Category: News & Articles

ASWM Conference May 5-6, Syracuse NY

2023 ASWM Schedule

Registration Links and Conference information here

10:45-12:15 Friday May 5 (schedule subject to change)

Panel 1: Mother Waters: Stories of Sacred Well Springs and Land

• Kay Retzlaff, “Straddling Liminal Space and Time: Ireland’s Goddesses Survive”
• Judith Maeryam Wouk, “Women and Wells in the Hebrew Bible: Husbands, Sisters, and Community”
• Maria Guadalupe Urbina, “The Sacred Feminine in the Waters of Abya Yala”

PRESENTERS

Kay Retzlaff, professor of English, University of Maine at Augusta, has published two books on mythology: Ireland: Its Myths and Legends and Women of Mythology. Her most recent work, Duet, is a book of poetry, in collaboration with Maine artist Susan Camp. She published Redefining Irishness in a Coastal Maine City, 1770-1870: Bridget’s Belfast (Routledge) in 2022.

Judith Maeryam Wouk is a retired Canadian public servant who worked in human rights and refugee policy and now indulges in her passion for research and writing about goddesses and lesser-known women of the Bible.  She has presented about these subjects at Cactus Kallah, Palm Tree Kallah, JFS 50+ and the Ottawa School of Theology and Spirituality, as well as for several years at ASWM.  In this article, she is thrilled to be moving from PowerPoint to publication.  Her other passions are the Kohenet Jewish Priestess program, frame drumming, traveling, women and peace, walkable neighbourhoods and green burial.  She lives in Ottawa, Canada.

Guadalupe Urbina is a singer and composer, a researcher of the oral tradition of her region but has ventured into painting, children’s stories and poetry. She has published four books in Costa Rica and Spain; has recorded ten albums and appears on collections from various labels such as Putumayo Records, Rough Guides Music, and Culture Records. Guadalupe has performed on various stages in the three Americas, Europe and Central Africa.

ASWM Conference May 5-6, Syracuse NY

2023 ASWM Schedule

Registration Links and Conference information here

SASPERELLA, aka Saskia Baumgart, is a singer (classical, jazz/pop, holistic) based in Berlin. She performs solo concerts and with her band MAGIC of SOUND, and in interdisciplinary events with a variety of dancers, visual artists, and authors. She is a sound & music therapist specializing in voice anthropology, trauma dynamics, ethno-medicine, acoustic trance, and alternative sound healing. Saskia is a performer in the Female Art of Crossing Cultures, a cross-cultural project with a concert series of seven women focused on giving voice to the rights and lives of women.

Presentation: The Voice Of The Siren – About Female Vocal Power & Fear 

As a singer and music therapist from Berlin, doing artistic & healing work with singing and music, I have a lot of experience with women’s concerns around using their voices. Due to my work as a singer, vocal coach and music therapist, i know there is a worldwide issue with the female voice. A huge shadow–the traumatic heritage of women living in patriarchy– is present around the globe. Seeing the way women learn to suppress their vocal expression out of fear has led me to research the myth of the sirens, to discover the mystical power of their voices as well as the fear and demonization of exactly the same power throughout history. My research led me to understand the politcal background and roots of that deomonization.  And my personal experiences and stays with indigenious cultures around the world has deepened my understanding and perspective on freeing the power of this global trust, a woman’s voice. My 2022 article “The Voice of the Siren” addresses this topic: “The author takes an unbiased look at the myth of sirens, their vocal power and their unknown realm between heaven and earth, where we can experience flow and inspiration. It is a wisdom that has been almost lost in the wake of patriarchy and the domination of nature. Through song and music, healing can occur, and with the sirens we can enter into the oceanic feeling of being alive.“ (Tattva Viveka, German magazine on science, philosophy and spiritual culture).

My presentation will feature vocal performance and audience participation.

ASWM Conference May 5-6, Syracuse NY

Registration Links and Conference information here

2023 ASWM Schedule

Ethereal Reservoirs: Ceremonies of Body and Spirit

with Sarah Chandler and Bonnie Schwartz

Breathing in ocean breezes, plunging into a freshwater river, dancing in the rain. The power of water to cleanse and renew is too often reserved for unique vacations and summer trips. How can we access, physically and spiritually, the true power of water as a sacred source, on a daily basis? As we move through springtime and notice the trees bloom with flowers and green, we may miss out on the life force of water all around us. While the industrial world has reduced water to a commodity, we explore ways to reinstate water to its true value. The flow of water through earth, air, sky, our bodies, and the diversity of organisms around us, is essential to life as we know it, and yet this sacred element often goes unnoticed. Combining functional movement with Jewish and secular mystical teachings, this session will give you access to ethereal reservoirs of fluid ceremonies of body and spirit. Participants will leave this workshop with practical tools for developing a unique daily water ritual.

Sarah Chandler aka Kohenet (Hebrew Priestess) Shamirah teaches, writes and consults on a national level on issues related to Judaism, earth-based spiritual practice, the environment, mindfulness, and farming. Sarah is the founder and lead trainer of “Soft as a Rock: Public Speaking for Sensitive Souls.”

Bonnie Schwartz has been involved with USA Swimming for over 30 years as both a highly accomplished swimmer and a widely sought-after coach. As the founder and CEO of Schwartz Consulting Services, Bonnie supports entrepreneurs, artists, and spiritual leaders on their financial fitness.

Lily~Rakia Chandler (Katsi’tsianoron Konienka Okwari)- Lily-Rakia Chandler’s life’s work has been navigating the many ways oppression affects people and Our Mother the Earth. As a student and mentor of the SOPHIA wisdom school she studies and helps clients with herbal consults and shamanic clearings. Rakia often leads as a Ceremonial drummer and organizes plant medicine classes making herbal medicine accessible by teaching at a local farm that serves low income folks.

ASWM Conference May 5-6, Syracuse NY

2023 ASWM Schedule

Registration Links and Conference information here

Shelley Graff is a longtime feminist singer, songwriter, guitarist, and Singing In Sacred Circle facilitator who has been sharing her songs since 1989. She believes her sacred journey is guiding her to share the ancient tradition of Singing In Sacred Circle to as many women as possible. Shelley travels around the country performing and sharing that experience at women’s retreats, festivals, conferences, marches, churches and private homes. Her albums were inspired by and are a tribute to the healing/sounding work of the late Kay Gardner.

WORKSHOP: Honoring Our Family Her-Stories & Songs! Tillie and Louise: Old Maid Aunts or Suffragists?

Explore four generations of strong women activists while viewing two original music videos that illustrate the generational threads connecting one family’s stories. The common threads between aunts, mother, daughter and niece weave a story of similar passions and inspiring values clearly reflected in the images of women challenging stereotypical roles prescribed across the generations. Participants will be encouraged to analyze and discuss the values passed from generation to generation that created a family of strong activists and artists who worked for women’s rights and social justice throughout the 20th and into the 21st Century.

The hope is that the workshop participants consider diving deeply into the personal her-stories about the women in their families to find the patterns and power of their ancestors. Who knows…like me, the workshop participants might discover that the two women frequently referred to as the “Old Maid Aunts” in my family were so much more! In fact, Tillie and Louise were actually influential businesswomen in Cincinnati and dedicated suffragists who, like their suffragist sisters in Seneca Falls, helped pave the way so that their niece, great nieces and great, great nieces could finally be treated as citizens and exercise their right to vote!