**PLEASE NOTE THE DATE CHANGE
* This event was originally scheduled for Sunday, March 1, and has been moved two days later to Tuesday, March 3, 7pm.
Free of charge! You are welcome to bring any dish to share for our potluck meal. BUT LET US KNOW about any dietary restrictions, so that we can keep this in mind as we prepare food.
Join us in performing sound meditations and connecting with one another, ourselves, and with Spirit through creation and awareness of sound. We hope to cultivate a spiritual community of musicians—with the understanding that anyone can be a musician, regardless of training, background, and profession, if they choose to interact with sound in critical and creative ways. Rather than attempting to create a space that is strictly neutral with respect to faith/nonfaith beliefs and traditions, we intend to celebrate any faith/secular traditions that are meaningful to participants, with an emphasis on healing, meditation, self-exploration and community-building. We strive to elevate traditions and voices that are marginalized in our unjust society, and do our best to challenge racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism and European secular/Christian cultural dominance, while acknowledging these as the context that surrounds our community and has shaped traditions and institutions of faith themselves, and believing that Spirit can transform us in spite of the presence of unjust forces.
Each month, we will gather to perform Sonic Meditations of Pauline Oliveros, and guest artists will lead us into new sonic and meditative experiences. Afterwards, we will gather for a community meal, with space for both formal and informal conversation to discuss the experience of listening, and connect with fellow Sangha participants.
This month, we will be welcoming baritone, activist, and visionary Darnell Ishmel, from Flint, Michigan, as our guest artist! He will be sharing some of his reinterpretations of music from activist and faith traditions along with pianist
Andrew Barnes Jamieson. He will also lead us in sonic meditations rooted in his anti-incarceration work in Flint, and inviting us to reflectively explore the sounds of Freedom.
Darnell grew up singing, playing, and directing gospel music at his local church. After finishing his studies at the University of Michigan, he went on to make his professional debut with Cincinnati Opera. Hailed by the New York Times for his, "show-stealing" stage presence, "rich baritone, precise diction and superb comic timing" in his New York opera debut, he is a flexible vocalist and an innovative recitalist who constantly explores programming in an effort to enhance the recital tradition, attract new audiences, and preserve the art form.
As an adjunct professor of voice and gospel music choral instructor, he has taught at Washtenaw Community College, Madonna University and Michigan State University Community Music School.
As an international concert singer, he has appeared before audiences in Russia, Brazil, Prague, Guadeloupe and beyond.
Darnell is a longtime member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc and is active in workforce development, urban enterprise and ex-offender success throughout mid-Michigan. As a credentialed minister, he is the founding director of Extended Outreach Ministry Services and Initiatives and provides and variety of services to more than 150 incarcerated men.