Day 30 – 30 Days of Songtaneous
Here we are at the end of November and at the end of my current improvising project.
For each day in November, I sang/recorded at least one 3-minute improvisation. I allowed myself two takes of any idea and but I posted the selected song with no edits and shared compilations of the weeks here on this blog. (Watch week 1, week 2 and week 3.)
The songs from the final 9 days were varied and more than one the song I posted was the only song I created for the day. With three weeks practice, it seemed the music came more easily, or perhaps I simply trusted my instincts more. I still had to negotiate the camera (the first time I did this project, I only posted audio), but filming the videos added an artistic element and challenged me to interact with the surrounding space in ways I hadn’t in the previous 30 days project. In fact, the songs from last Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday and today were all created away from home.
Sunday’s song happened while visiting the “Say Their Names” art installation. The installation is near George Floyd Square in South Mpls and hosts representative headstones for numerous Black people killed by police throughout the United States. My singer friend Mankwe from the Give Get Sistet held space there weekly from July to October and I participated in many of those sessions (Music with the Ancestors).
I was (am) also considering the myth and erasure driving the Thanksgiving holiday and feeling challenged by celebrating a holiday and occasion that many of my Indigenous/Native friends finding galling and painful. In the spirit of mourning and remembering, I once again visited this “cemetery” in south Mpls. The sun was setting and the beautiful willow still held some leaves. I recorded a song to post and then lingered to speak the names. I finished as the sun was setting.
It was then that I realized that this particular 30-day singing project was part of a continuing search for how to create and develop my own rituals and ceremonies for healing. Sending you light and songs as you practice and/or locate your own.??
