Upcoming events
Open Hub Singing Club - THE BIG SING
Open Hub Singing Club
The BIG SING!
Everyone welcome!!
Come one come all! Circle up with Open Hub Singing Club for the last of our 10-week season of songs. You can sit back and enjoy, or you can sing along. I’ll give a quick teach for these easy-to-learn songs. You won’t believe how good we’ll sound together! Come, sing for joy, for strength, for helping make something wonderful!
Afterward you're welcome to stay for an optional potluck!
Location: Pulpit Rock Brewery Events Room in Decorah, IA
Evening Song Circle - Madison, WI
Location: Orchard Ridge UCC, 1501 Gilbert Rd, Madison, WI 53711
Cost: Sliding scale ($15, $22, $30). No one turned away due to lack of funds.
Arrive 5:30-6:00, singing together 6:00–7:30pm
Come circle up with friends new and old! Bring your voice and heart and help sing songs to the land, the springtime, the mystery, and songs to honor our joy, grief, love, and care. Join us as we celebrate community through song. I’ll teach these singable, simple songs by ear, and together Everyone is welcome!
Song Carrier Training - Madison, WI
This event is full — please email centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com to be placed on the waiting list.
Location: Orchard Ridge UCC, 1501 Gilbert Rd, Madison, WI 53711
Cost: Sliding scale ($15, $22, $30). If your budget tight and you’d like to come, send us an email at centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com
A 2-hour playshop for anyone who is interested in learning some simple tools and songs for sharing in community. Maybe you want to bring a few songs to your school, workplace, family table, local park, or rally. This is for you! You don’t need to have former musical training, but if you do you, too, will find learning here among peers. Join us in the park! Help build the movement that’s bringing singing into our communities!
This training is a mini-version of weekend song carrier trainings that are offered through the Center for Belonging Folk School.
All Nature Sings! - Madison, WI
All Nature Sings!
Saturday, April 25, 10:30 am - 12 pm
At New Life Church, 7564 Cottage Grove Rd, Madison WI
As the springtime begins, we’ll gather outside and raise up songs together in praise of all life.
For more info contact Meg Neilson at churchladymeg@hotmail.com
Free will donation
Power and Courage: Songs for the Resistance - Madison, WI
Power and Courage: Songs for the Resistance
6:00-6:30 pm gather, 6:30-7:30 pm group singing led by Liz Rog
There are songs for these times. Simple and powerful songs that uplift our collective vision and voice. Songs that ground us in courage and care. Come sing. Come as you are – hopeful, heartbroken, fearful, determined. We’ll use our voices to weave a net that can hold it all. All songs are simple and strong and taught by ear. No experience needed. Singing is for everyone!
This is part of the ‘Just Fridays’ series at St. Stephens Church, 5700 Pheasant Hill Rd, Monona, WI
Contact Meg Neilson at churchladymeg@hotmail.com for more info
Free will donation
Leading and Listening: A Weekend Workshop for Emerging and Practicing Community Song Carriers
Song Carrier Training at Marine Mills Folk School, 2024
This workshop is FULL - please email centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com to be placed on the waitlist.
Leading and Listening: A Weekend Workshop for Emerging and Practicing Community Song Carriers
Dates: Saturday, March 14th and Sunday, March 15th, 9:00 am-5:00 pm each day.
Location: Minnesota Waldorf School, 70 County Road B East, Maplewood, MN 55117
Are you excited about Community Singing? Would you like to help gather people in your home community to twine voices and hearts in this all-voices-welcomed way? Are you intrigued about the possibility of helping to lead songs yourself?
Join Annie Schlaefer, Sarina Partridge, and Liz Rog to learn and practice together the tools of community songleading. We will touch on many of the skills involved in successfully getting other folks singing including: teaching in a clear call & echo style, picking the right song for the moment, finding a good starting pitch, showing the rhythm and melody in your body, building confidence, and modeling joyful and welcoming humility.
At this workshop you will find connection to 27 other emerging songleaders; a chance to practice among supportive peers; songs and resources galore; and encouragement to go home and continue on the path!
We’ll talk about the history and culture of community singing. We’ll consider the singing wounds of our society and how we can be part of the healing. We’ll prepare to offer and receive hospitality through singing in community!
We can learn to serve in brave, humble, and collaborative leadership. This weekend is a time to begin, using the simple tools of song, conversation, slow-time, and good food. I have something to offer: how do I prepare myself to hold space? What practical and spiritual tools do I need? How can my leadership empower others? How do I listen well to the voices around me even as I am asking for their listening? When is it time to rest?
We’ll gather around these questions, and the form we use is songleading. We’ll stand as witnesses to each other’s stepping up, celebrating the different strengths and styles of each and all. The tools we practice can be used in everyday settings: around a kitchen table, in houses of worship, in healing spaces, in movements for change. Our workshop is a circle of belonging, and each person returns home with their own version of what it means to hold space with grace, energy, and ever-growing skill. This is the beginning.
If you feel called to begin or continue learning how to lead others in song and can hold a tune and rhythm reasonably well, this is for you. You don’t need to be a school-trained singer/musician, but even if you are, there is still plenty for you to learn at this workshop.
Weekend of Learning Details:
Accommodations possibilities:
Reach out to centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com if you will need accommodations and we can try and connect you with someone in the area.
Meals:
Saturday and Sunday Lunches are provided as part of registration. Both meals will be vegan with gluten free options. After registering below, please fill out this form to indicate your food preferences.
Cost:
Training and Lunch: $220 per person
Pay it forward: $250 per person
Super Sponsor: $320 per person
Cancellation policy: If you cancel 2 weeks prior to the event you’ll be refunded everything except for a $50 administrative fee. If you cancel 1 week prior to the event you’ll receive half back except for a $50 administrative fee. Any cancellations less than 1 week prior to the event will not receive a refund.
*Each registration includes a copy of the book Song Carrier Toolkit by Liz Rog
**Limited number of partial scholarships available. Please reach out to centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com to inquire.
Words from past workshop participants:
“I learned that song leading is a form of radical presence to the moment, and to the people holding this moment with you. That the success of leading a song depends upon an immense receptivity to the hearts & voices in the room, to their collected energy, to the group as it seeks wholeness, adventure, harmony. And a willingness to trust the group to co-create the moment with you.”
“I learned that song leading is also a way of listening, a way of listening in together for a way towards each other, dreaming new and more loving ways of relating in and beyond the group. That we catch songs, but they also catch us, entwine us in new & beautiful & bewildering forms of intimacy & growth.”
“I've been feeling so much gratitude for the way we learned that singing can open up space for challenge, for vulnerability, for the silence of unknowing. How the "leader" component of song leader also emerged through our grappling with some of the complex and crucial questions of our times: cultural appropriation, sexual violence, rage, love, justice... how song community can respond or attend or witness. It makes me glad to know that the ways we will all lead songs include these questions, and a willingness to hear many truths, to feel, to adjust our perceptions, to struggle with finding words that suffice, to not give up the struggle, and to notice how different it feels when it is shared.”
“I especially appreciated how for a couple days I felt what it's like to live in a world filled with song. It felt as though a song could begin at any moment--and in many of the moments a song did begin! Songs for blessing meals and blessing each other, songs for late night fun, songs for waking up, songs to support friends, songs for expressing rage, songs to get to know each other better, songs to tell stories, songs for saying goodbye... That's what I've been thinking about since. How can I use the specific song leading tools I learned to spread that magical feeling throughout more of my life?”
“I appreciated the format of the course, which included personal sharing from participants, learning and singing songs, gaining practical knowledge of technique, and also an opportunity for students to teach a song to the group. It was the right amount of singing vs. spoken information.
Songleading for Street Singing
Songleading for Street Singing
Come learn and practice the tools of songleading!
Sunday, February 22, 6-8pm / Pulpit Rock Brewery Events Space
We need more songleaders for these times! The songs are short, simple, powerful, and so needed. Come learn some of the basic tools of songleading and practice them among new peers who are also learning! Whether you're looking to share songs in your living room, neighborhood, or local rally, this is for you.
Free/Donations welcomed
Sign-up HERE
Singing Resistance in Redwing, MN
Singing Resistance in Redwing, MN
Friday, Feb. 20
4pm-5pm Protest with Singing Resistance songs
This is the 55th Weekly Protest in downtown Red Wing.
Along Hwy 61, near the intersection of 61 and East/West Avenues.
5:15 pm-6:15 pm Practicing Hope Together with song
Weekly Prayer Service hosted by area congregations
This week @ First Lutheran Church, Red Wing 615 W. 5th St.
This week we will primarily sing to build community, stand in solidarity with our neighbors living in fear, and have songs to carry us into the work of hope, however that work looks for you: service, protest, generosity, and/or advocacy.
Sat. Feb. 21
9-10:30am Songleading for Resistance
Offer your heart and voice to this collective work of Singing Resistance. Liz Rog will teach some simple songs for street singing and share some of the tools for leading songs in the community.
Power and Courage: Songs for the Resistance
Location: Pulpit Rock Brewing Events Space, Decorah, IA
There are songs for these times. Simple and powerful songs that uplift our collective vision and voice. Songs that ground us in courage and care.
Come help us raise up the songs. Come as you are – hopeful, heartbroken, fearful, determined. We’ll use our voices to weave a net that can hold it all.
All songs are simple and strong, taught by ear. No experience needed. Singing is for everyone.
Free/Donations welcomed, 100% for Iowa Movement for Immigrant Justice
Songs for Grief and Praise
Location: Gathering Space at Good Shepherd Church, 701 Iowa Ave
From the road, enter through the door on the right
Grief is here with us, has always been and always will be. There are songs that we can sing together to honor and hold that grief. And there are songs to help us praise the beauty and goodness that is also here.
Do you have to be grieving something particular to be welcomed at this event? No. If you are actively grieving, do you have to talk about it? No. Come as you are. We will sing, and just doing that together can be a balm. Come be in the songs through singing, listening, and relaxing.
Donations of any amount $0-$10 welcomed.
Leading and Listening: A Weekend Workshop for Emerging and Practicing Community Song Carriers
Song Carrier Training at Marine Mills Folk School, 2024
registration FULL — email centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com to be added to the waiting list
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Leading and Listening:
A Weekend Workshop for Emerging and Practicing
Community Song Carriers
Dates: Saturday, November 15th from 9am-5pm and Sunday, November 16th from 9am-4pm
Location: Anam Cara Therapies 3612 Bloomington Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55407
Are you excited about Community Singing? Would you like to help gather people in your home community to twine voices and hearts in this all-voices-welcomed way? Are you intrigued about the possibility of helping to lead songs yourself?
Join Annie Schlaefer, Linnea Champ, and Liz Rog to learn and practice together the tools of community songleading. We will touch on many of the skills involved in successfully getting other folks singing including: teaching in a clear call & echo style, picking the right song for the moment, finding a good starting pitch, showing the rhythm and melody in your body, building confidence, and modeling joyful and welcoming humility.
At this workshop you will find connection to 24 other emerging songleaders; a chance to practice among supportive peers; songs and resources galore; and encouragement to go home and continue on the path!
We’ll talk about the history and culture of community singing. We’ll consider the singing wounds of our society and how we can be part of the healing. We’ll prepare to offer and receive hospitality through singing in community!
We can learn to serve in brave, humble, and collaborative leadership. This weekend is a time to begin, using the simple tools of song, conversation, slow-time, and good food. I have something to offer: how do I prepare myself to hold space? What practical and spiritual tools do I need? How can my leadership empower others? How do I listen well to the voices around me even as I am asking for their listening? When is it time to rest?
We’ll gather around these questions, and the form we use is songleading. We’ll stand as witnesses to each other’s stepping up, celebrating the different strengths and styles of each and all. The tools we practice can be used in everyday settings: around a kitchen table, in houses of worship, in healing spaces, in movements for change. Our workshop is a circle of belonging, and each person returns home with their own version of what it means to hold space with grace, energy, and ever-growing skill. This is the beginning.
If you feel called to begin or continue learning how to lead others in song and can hold a tune and rhythm reasonably well, this is for you. You don’t need to be a school-trained singer/musician, but even if you are, there is still plenty for you to learn at this workshop.
Weekend of Learning Details:
Accommodations possibilities:
Reach out if you will need accommodations and we can try and connect you with someone in the area.
**Saturday and Sunday Lunches are provided as part of registration.
Both meals will be vegan with gluten free options
COST:
Training and Lunch: $170 per person
Pay it forward: $220 per person
Super Sponsor: $320 per person.
Cancellation policy: If you cancel 2 weeks prior to the event you’ll be refunded everything except for a $50 administrative fee. If you cancel 1 week prior to the event you’ll receive half back except for a $50 administrative fee. Any cancellations less than 1 week prior to the event will not receive a refund.
Words from past workshop participants:
“I learned that song leading is a form of radical presence to the moment, and to the people holding this moment with you. That the success of leading a song depends upon an immense receptivity to the hearts & voices in the room, to their collected energy, to the group as it seeks wholeness, adventure, harmony. And a willingness to trust the group to co-create the moment with you.”
“I learned that song leading is also a way of listening, a way of listening in together for a way towards each other, dreaming new and more loving ways of relating in and beyond the group. That we catch songs, but they also catch us, entwine us in new & beautiful & bewildering forms of intimacy & growth.”
“I've been feeling so much gratitude for the way we learned that singing can open up space for challenge, for vulnerability, for the silence of unknowing. How the "leader" component of song leader also emerged through our grappling with some of the complex and crucial questions of our times: cultural appropriation, sexual violence, rage, love, justice... how song community can respond or attend or witness. It makes me glad to know that the ways we will all lead songs include these questions, and a willingness to hear many truths, to feel, to adjust our perceptions, to struggle with finding words that suffice, to not give up the struggle, and to notice how different it feels when it is shared.”
“I especially appreciated how for a couple days I felt what it's like to live in a world filled with song. It felt as though a song could begin at any moment--and in many of the moments a song did begin! Songs for blessing meals and blessing each other, songs for late night fun, songs for waking up, songs to support friends, songs for expressing rage, songs to get to know each other better, songs to tell stories, songs for saying goodbye... That's what I've been thinking about since. How can I use the specific song leading tools I learned to spread that magical feeling throughout more of my life?”
“I appreciated the format of the course, which included personal sharing from participants, learning and singing songs, gaining practical knowledge of technique, and also an opportunity for students to teach a song to the group. It was the right amount of singing vs. spoken information.
Home Vigils after the Passing of a Loved One: A Workshop to Guide Our Community in Caring for Our Own
Home Vigils after the Passing of a Loved One: A Workshop to Guide Our Community in Caring for Our Own
THIS WORKSHOP IS NOW FULL. To join the waitlist, click here.
Saturday, November 8, 9am-4pm
With leaders from the Threshold Care Circle in Viroqua, WI.
www.thresholdcarecircle.org
At the home of Randi Berg and Matt Spencer in rural Decorah
Workshop Cost ($80-$130*)
includes one copy of the booklet My Final Wishes.
Until the latter part of the 19th century, most people were born and died in their own homes. When they were born, their family cared for them; when they died, their family cared for them. Dying was integrated into living. Caring for those who had died was not only the last act of love, it was the first step toward healing.
This workshop will give you information and hands-on practice to prepare you to care for your family member after death at home, and to carry out a home or family-directed vigil or funeral with or without the services of a funeral director.
Workshop Topics covered:
Advance planning: Utilizing the workbook “My Final Wishes’, IA Health Care Power of Attorney, Living Will & Ethical Will
Meeting Iowa legal requirements and required paperwork
Care of the Body
Creating sacred space and home vigils
Family direct cremation & green burial options
***Sliding Scale Fee***
$80 to $130– Please offer at the highest level your budget will allow. We value your presence and if offering the lowest amount in this range presents a hardship please contact us individually.
Pleasant Valley is offering to subsidize up to ten PV members $50 toward registration. Let us know below if you'd like to be one of these recipients. HEADS UP: From now through Sept 6 registration is open only to PV members. Once it opens to the general public it is likely to fill quickly.
*General registration deadline is Oct 18. Advance registration is required as space is limited.
Balkan Singing: Autumn Workshop Series
Balkan Singing - Autumn Workshop Series
As fall settles in, come sing the uniquely beautiful tones and harmonies of songs from Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Georgia and beyond. These songs are evocative and vibrant, making for a singing experience that is exhilarating, unique and delicious to the ears and the heart. In opening our voices and ears to new sounds, we can forge fresh connections with ourselves, each other, and the cultures from which these songs come.
Led by Decorah local Sophie Rog
Sundays in October and November, 3 to 5pm*
*Sunday Oct 26 will be from 1-3 pm
Location: will be emailed to you upon registration
Cost: sliding scale $180 - $90 for all 9 sessions
Pay whatever is affordable and generous for you. No one turned away for lack of funds.
This is an open level workshop – No singing experience required!
In support of the collective experience of our group, please plan to attend all of our sessions, or, if needed, miss no more than two.
Questions? Email sophia.rog@gmail.com
Open Hub Singing Club: Fall Series
Open Hub Singing Club: Fall Series
All voices welcomed-including YOURS!
10 Sundays, Sept 21-Nov. 23 / 3:30-5:00 pm
Join us for as many as you can!
New to community singing? Drop in the first week and give it a try, no charge.
In Decorah, with songleader Liz Rog
What will we sing? Listen here or here for a sample of the many songs we’ll sing.
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For all voices: experienced, brand-new to singing, and everyone in-between.
No audition, no practice, no performance–just making friends through singing together! Children are welcome too!
Come join us in singing uplifting songs . No singing experience or training is needed; We learn by listening as a group. You’ve already got what it takes!
As Bobby McFerrin says, “One of the simplest and most direct ways of praying and meditating is through singing, and singing in community is especially powerful. You get people together in a room singing, and you instantly knock down all the walls—the creeds, the gender, age, and race differences, everything. You’re all one at that point, lifting your voices.”
In singing together we give voice to our shared humanity. Our common joys, longings, sorrows, and hopes fly from our mouths and mingle in the air. Come, help us sing in harmony to build community.
In each session we will:
Learn joyful, diverse, easy-to-memorize songs
Connect with our singing community through a shared joy of song
Build confidence in our voices in a welcoming, supportive space
Release the stress of living and open space for the week to come
Exercise our bodies and minds through the practice of group singing
Build memory retention through oral tradition singing
Enjoy a fun, relaxed, and accepting environment
Cost: $50-$150, pay what is generous and affordable for you. No one turned away for lack of funds.
New to community singing? Drop in the first week and give it a try, no charge.
Paul Vasile Campfire Singing
Join my Special Guest Paul Vasile, live at the gazebo in the woods at the Center for Belonging!
Paul will host two events on July 12. Come to one or both.
1-4 pm – Song Catching Workshop
4-6:30 pm – on you own for dinner*, hiking, & rest
6:30 pm onward – optional Campfire Singing
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Campfire Singing: Come for a spacious and relaxed evening of singing around the fire. Paul will lead the circle with Liz and others, sharing new community songs exploring themes of resilience, grief, and protest.
Registration is on a sliding scale; please pay whatever is both affordable and generous for you. No one turned away for lack of funds; reach out if you need to.
Come to one or both events! Free camping Saturday night.
Register separately for song catching ($25-45) or campfire signing ($15-25), or bundle them together ($40-70).
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Paul Vasile (he/him) is a church musician, teacher, coach, and composer who finds his greatest joy in collaborative and community-centered work. Committed to modeling expansive, imaginative, and hospitable experiences of music making wherever he goes, Paul's leadership builds trust, invites spaces of creativity, vulnerability, and play, and supports practices of reflection and holistic learning.
For the past decade he has offered short- and long-term transitional leadership, consulting services, and creative resources to faith communities in seasons of discernment, challenge, and transformation. From 2016 to 2023, Paul served as the Executive Director of Music that Makes Community, a non-profit that shares "paperless" (oral tradition) leadership practices and songs. He traveled across North America modeling distinctive approaches to communal singing and learning at retreat centers, conferences, denominational gatherings, seminaries, and in congregations of all sizes.
Committed to expressing and exploring faith in new ways, Paul composes music that invites. His music is represented in Glory to God, All Creation Sings, and Voices Together, as well as The Hymn Society’s resource, Songs for the Holy Other: Hymns Affirming The LGBTQIA2S+ Community.
Paul Vasile Song Catching Workshop
Join my Special Guest Paul Vasile, live at the gazebo in the woods at the Center for Belonging!
Paul will host two events on July 12. Come to one or both.
1-4 pm – Song Catching Workshop
4-6:30 pm – on you own for dinner*, hiking, & rest
6:30 pm onward – optional Campfire Singing
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Song Catching Workshop: You’re invited to step into a playful, courageous space where we explore the process of catching/composing short songs. Join Paul Vasile, an inspiring song leader, teacher and composer, for an immersive, three-hour workshop that invites participants to listen for the melodies and musical ideas within and around them. We’ll notice the shape and energy of the melodies we find, improvise with them, then share them with the group, even just as song fragments or seeds.
No musical training is required. Bring your listening ears and your voice and be surprised by the creative capacity we will nurture in each other.
Campfire Singing: you are welcome to register for both the workshop and campfire singing below, or go here to register for only campfire singing.
Registration is on a sliding scale; please pay whatever is both affordable and generous for you. No one turned away for lack of funds; reach out if you need to.
Come to one or both events! Free camping Saturday night.
Register separately for song catching ($25-45) or campfire signing ($15-25), or bundle them together ($40-70).
—-
Paul Vasile (he/him) is a church musician, teacher, coach, and composer who finds his greatest joy in collaborative and community-centered work. Committed to modeling expansive, imaginative, and hospitable experiences of music making wherever he goes, Paul's leadership builds trust, invites spaces of creativity, vulnerability, and play, and supports practices of reflection and holistic learning.
For the past decade he has offered short- and long-term transitional leadership, consulting services, and creative resources to faith communities in seasons of discernment, challenge, and transformation. From 2016 to 2023, Paul served as the Executive Director of Music that Makes Community, a non-profit that shares "paperless" (oral tradition) leadership practices and songs. He traveled across North America modeling distinctive approaches to communal singing and learning at retreat centers, conferences, denominational gatherings, seminaries, and in congregations of all sizes.
Committed to expressing and exploring faith in new ways, Paul composes music that invites. His music is represented in Glory to God, All Creation Sings, and Voices Together, as well as The Hymn Society’s resource, Songs for the Holy Other: Hymns Affirming The LGBTQIA2S+ Community.
Community Song Bath
You are invited to a
Community Song bath
ALL ARE WELCOME. Nothing is asked of you.
Come listen, rest, and receive. Close your eyes and relax as the singers share simple, repetitive songs of courage and comfort. Drop in anytime, stay as little or as long as you like. Come in silence, leave in silence.
Tuesday, May 27th, 6:00-6:45 pm.
at the Fireside Room of First Lutheran Church, 604 W. Broadway, Decorah
A gift from the Kitchen Table Singers, a volunteer group that offers songs to support the crossing of life’s thresholds. All services are free.
For more info, contact Liz Rog, liz@decorahnow.com / 563-382-8013 (land line)
Songs of Power, Peace, and Protest
REGISTRATION CLOSED — email centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com to be placed on the waiting list.
“If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life's light to be determined by the darkness around me.” ― Sojourner Truth
Saturday, May 24, 11:00-4:00*
At the Center for Belonging Folk School, Decorah Iowa, outside under the gazebo in the woods
With Songleader and Host Liz Rog
All voices and ages welcome, No experience needed
Registration sliding scale: $40-$80. You are invited to pay what is both generous and affordable for you. Register by May 21. 10% of funds will be passed along to local immigrant support networks. If your funds are low and you'd like to take advantage of the Center for Belonging bursary fund, just reach out to Emma at centerforbelongingfolkschool@gmail.com.
There are living songs for these times and they need us as much as we need them.
Songs to hold us together in love and courage. Songs to hold us in our collective power. Songs to keep us grounded in what is true. Songs that affirm our commitments to life, love, earth, and justice. Songs the singing of which brings us joy!
Some of these songs are old and strong, having been anointed through their service in other times and movements. Others are being created here and now in response to what we are seeing and feeling in our hearts on behalf of our communities, nations, lands.
Come make friends with the songs and with others who are singing them. Then take the songs home and share them with your people.
Let’s use our voices and bodies to find one another and to raise up some power and beauty! Come join us! We will sing, walk, rest, and sing again.
‘A song can hold you up when there’s no ground beneath you.’ Melanie DeMore
__________
* Bring a sack lunch.
*Coming from afar? You are welcome to camp out on Friday and/or Saturday night. No charge.
hosted by Liz Rog
Carrying Song In Service: Song Carrier Training
Register here!
Carrying Song in Service: Community songleading as a strengthening act
This is a two day training event, both Saturday and Sunday, May 10 & 11, 20205 with an optional free, public Community Sing on Friday, May 9, 2025 in Sylvester Park in downtown Olympia.
Morning refreshments and make your own sandwich/wrap lunches will be provided during the event.
(Optional) Friday, May 9th, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Pacific, separate registration
Saturday, May 10th, 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM Pacific
Sunday, May 11th, 9:00 AM - 1:30 PM Pacific
An offering by Liz Rog, Center for Belonging Folk School, the Folk Education Association of America, and The Heartwood Trio, with help from the Arbutus Folk School
What is song carrying?
Across the country all manner of civic groups, businesses, activist organizations, and nonprofits are realizing the cohesive power of group singing. We offer this training to support people who would like to bring songs to the places right where they live, work, and play.
Topics
Come to this supportive and enjoyable gathering to learn and practice the skills that can help you bring Community Singing to the place where you live: how to listen; how to choose the right songs for your people; how to use your face and body to guide the singers; and how to prepare your heart for leadership. You'll learn songs and connect with other emerging song carriers.
Who is this for?
Carrying song in service offers training for aspiring community leaders interested in group singing. It provides tools, connections, and encouragement for those new to leading singing and a supportive practice space for experienced song carriers.
Who are the trainers?
Liz Rog is a cultural activist who believes in singing together as one of the best ways to build community. She comes from the Midwest where for decades she has been leading songs in community spaces and teaching others who desire to carry songs in their own communities. Liz is the founder of the Center for Belonging Folk School in Decorah, Iowa. Sarina Partridge and Heidi Wilson of the Heartwood Trio will be joining Liz as song carrier trainings for this event. The Heartwood Trio will also be providing workshops and other performances in the area so watch their events page for more information. Specifically, don't miss the Nature Nurture Farmacy's event at the Juice Box in Centralia, WA on Monday, May 12 from 7-9 pm.
Cancellation Policy:
Participants who cancel their enrollment more than 14 DAYS BEFORE the class begins will receive a refund minus a $20 cancellation fee to cover administration costs.
In consideration of our instructors, students who cancel 14 DAYS OR LESS prior to the class will not receive a refund.
Open Hub Singing Club: Summer Series
Open Hub Singing Club: Summer Series
1st and 3rd Tuesdays, May through August
May 6 and 20, June 3 and 17, July 1 and 15, August 5 and 19
Time: 6-7:30 pm
Location: Phelps Park Bandshell
Cost: sliding scale $40-$80 for all 8 sessions, pay what is generous and affordable for you. No one turned away for lack of funds. You may also choose to register here and select “Pay via Check” below.
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You are invited to join Open Hub Singing Club, eight Tuesdays this summer.
Whether you are an experienced singer or someone new to singing, community singing offers a "no practice, no performance" experience. We celebrate uplifting songs with meaningful messages taught in the simple and ancient aural tradition so that everyone is singing together in no time. We learn by listening as a group. No singing experience or training is required – just a desire to sing with others in community. All voices are welcome, including yours!
As Bobby McFerrin says, “One of the simplest and most direct ways of praying and meditating is through singing, and singing in community is especially powerful. You get people together in a room singing, and you instantly knock down all the walls—the creeds, the gender, age, and race differences, everything. You’re all one at that point, lifting your voices.”
In singing together we give voice to our shared humanity. Our common joys, longings, sorrows, and hopes fly from our mouths and mingle in the air. Come, help us sing in harmony to enliven spirit, build community, and create personal and cultural change.
In each session we will:
Learn joyful, diverse, easy-to-memorize songs
Connect with our singing community through a shared joy of song
Build confidence in our voices in a welcoming, supportive space
Release the stress of living and open space for the week to come
Exercise our bodies and minds through the practice of group singing
Build memory retention through oral tradition singing
Enjoy a fun, relaxed, and accepting environment
Community Song Bath
You are invited to a
Community Song bath
ALL ARE WELCOME. Nothing is asked of you.
Come listen, rest, and receive. Close your eyes and relax as the singers share simple, repetitive songs of courage and comfort. Drop in anytime, stay as little or as long as you like. Come in silence, leave in silence.
Tuesday, April 29th, 6:00-6:45 pm.
at the Fireside Room of First Lutheran Church, 604 W. Broadway, Decorah
A gift from the Kitchen Table Singers, a volunteer group that offers songs to support the crossing of life’s thresholds. All services are free.
For more info, contact Liz Rog, liz@decorahnow.com / 563-382-8013 (land line)
Leading and Listening: A Weekend of Learning with Emerging Community Song Carriers
2018 Song Carrier Training at Fern Hollow
If you would like to attend this gathering — you can sign up here. If you aren’t able to attend this event but would like to be added to an email list to hear about future song carrier training events — feel free to share your info here.
Are you excited about Community Singing? Would you like to help gather people in your home community to twine voices and hearts in this all-voices-welcomed way? Are you intrigued about the possibility of helping to lead songs yourself ?
Consider joining Community Songleader Liz Rog and 8 others for a special weekend for sharing tools for carrying song into your community. We will practice many of the skills involved in successfully getting other folks singing including: picking the right song for the moment, finding a good starting pitch, teaching in a clear call & response style, showing the rhythm and melody in your body, building confidence, and modeling joyful and welcoming humility.
At this workshop you will find connection to other emerging songleaders; a chance to learn and practice the tools of songleading among supportive peers; songs and resources galore; and encouragement to go home and continue on the path!
We’ll talk about the history and culture of community singing. We’ll consider the singing wounds of our society and how we can be part of the healing. We’ll prepare to offer and receive hospitality through singing community!
We can learn to serve in brave, humble, and collaborative leadership. Here’s a place to begin, using the simple tools of song, conversation, slow-time, and good food. I have something to offer: how do I prepare myself to hold space? What practical and spiritual tools do I need? How can my leadership empower others? How do I listen well to the voices around me even as I am asking for their listening? When is it time to rest?
We’ll gather around these questions, and the form we’ll use is leading song. We’ll stand as witnesses to each other’s stepping up, celebrating the different strengths and styles of each and all. The tools we practice can be used in everyday settings: around a kitchen table, in houses of worship, in healing spaces, in movements for change. Our workshop is a circle of belonging, and each person returns home with their own version of what it means to hold space with grace, energy, and ever-growing skill. This is the beginning.
If you feel called to begin learning how to lead others in song, can hold a tune reasonably well, and have some rhythm, this is for you. You certainly don’t need to be a school-trained singer/musician (I’m not!), but even if you are, there is still plenty for you to learn at this workshop.
Open Hub Singing Club, Decorah, 2023
Spring Songs
Spring Songs
Tues, April 8 5:30-7:00
At the Phelps Park Bandshell Gazebo
Register here below (drop-ins also welcome)
Donations welcomed, $5-$10 suggested
In the springtime do you sometimes just want to bust out in songs of praise for all that’s happening in nature? There are many songs just right for this time of year: for specific plants and birds, for the feeling of the air and rain, for the pleasure of it all. Come learn some songs that you can take home and sing on the trail, on the porch, at the kitchen table.
hosted by Liz Rog
Balkan Harmonies - Singing to Welcome Spring
Balkan Harmonies - Singing to Welcome Spring
A workshop introducing the vocal music of the Balkans and beyond
“Music washes away form the soul the dust of everyday life” — Berthold Auerbach
Lead by special guest Nicolle Roen and Decorah local Sophie Rog
2-4 pm on Sunday March 30 and Sunday April 6 — attend one or both!
and continuing workshop series Sundays April 13 - May 25 (register for all 7 sessions)
Location: Yoga Studio, 306 W Water St in Decorah, IA
Cost:
sliding scale $15 - 30 per workshop
sliding scale $90 - 180 for all 9 sessions
Pay whatever is affordable and generous for you. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Sing in the spring with the uniquely beautiful tones and harmonies of songs from Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Georgia and beyond. These songs are evocative and vibrant, making for a singing experience that is exhilarating, unique and delicious to the ears and the heart. In opening our voices and ears to new sounds, we can forge fresh connections with ourselves, each other, and the cultures from which these songs come.
We will learn primarily through oral tradition of call and response – no music reading or singing experience required.
Leading and Listening: A Weekend of Learning with Emerging Community Song Carriers
2018 Song Carrier Training at Fern Hollow
This event is currently FULL! If you would like to be added to an email list to hear about future song carrier training events — feel free to share your info here.
Are you excited about Community Singing? Would you like to help gather people in your home community to twine voices and hearts in this all-voices-welcomed way? Are you intrigued about the possibility of helping to lead songs yourself ?
Consider joining Community Songleader Liz Rog and 8 others for a special weekend for sharing tools for carrying song into your community. We will practice many of the skills involved in successfully getting other folks singing including: picking the right song for the moment, finding a good starting pitch, teaching in a clear call & response style, showing the rhythm and melody in your body, building confidence, and modeling joyful and welcoming humility.
At this workshop you will find connection to other emerging songleaders; a chance to learn and practice the tools of songleading among supportive peers; songs and resources galore; and encouragement to go home and continue on the path!
We’ll talk about the history and culture of community singing. We’ll consider the singing wounds of our society and how we can be part of the healing. We’ll prepare to offer and receive hospitality through singing community!
We can learn to serve in brave, humble, and collaborative leadership. Here’s a place to begin, using the simple tools of song, conversation, slow-time, and good food. I have something to offer: how do I prepare myself to hold space? What practical and spiritual tools do I need? How can my leadership empower others? How do I listen well to the voices around me even as I am asking for their listening? When is it time to rest?
We’ll gather around these questions, and the form we’ll use is leading song. We’ll stand as witnesses to each other’s stepping up, celebrating the different strengths and styles of each and all. The tools we practice can be used in everyday settings: around a kitchen table, in houses of worship, in healing spaces, in movements for change. Our workshop is a circle of belonging, and each person returns home with their own version of what it means to hold space with grace, energy, and ever-growing skill. This is the beginning.
If you feel called to begin learning how to lead others in song, can hold a tune reasonably well, and have some rhythm, this is for you. You certainly don’t need to be a school-trained singer/musician (I’m not!), but even if you are, there is still plenty for you to learn at this workshop.
Open Hub Singing Club, Decorah, 2023
Open Hub Singing Club: Winter Series
Open Hub Singing Club: Winter Series
Sundays: 10 consecutive Sunday’s starting on January 12th
Time: 3:30-5 pm
Location: TBD
Cost: sliding scale $50-$100 for all 10 sessions, pay what is generous and affordable for you. No one turned away for lack of funds. You may also choose to register here and select “Pay via Check” below.
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You are invited to join Open Hub Singing Club, ten Sundays this winter from 3:30-5 pm.
Whether you are an experienced singer or someone new to singing, community singing offers a "no practice, no performance" experience. We celebrate uplifting songs with meaningful messages taught in the simple and ancient aural tradition so that everyone is singing together in no time. We learn by listening as a group. No singing experience or training is required – just a desire to sing with others in community. All voices are welcome, including yours!
As Bobby McFerrin says, “One of the simplest and most direct ways of praying and meditating is through singing, and singing in community is especially powerful. You get people together in a room singing, and you instantly knock down all the walls—the creeds, the gender, age, and race differences, everything. You’re all one at that point, lifting your voices.”
In singing together we give voice to our shared humanity. Our common joys, longings, sorrows, and hopes fly from our mouths and mingle in the air. Come, help us sing in harmony to enliven spirit, build community, and create personal and cultural change.
In each session we will:
Learn joyful, diverse, easy-to-memorize songs
Connect with our singing community through a shared joy of song
Build confidence in our voices in a welcoming, supportive space
Release the stress of living and open space for the week to come
Exercise our bodies and minds through the practice of group singing
Build memory retention through oral tradition singing
Enjoy a fun, relaxed, and accepting environment
The Heartwood Trio Presents “The Well Tree” Musical
The Heartwood Trio Presents “The Well Tree” Musical
Date: Saturday, November 9
Time: 5:00 potluck (optional), 6:00-8:00 The Well Tree Performance
Location: Good Shepherd Church, 701 Iowa Avenue, Decorah, IA
Cost: Tiered pricing, please choose the level that is generous and affordable for you — Adults @ $15, $30 or $45, Kids 5-12 @ $5, Sponsor @ $100
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Join folk trio Heartwood for an all-ages, immersive, participatory journey through song and story. The Well Tree is a three-person musical, illustrated by a ‘crankie’ - an illuminated, papercut, hand-cranked scroll. It is an original 'singing story' about wild journeying and remembering kinship -- the tale of a young woman moving beyond the fog of isolation to meet songbirds, snails and ancient trees as she travels through these unraveling times, finding her way home. The three members of Heartwood – Heidi Wilson, Willy Clemetson, and Sarina Partridge – are the actors, musicians and the crew that runs the crankie (created by papercut artist Jen Jones) – and the audience will be invited in to help sing pieces of the story.
Heartwood Trio Participatory Concert
Heartwood Trio Participatory Concert
Date: Friday, November 8th
Time: 6:30-8:30 pm
Location: Fireside Room at First Lutheran Church, 604 W Broadway St, Decorah, IA 52101
Cost: Tiered pricing, please choose the level that is generous and affordable for you — Adults @ $15, $30 or $45, Kids 5-12 @ $5, Sponsor @ $100
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Join Willy Clemetson, Sarina Partirdge, and Heidi Wilson for a delightful evening of music! Much of what they share will invite audience participation, so expect to be woven into the creativity of the night.
Here’s a glimpse into the heart of their trio, in their own words: “The three of us met in 2019 while touring and teaching with the group Northern Harmony, singing traditional harmony music from around the world. As a trio we explore the music flowing through us now — growing out of the woods, the water, the rock, and the trees. We come together in wild places to collaborate with the landscape, creating music for performance and community singing.”
Listen to their album, Heartwood, or visit their website to learn more!
Micaceous Clay Pottery
Micaceous Clay Pottery
created and hosted by Sohpie Rog & Ida Rotto through Red Oak Outdoor School
For Adults and Teens 16+
With Sophie Rog
Two weekends in November:
November 2nd from 10 - 5
November 3rd from 10 - afternoon*
November 9th from 10 - 5
November 10th from 10 - 1
Come explore the ancient art of handbuilding pottery, engage with the earth and yourself in a new way, and make your own clay pot that can be used for cooking on your stovetop or in your oven. This is a special opportunity to connect with the body of the earth through your own hands and heart.
In this class we will learn the traditional coil and scrape method of hand building pots. We will use micaceous clay from New Mexico and build in the Jicarilla Apache style, in the lineage of master potter Felipe Ortega. The techniques we will use are transferable to other clay bodies, and we may get to play with some regional clays as well! We will also learn about making blessings for the clay and our hands before we begin, about the Jicarilla Apache and Pueblo people who traditionally make these pots, and about techniques and recipes for cooking in clay.
People have been making clay vessels for thousands of years, and before metal pots became widely available, people the world over cooked in clay pots. However, cooking in clay is easy and in some places people still do it every day. Food cooked in clay is special and delicious–the clay helps maintain moisture, helps it cook evenly, and imparts an indescribable unctuousness! Clay pots are especially good for slow cooked dishes, stews, beans and grains. It is said that beans and coffee cooked in clay are less acidic due to the alkalizing properties of the minerals in the clay.
Students can expect to go home with one medium sized serving bowl and one small to medium cooking pot. There may be the chance to make more items for a small additional materials fee.
*our end times each day will depend on how far along our projects are. On the 3rd and the 9th, it is possible some students may finish earlier or later.
Register Here!
Tuition Guide: Because we want to make sure that everybody who wants to can join, we are using a 3-tiered payment system. For each program there are a certain number of spaces in each tier (see registration forms.): (1) Supporting Community: This tier is for those who might have the resources to stretch a little farther in order to support others who would not otherwise be able to join. (2) Covering Costs: this tier is the basic cost of running the program. (3) Supported by Community: This tier is intended to allow participants to join who would not otherwise be able to.
