyton Place, opened the door for frank discussions about women’s sexuality. 

 

 

 

Will Reiser

 Will Reiser (born 1980) is an American screenwriter and producer for film and TV.  He is best known for writing the 2011 film 50/50, which was based on his own experience with cancer, and which garnered numerous nominations and awards, including the Independent Spirit and National Board of Review Awards for Best First Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay, respectively.

What makes this workshop special?

In keeping with the World Fellowship motto – “where global justice meets nature” – the Mt. Chocorua Writing Workshop encourages the literary imagination that explores the conflicts of our world and illuminates injustice.

Comments from previous summers’ participants:

“Far exceeded my expectations! I feel so inspired…”
“A very safe and warm tone… people felt encouraged and respected.”
“I so enjoyed the generosity of our members’ comments as well as their inventiveness, and the sweet harmony of the group.”
“A magical workshop with a great deal of support, wonderful people… and a lovely vibe.”

Monday, July 15, 7:30pm

Between Compassion and Ferocity: A Reading and Discussion. Ellen Meeropol’s work explores characters at the intersection of political turmoil, ethical dilemmas, and family life.  Her debut novel, House Arrest, was published in 2011, and her short stories and essays have been published in Bridges, Off Our Backs, Women’s Times…

http://www.ellenmeeropol.com/

During this interactive discussion  Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie will weave film, fiction, poetry and non-fiction to explore the transformative power of writing. Ekere will talk about ”Nommo,” the Dogon concept of the power of the word, and how the process of writing and performing poetry has helped her to navigate various life experiences.

http://ekeretallie.wordpress.com/bio/

In a surprise rereading of Grace Metalious’s infamous 1956 novel,  Peyton Place, Sally Hirsh-Dickinson, contends that it scandalized the nation because of the way it conflated sexuality with America’s problematic relationship to race. A thought-provoking look at deeper truths hidden in popular fiction. Sally Hirsh-Dickinson is a professor of English at Rivier University in Nashua and weekend morning host on NH Public Radio.

Will Reiser

Will Reiser, award-winning writer of the film 50/50, explains how he turned a serious life experience into a comic film. Life just happens, but fiction needs to be planned. How do you mix the two? Will tells all! Well, almost…

Pamela Means “If Black warrior poet/feminist activist Audre Lorde had taken up folk singing, she might have attacked her guitar and wrapped her lyrics around it the way Pamela Means does.” The Valley Advocate

Pamela Means, “one of the fiercest guitar players and politically-rooted musicians in the industry today,” (Curve Magazine) is a singer-songwriter and jazz musician, on tour with her “mad guitar-and-vocal skills” (Time Out New York) and “insanely brilliant tunes” (Press Herald, Portland ME). From the recording of her first tape in the living room of Violent Femmes’ bassist, Brian Ritchie, Means has since released seven critically acclaimed albums – including her latest acoustic record, “Precedent,” plus a fantastic foray into jazz (Pamela Means Jazz Project, Vol. 1) – strummed a hole in two acoustic guitars, and collected a stack of awards such as: Milwaukee’s Best Acoustic Act (twice!), WI Folk Artist of the Year, WI Female Vocalist of the Year, Top Ten Album of the Year (Pamela Means Jazz Project, Vol. 1), Falcon Ridge Folk Festival’s Most Wanted New Artist, and an Outstanding Contemporary Folk Artist Boston Music Award nomination. Ever the consummate songwriter and performer, Pamela Means has continually stunned audiences from Anchorage to Amsterdam, broken CD sales records at national folk festivals, and shared the stage with a buncha’ bigwigs including: Neil Young, Ani DiFranco, Joan Baez, Shawn Colvin, Richie Havens, Howard Zinn, Angela Davis, Eve Ensler, Violent Femmes, Pete Seeger, Janis Ian, Alix Olson and many others.

Check out her incredible vocal tunes online at pamelameans.com

Mab Segrest, on Georgia’s state mental hospital, which by the 1950s was the largest in the world, and insights into connections between mind, culture and power that emerge from her archival research.

One deaf woman’s story: KR Glickman shares her experience of growing up in a silent world and reaching for her dreams.

KR Glickman was born deaf. “My world is like watching a TV without any sound,” she communicates. “And the hearing world’s misunderstanding of this condition has led to airline attendants offering me Braille books,” she adds with a smile. KR can indeed see with her two different colored eyes and feels with her heart and mind. She communicates with her hands and liquid, lively facial expressions. Searching for My Own True Voice emerged from KR’s desire to share the experience of growing up in a silent world. The performance, which will be performed in American Sign Language with a voice interpreter, is a welcome mat to her world and to a fuller understanding of the deaf experience.

Ms. Glickman graduated from Gallaudet University, has been teaching American Sign Language since 1980, and received the Spirit of Diversity Award from Beverly, Mass. She is married to celebrated storyteller Tony Toledo.

www.KRGlickman.com

Facebook.com/KarenSignsIt

www.wyzant.com/Tutors/MA/Beverly/7821101

Youth Empowerment, Body Movement
Kilombo Novo members train and share this Afro-Brazilian spiritual martial art with focus on redemptive and revolutionary qualities.

The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today
A 2011 documentary on one of the landmark 1st Amendment cases – the one that established the separation of church and state in public schools. Producer/director Jay Rosenstein introduces.

My Brooklyn
Director Kelly Anderson introduces this 2011 film following the journey to understand the forces reshaping her neighborhood, looking at the makeover of Fulton Mall, a bustling black commercial district, and uncovering the people and policies that drive neighborhood change.

Using as a springboard Herbert Marcuse’s essay “Repressive Tolerance” and Jonathan Kozol’s work, Arnold Farr, associate professor of philosophy at U. Kentucky, will address how US education affects critical thinking and liberation.

• The Impact of Racism
  A discussion in the form of the Talking Circle, a sacred native practice used to expand communication, trust, and understanding within community. Facilitated by members of Kilombo Novo Capoeira Angola.

Sol y Canto is the nationally-touring and Boston Music Award winning Pan-Latin ensemble led by Puerto Rican/Argentine singer and bongo player Rosi Amador and New Mexican guitarist and composer Brian Amador. Featuring Rosi’s crystalline voice, Brian’s lush Spanish guitar, and virtuoso musicians from Uruguay, Perú, Panamá and Argentina on piano, winds, bass, and percussion, the sextet has established a reputation for their quirky original compositions that address matters of the heart, social and global aspiration, and for their unique and driving interpretations of contemporary Latin music.

Since 1994, Sol y Canto has brought audiences to their feet from the Kennedy Center to the White House, the California World Music Festival to Boston’s Symphony Hall, Puerto Rico’s Museo de Arte to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Boston Globe hails them “sublime ambassadors of the Pan-Latin tradition” and their many accolades include Best of Boston for Latin rhythms by Boston Magazine and Outstanding Latin Act by the Boston Music Awards. Music critic Norman Weinstein of the Christian Science Monitor and Boston Phoenix explains:

“Every Sol y Canto album is a demonstration of what the poet Federico García Lorca identified as “deep song. Always they evoke the sensual splendor of simply being vitally, vividly alive in a magical and mysterious universe. Brian Amador is a Spanish modernist poet in the guise of a musician…Together, Rosi and Brian Amador create a musical marriage made in heaven.”

See more at http://www.solycanto.com/

This 2012 documentary asks the question “why did so much money buy so little relief?” In the US alone, $1.4 billion went to Haiti charities after the earthquake, yet hundreds of thousands of people still live in squalid camps, only a few have access to drinking water, and malnutrition and cholera are on the rise. Introduced by Jennie Walker of Film at Eleven Media.

Haitian Women:
Taking Control of Their Destiny
Carline Desire, ED of the Association of Haitian Women in Boston, a community-based grassroots organization dedicated to empowering low-income Haitian women and their children, founded in 1988. In 2009, Desire was honored as a Dorchester Neighborhood Fellow.

A look at the habits of our most interesting neighbor, Gavia Immer, with a Loon Preservation Committee naturalist.

Learn more about loons at the Loon Preservation Committee.

Niños de la Memoria  (2012 documentary)
100s of children disappeared during the Salvadoran Civil War. Many survived massacres carried out by US-trained Salvadoran army. Taken by soldiers,some grew up in orphanages or were adopted abroad, losing identity. Producer Kathryn Smith Pyle and several of the disappeared adopted by US families; Dr. Charlie Clements, author of Witness to War: An American Doctor in El Salvador, is invited.

Evan Greer A guitar-slinging, picket line-walking, liberation-seeking femme-y genderqueer trans-identified vegan with a way with words…

Greer, 27, has been using music as a tool for engaging with radical social movements for more than 10 years. With a posi-pop vocal inflection and radical anarcho-punk urgency, she has traveled internationally, selling thousands of copies of self-burned CD-Rs full of folk-punk songs fighting sexism, racism, homophobia, climate change, apathy, corporate greed, and more.

Are you progressive enough to face the inevitable?  Don’t die wondering!  Most Americans today avoid responsible funeral planning.  But with enough loving courage to clarify and communicate our values in advance, we can strengthen our relationships and leave our world a better place.

50 years ago in this month of August, Jessica Mitford’s book The American Way of Death sold out its first printing on the publication date and topped The New York Times bestseller list for weeks.  We’ll review the progressive roots of the funeral consumer movement, discuss the environmental and social justice impacts of our current options for responding to life’s final chapter, and share practical resources for further support.

End-of-life sustainability activist and chaplain Regina Sandler-Phillips is the founding director of WAYS OF PEACE Community Resources, which brings people together in cities of diversity with mindful responses to human needs throughout the life cycle.  She was honored for her leadership in the NYC disaster relief following 9/11/01, and participated in the 2005 interfaith Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Regina’s work to renew the sacred legacy of traditional “green burial” has been featured in The New York Times and in the books Parting Ways (2011) and Saying Goodbye to Someone You Love (2010).

How do you “spend” your life?  One of the reasons that justice seems so elusive in practice is because we tend to define it so narrowly, as something external over which other people have control.  Against the backdrop of current economic and environmental crises, let’s consider how we vote with our own financial choices–on a daily basis–for the state of our world.

Over the past few decades, strategies of personal money empowerment have been coalescing into a quiet but powerful movement for global change. We’ll review some basic principles and resources of progressive personal finance, and support each other in bringing our money into harmony with our highest values–no matter what we earn.  Come and build community at the financial justice frontier!

Regina Sandler-Phillips is the founding director of WAYS OF PEACE Community Resources, which brings people together in cities of diversity with mindful responses to human needs throughout the life cycle.  A veteran activist for peace and justice on two continents, Regina has been practicing the principles of progressive financial empowerment for nearly two decades.  She shares her action / reflection process in personal consultations as well as in seminars and workshops.

Sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation are often discussed in binary terms: you are either a man or a woman; you are either gay or straight.

However, science recognizes more than two biological genders, and there is a vast mosaic of different possibilities for each individual. A surprisingly large number of us are gender variant in one way or another. What we identify in modern times as transgender has existed throughout history, and often been celebrated by other cultures. Together we will explore the diversity of gender, from personal experience to political perspective, emerging with a new appreciation of our own uniqueness.

presented by Beverly Woods and Shana Aisenberg

Fred Gillen Jr & Steve Kirkman, an “official program” of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives, are uplifting, inspiring political songsters. They’ll be joined by kindred spirits Amy Fradon, and Jacob and David Bernz.

 Solidarity Economy – a Global Movement to Build an Economy for People and Planet

This interactive presentation will explore a movement that works to strengthen a wide range of concrete practices such as worker, consumer, and producer cooperatives, credit unions, community land trusts, fair trade, social currencies, participatory budgeting, community supported agriculture; and an evolving framework that ties these pieces together as an economic system instead of isolated practices.

With Emily Kawano, Director of the Center for Popular Economics and founder/coordinator of the US Solidarity Economy Network.

Explore creating sustainable employment and look at two examples of creating jobs through cooperative development in Springfield MA. Tim Fisk, Executive Director of Alliance to Develop Power, and Fred Rose, co-director of the Wellspring Collaborative and  lecturer for the Center for Public Policy and Administration.

A look at the life and art of the influential 20th century photographer whose body of work continually expanded to include portraits, documentary and scientific phenomena. Born in Ohio, Berenice Abbott studied in Paris and Berlin at the start of her career, where she took portraits of many of the important artiists and writers of that time, including James Joyce, Andre Gide and Jean Cocteau. Coming to New York, she embarked on a major project in the 1930′s to photograph the city, with funding from the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration; and became a member of the board of the progressive Photo League. Abbot was a respected teacher and supporter of other artists, most notably the French documentary photographer Eugene Atget. Images and discussion with photographer Gina Bilander.

Youth urbanism is a method of leadership development and neighborhood change using as the starting point youth’s expertise about the local culture of their community.  Youth urbanism projects have the ability to effect systematic change and facilitate communication and understanding across barriers.  Molly Rose Kaufman, programming director at ORNG Ink, a youth led, user driven arts collective in Orange

Nisrin Elamin co-coordinates the Support Darfur Project. A member of the Sudan Human Rights Network and the Girifna Youth Movement, She is a PhD student in Anthropology at Stanford University.

 Civil rights activist and theologian Dr. Vincent Harding coined the phrase dangerous spirituality, referring to a spirituality that “disturbs the peace of the devil.” It is a practice of seeing oneself in others, feeling connections between the intimate and the global, and staying “constantly present in the struggle.” Immersing in techniques (meditation, council, and bearing witness) and reflection, we will explore examples and possibilities of contemplative practices for powerful activism in the lives of participants and beyond.

In this workshop, we will look closely at a vibrant contemporary example of dangerous spirituality: the Mexican American Studies (MAS) curriculum that was banned by Tucson, Arizona’s public school district in 2012. MAS is now being defended through lawsuits and organizing by students, Chican@ civil rights activists, and the immigrant rights movement. The MAS program is an extraordinary example of a spiritual-political curriculum grounded in Aztec tezcatlipocas, ways of being that include reflection, dialogue, action, and “precious knowledge.” The controversy speaks to the power (and threat) of dangerous spirituality.

(The workshops are synergistic, but can also be experienced individually.) 

Bios:

Karen Werner, Ph.D., is a Zen Buddhist practitioner and activist involved in Occupy-Meditation and the Western Massachusetts Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Karen writes a blog called “Dangerous Spirituality: Buddhism Meets Activism” and teaches sociology, community economies, and digital storytelling at Goddard College. 

Timothy Sutton is working on his Ph.D. in the UMass Amherst Department of Communication. He is interested in connections between critical pedagogy and DiY media with regards to media literacy and social movements. Timothy is a member of Can’t Be Neutral, a collective of students, faculty, parents and teachers working to build a movement that challenges the dominant discourse around neoliberal education reform.

The choral workshop culminates on Friday night, with a performance by the workshop participants  for the WFC community of  the women’s labor history piece 

We Were There!  This multi-media women’s labor history project features voices, songs, and slides of our sisters’ struggles -  from Sojourner Truth to Dolores Huerta. Music by Bev Grant, veteran feminist activist, singer/songwriter, musical director of the Brooklyn Women’s Chorus.

http://www.bevgrant.com/