Practice song as a vital force for community land stewardship and intuitive herbalism

My journey with plants and creative expression began together in my childhood garden. I would spend hours singing to the wildflowers I transplanted there, attuning to the being of each one. I have made herbal medicine since that time, learning from books and directly from plants through singing, dancing and creating art as embodied listening practices.

For the past 20 years, I have embodied my ancestral folk music from Appalachia and the British Isles. The way of singing I share in this choir began to arise spontaneously 7 years ago during a period of deep ancestral healing and grief work. Related to song styles known as mouth music, keening, and coronach in Scotland and Ireland, this way of singing has been lost in my ancestral lines for hundreds of years, but vestiges of it are still present in the mysterious wordless syllables found in many ballads.

I am still learning what this way of singing can do, but it is clear to me that it is a vital part of tending land and its spirits. As a learner alongside you, I look forward to guiding and growing with you! In this time of ecological and social crises, I find hope in our capacities to listen to the Earth through the infinite expressions of our animal bodies.