Song & Poetry Samhain Circle
On Sunday, Nov. 1st we welcome you to gather for a song and poetry Samhain circle. Together, with Bay Song Leaders and visiting published eco-poet, Geneva Toland, we will weave an evening of community songs (taught by ear) and poetry from Toland's newest book, Council of Thunder. We will circle with the ancestors, and uplift the magic making of this seasonal holy-day, in honor of the Celtic new year and the power of art to illuminate the season of the unseen.
EVENT DETAILS:
Arrival 4:00 Circle 4:30-6:00
Cost: Sliding scale $20-$40 (PGM tickets $10-20)
Location: Sebastopol, CA (exact location, TBD)
Parking Information: TBD
What to bring: a comfortable seat for yourself, layers, water/tea
ARTIST BIOS:
Geneva Toland (she/her) is a writer, educator, songleader, and naturalist living in the juniper-piñon foothills of the La Plata mountains, homelands of the Ute, Diné and Puebloan peoples. She is a poetry editor at Terrain.org and holds an MFA in Poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She devotes her time to community regeneration through teaching, creative writing, ancestral reclamation, singing in circle, growing food & flowers, and playing with kids in the woods.
Council of Thunder Poetry Book Description:
Council of Thunder is a free-fall into what it takes to embrace this toxified, crumbling, stunning world. Exploring themes of eco-feminism, ecological kinship, heartbreak as initiation, and radical collective love, Toland shows us the ugly, the painful, the hurtful—and demands we love this world, “out of all worlds,” anyway. The book's three-part arc moves with quiet intention through pathways of self-discovery and eco-awakening. Through sonic spells and grounded imagery, these poems offer us no neat healing, but a hard-earned turn toward aliveness, in its full color spectrum. A coming-of-age story set in this time of climate chaos and political dysfunction, these poems ask us to sit in council with the more-than-human, and weave ourselves more boldly and interdependently into the web of life.
Praise for the book from poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer:
“Show me one thing I am not,” writes Geneva Toland, a fierce acknowledgment of how deeply, how utterly we are connected to the messy and glorious all of it. Council of Thunder is a high-voltage, open-throated, raw-skinned celebration of loving the world, ourselves and each other—even when, especially when, it hurts. These are intelligent, unflinching heart songs deeply in touch with both the natural world and the full-spectrum of our humanness.
SONG LEADERS bios:
Jay McCarrick (they/them) is a song carrier, group facilitator, community organizer and cultural worker focused on intergenerational & relational healing.
Tal Molesworth (he/him) is a gender queer boy who would rather be singing than talking! He leads queer song circles and movement spaces, and is a therapist on the side.
mo washburn (they/them) is a listener, a singere, a song and body tender and community web weaver. they live for singing with others and cherish every moment of connection knowing that tomorrow is never a guarantee.