News items posted to this page are usually edited versions of Member Mailings.
Four Winds News Update: 23 October 2000
Some fast quick news, jump-restarting the Chorus seems to have begun on a good note, with many Members returning to work and a number of new people signing on. Members are also supporting Enchantments’ Grove Samhain, (Oct 28 ) and The Witches’ Ball 2000 (Oct 29). Our organizational revisions seem to be working out so far and we’ve adopted the new Guidelines to reflect the changes. A possible event at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden didn’t pan out, so we’ll be expanding the Bardic Yule 2000 with some of the material we won’t get to do for BBG. In the meantime, don’t forget to practice! The spirits are listening... Keep Singing!
Check out the Schedule for November-December Rehearsal and events dates .
Four Winds News Update: 9 October 2000
We regret to inform all our friends the the potential performance event at Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Blooming Lights Holiday Festival fell through. The higher-up's at were looking for nothing but Rudolf and Winter Wonderland and that sort of thing. Ain't us, folks. No dishonor. But it could heve been terribly cool! But some of he stuff we would have use, and some of the things we couldn't use, we'll bring into ans expanded Yule event.
Four Winds News: 11 September 2000 (updated 21 September)
Well here we are at the end of the Summer, the equinox swiftly approaching. We have begun to schedule resumption of Chorus Activities starting on September 21st. Check out the Schedule for dates .
THE BARDIC YULE 2000
FRIDAY DECEMBER 29, 2000, 7-9pm
Open Holiday Bardic Circle
Musical Theatre Works, Studio #4A, 440 Lafayette Street, 4th Floor, New York City,
Between Astor Place & 4th Street. Information: 212 677-0040Interactive Ritual Songs and Chants Celebrating the Winter Holidays
Four Winds has always had a special place in our hearts for the winter holidays. This year, after the hustle and noise of the shopping and celebration settles, join us for a special evening of song and chant, celebrating all the Winter Holidays; Solstice, Yule, Chanukah, Kwanza, New Year's. In Bardic Circle we will open our hearts and our hearth to welcome all with a song in their hearts.
Since we're not going to be doing a show at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in early December, we'll be expanding this event with some of the material we were preparing. Should be spiffy!
All are welcome in our circle of song. Please bring your voices, songs and chants of the season and simple (non-messy) food and drink to share. Best Blessings of the season!
Reorganizing the Chorus
Magic Mountain Music proved to be a watershed event for us. While nominally a success, it highlighted and brought to a head some ongoing weaknesses in our structure. The journey and the two set, instead of pulling us together, provides a focus point for stress and disharmony, which inevitably affected our ability to perform. Director Kurt Talking Stone choose to give the Chorus the Summer off for breathing space, cool down time and to attend to his ongoing family crisis.
To my Brothers and Sisters in song,
I hope the Summer’s end finds you all healthy and prosperous. As we approach the Autumnal Equinox, I have had time to meditate and pray on the formation and future o the Chorus.
As many of you know, Magic Mountain Music proved to be a watershed event for us. While nominally a success, it highlighted and brought to a head some ongoing weaknesses in our structure. The journey and the two sets, instead of pulling us together, provides a focus point for stress and disharmony, which inevitably affected our ability to perform. There was a lot of improper behavior, and I won’t go into the details but it not the sort of thing that can go on if we are to endure as a cooperative.
Most of you know that due to our family situation and might be best described as Òstress fracturesÓ within the Chorus, we decided, no... I decided to give the Chorus the Summer off after our return from Magic Mountain Music. Time to devote to salvage and other house, family and career tasks, and certain sacred obligations.
Took some of this time to think about how the chorus is organized and some changes in the structure. And trying to decide how to go forth.
I heard good thoughts from a few of you and prayed to Great Spirit on the matter. Some of the words I have heard have been extremely eloquent. The gist of it is, what we have been doing is worth doing. And somehow we should find way to make it work , and make it work better. Members have also supported other spiritual events during the summer, which reinforced for me the value of our work. I am particularly proud of the Spirit Drum unit, about half Composed of Four Winds members, which pulled together for Stones Rising 2000 to good effect and glowing feedback.
One of the most serious difficulties is that some Members have been made very uncomfortable by the words and actions of others. Over time, this has cost us in talent, good people, and ability to pursue excellence. How we treat each other should be of equal importance as our abilities as Bards.
Related to this matter is the amount of breakdown that seems to invariably accompany performance events. Problems that do not seem to appear in ritual, ceremony, Bardic Circles and workshops.
We are about to be restart our schedule beginning with a Member’s Bardic and Council and mid September. This will be followed by a resumption in rehearsals and other activities. There will be some changes. But we shall still be a Circle, and the Songs shall ever remain Sacred. Wakan aloh.
There are a couple of opportunities for the Chorus that have materialized, in no small part enhanced by a rather positive write-up in the August 10 issue of TIME OUT NY. Apparently other folk seem to think what we do is of some interest and value. We should not disappoint them. Regardless of our challenges, the Mission of the chorus is sound and worthy.
So briefly here’s what some of the more thoughtful Members and I have come up with. We’re going to try this out, and it’s sure to be an ongoing process while we shake out the bugs.
For openers the Chorus shall be separated into two components.
• The Chorus at large, composed of all Members at any level.
• A Performance Unit, composed of the Members most skilled and suitable for upcoming Performance events. The composition of this group would change based on what projects the unit was working on.
For flexibility, we will divide rehearsals into a split schedule. This will reduce the time commitment some for all Members and allowing us to work on both basic skills and advanced material as we see fit without overwhelming some members and wasting others’ time.
Part of the conflicts we have had to ground have been the widening gap between the skill sets and abilities of the Senior members and the less experienced. This has cost us Members from both the top and the bottom over time. And the necessity to work on specific material for performance events has been at odds with developing a solid foundation of basic skills
We will also be separating Performance Events from Teachings, Bardic Circles, Workshops, Rituals and Ceremonies and ritual support. Things with hard-to -define categories we’ll figure out on a case-by-case basis.
How this may work may be like this...
The General Membership (Apprentice Circle?) will:
• Attend training rehearsals
• Workshops
• Rituals
• Ceremonies
• Bardic Circles
• Assist with performances as support personnel.The Performance Unit (Bard’s Circle? ) will:
• Attend advanced and event-specific rehearsals
• Attend training rehearsals as needed
• Teach and Train Apprentice Members.
• Workshops
• Rituals
• Ceremonies
• Bardic Circles
• Facilitate Events
• Recording ProjectsWho goes where? Let’s just say that the Bard’s Circle is going to start off as a very small group. We will be bringing additional Members into the unit by invitation as we go, most likely based on the needs of upcoming projects.. And by the way, as suggested by the above, I expect Seniors to kick in with some of the work of training the apprentices and facilitating events. Also, I am thinking that New members may be asked to devote a year and a day of service and training before invitation to the Bard’s Circle.
Make no mistake, the upper tier will be more difficult and more work than the Chorus at large, and require more spiritual, bardic and musical dedication. Not to mention, with our comntinued use of rented rehearsal spaces, a greater financial commitment in a Member supported cooperative effort.
I may also be a bit more of a dictator. My desire to share the decision making has not been terribly successful. I still plan to listen to and need to hear your opinions. I can’t think of everything. We are going to be working on revising the Guidelines and trying to enforce them a little more uniformly. Particularly material concerning decorum and behavior. I will accept responsibility for not being more of a policeman, but quite frankly, I’d rather sing.
In a week or so, (see enclosed schedule) we will have a Member’s Circle before we really get back to work. In addition to spending a little time with our favorite songs and chants, we will be discussing what changes we will be making in how we go about what we do. Any of you with an opinion wishing to be a part of this ongoing process please make an effort to attend. But rest assured if you can’t attend, we will be making adjustments for a while yet.
We will be hosting a Yule Bardic Circle on Friday December 29. A good event to get back into the swing of things and we’ve always had a warm place in our hearts for the season. I hope many of you will join me in our continuing journey. The spirits of the winds await our voices raised in joy and praise. And be nice to the new kids...
Mitaquye Oyasin. Blessed be. Ashe.
Kurt Talking Stone
Choral Director.Organizational input: Jezibell, Joni, Athena Elsbeth, Richard C and others.
Four Winds highlighted in Time Out NY
Here's our clip from the TONY Article. Check out the entire article at: http://www.timeoutny.com/aroundtown/255/255.around.sing.open.2.html
Sing to the beat of a different drum
The Four Winds Earth Chorus doesn't just sing--it dances and drums. The repertoire includes Native American sacred songs, as well as some of the music featured in rituals and ceremonies from around the world. And you don't have to be Native American to join this 15-person group, says founder Kurt Griffith Talking Stone: "All people really need is their enthusiasm and a willingness to put in a little sweat and effort." Rehearsals (which are also considered open auditions) are held three to five times a month on a shifting schedule; nonsingers are also welcome to simply sit and listen.
Rehearsal schedule varies. Open auditions at rehearsals. Contact Kurt Griffith Talking Stone at klhgriffith@worldnet.att.net, or go to www.imagecraft.com/fourwinds. Membership: by donation.
- article by Diana Michelle Yap
CD Price Break!
Effective September 1st, Four Winds CDs purchased directly form the Chorus have been reduced to $10.00.
We had a very interesting conversation with the good folks of Four Shillings Short at Magic Mountain Music. They price their product at $10 and moved about as many discs as all the other groups combined perhaps save the well known and long-producing Kiva. They also first came out at $15, which is about market rate for self-published indie labels, but do "Startlingly Better" at $10. Our production costs were pretty much near-break even at the time of the fire and factoring in the loss of our records, both electronic and paper, we're just going to call it even! So whatever we bring in from this point on will go to support the Chorus' work.
Now that we have salvaged about 580 Discs from the flooded basement and had them graciously repackaged by the very very cool folks at Oasis Reproduction at no cost to us beyond one-way shipping. This is despite the Post Office losing track of our crate for about five scary weeks. Obviously the Spirits testing our faith.
But we've got 'em, they look great once again and we're restocked and ready to go!
Check out the We Each Send A Voice: 5 Years of Celebration in Song and Chant, 1994-1999 page.
Four Winds Members support Four Quarters Farm
Members Joni, Jezibell, Kurt and Heather returned to support events at Four Quarters Farm following Magic Mountian Music. Of particulart note was Spirit Drum which was part of the ceremonials of the Raising of The Stones at Stones Rising 2000. The Spirit Drum was a Native Style drummers and singers unit, which provided songs of prayer and honoring while the stones were brought to the Stone Circle. Half of the six participants were new to pow-wow style singing and the group had never sung together until the day before the Rising. Our training stood us in good stead and the spirits joined with us and we sang well and true. we received wonderful feedback from the people of the Land and brought honor to the Chorus.
Must particularly honor Miz Jezibell, who had intended to serve with the sacred dancers but injured her ankle shortly after arriving on the site. So she joined us at the beautiful taos drum provided by Erin and Jane and lent her voice and heart to our songs. Washite aloh! Wakan aloh!
Disaster Update: 9/11/2000
Review the story of the fire on the April 20-28 News Page.
We've now been in the small apartment for four and a half months. Between replacing certain necessities of life- socks, underwear, bookcases, a computer, that sort of thing... and items we've had gifted to us by friends and concerned folk, books, some clothes, a bed, and a few precious items salvaged from the wrecked house, we've just about hit critical mass. In other words, the place is getting a little tight. We are starting to think abut getting choosy about just WHAT we try to replace. Now. And we're still doing about half of our cooking out of an old BSA Trail Chefs Kit. But we are healthy and reasonably happy... OK, make that not too crazed... But we're are definitely thinking about someplace real to live. And we are tired of being tired nearly all the time.
We had some of our extended family out here for another General Salvage Day and managed to unearth several important items out of the charred mess. Good salvage included critical papers and an AWOL external hard drive. Big Thanks again to everyone who sweated, dug, hauled really nasty debris and got filthy for no other pay than munchies, gatorade and gratitude.
The process of dealing with insurance companies and other institutions moves along painfully slowly. Such as the Department of Environmental Protection, which continues to send us water bills even though the water was shut off the morning of the fire... back in April, OF COURSE they can't get a remote reading on the meter, since the electricity was turned off too. It's been that sort of thing. But at least the Fire Marshal has ruled out the possibility of arson. So that's one less damn thing to worry about.
For folks who have been asking what they can do. One of the overwhelming losses has been our extensive library, Books, Music and videos... One of Four Winds' special assets was our collection of folk, pagan, world and indigenous music and source material. So anybody with Books and Music to donate, particularly Pagan, Native American, and Science Fiction and Fantasy, they would be very welcome.
Our Continuing Thanks to everyone who has been offering their prayers, energy, support and helping out.
Kurt & Heather
Mitaquye Oyasin * Blessed Be * Ashe * Shalom * A Salaam * Amen