Early 20th C. Goddess embroidery, central Ukraine. Photo: Ukrainian Museum.
We may focus on scholarship, but real life impacts all of our work, in all of our fields, reminding us that we must all stand together in the face of injustice and conflict.
Underscoring this intention, we have added a special performance to our April 9 concert. We are grateful to renowned musicologist Nadia Tarnawsky for sharing the voices of Ukranian women folksingers and offering a beautiful lament to be debuted at our concert.
Nadia Tarnawsky, photo by Darren Stahl
Nadia Tarnawsky has been studying Eastern European singing techniques for over three decades. She spent much of 2017 and 2018 in Ukraine as a recipient of a Fulbright award. She has taught Ukrainian village style singing in workshops for the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine, the Center for Traditional Music and Dance in New York city, Village Harmony in Vermont and Oregon, the Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble in San Francisco, and the Dunava Ensemble in Seattle among others. In 2011 she received a Traditional Arts Fellowship from Artist Trust and an Artist Support Residency from Jack Straw Productions. In 2002 she received a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship which allowed her to travel to Ukraine to collect folk songs and folklore. She sang under the tutelage of Yevgeny Yefremov with Ensemble Hilka of New York in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster in Ukraine. A recording of this repertoire was released on the Smithsonian Folkways label.
Nadia urges us all to support World Central Kitchen, which is organizing food relief for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. “Food relief is not just a meal that keeps hunger away. It’s a plate of hope. It tells you in your darkest hour that someone, somewhere, cares about you.” –Chef José Andrés
ASWM always makes space for visual and performing arts in our events. This year we feature five extraordinary performers whose work elaborates themes of tradition and mythic relationships with nature.
This concert is included with symposium registration but we also offer ticketsjust for the concert. (Ticket revenue is used to support Native American and Indigenous scholars and performers.)
Samara Jade
Samara Jade has been called a “modern folk troubadour, multi-instrumentalist songwriter, and a philosopholk mugician” A samara is a type of winged seed – such as those “helicopter seeds” from maple trees. Samara embodies her name by casting out healing spells through her songs, like thousands of whirling seeds on the breeze, ready to land where they are needed. A migratory songbird, Samara’s “home” has been a dance between southern Appalachia and Washington’s Olympic Peninsula for the last few years.
Pádraigín Ní UallachainPádraigín Ní Uallacháin‘s life’s work has been in researching and restoring the song tradition of her native place in southeast Ulster. Singing has been the main focus of her professional career, while restoring over 40 Oriel songs back to the corpus of the Irish language song tradition that are now sung again by singers throughout Ireland. Her recent compositions have been inspired by early spirituality and Irish nature poetry), by the goddess-saint Brigid and aspects of the female keening tradition.
Pádraigín’s“Song of Light” is based on an ancient Irish invocation.
Melanie DeMore
Melanie DeMore is a Grammy nominated singer/composer, choral conductor, music director and vocal activist who believes in the power of voices raised together. Uniting people through music and commentary, Melanie facilitates vocal and stick pounding workshops for professional choirs, community groups as well as directing numerous choral organizations in the Bay Area. She is a charter member of Kate Munger’s Threshold Choirs and conducts song circles with an emphasis on the voice as a vessel for healing. In her own words: “A song can hold you up when there seems to be no ground beneath you.”
Born and raised in the river valley of Agusan, Northeastern Mindanao, Southern Philippines, Grace Nono is an ethnomusicologist, performing artist, and cultural worker who very recently published her third book on Philippine shamans, voice, gender, and place: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501760099/babaylan-sing-back/. As a singer, Grace specializes in performing prayer chants from different parts of the Philippines taught to her by mostly elderly oral singers. In addition to her music performances and scholarship, Grace, 28 years ago, founded the Tao Foundation for Culture and Arts, a non-profit organization engaged in cultural regeneration initiatives.
Nadia Tarnawsky, photo by Darren Stahl
We have added a special performance to our April 9 concert. We are grateful to renowned musicologist .Nadia Tarnawsky for sharing the voices of Ukranian women folksingers and offering a beautiful lament to be debuted at our concert. Nadia has been studying Eastern European singing techniques for over three decades. She spent much of 2017 and 2018 in Ukraine as a recipient of a Fulbright award. She has taught Ukrainian village style singing in workshops for the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine, the Center for Traditional Music and Dance in New York city, Village Harmony in Vermont and Oregon, the Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble in San Francisco, and the Dunava Ensemble in Seattle among others.
Nadia urges us all to support World Central Kitchen, which is organizing food relief for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. “Food relief is not just a meal that keeps hunger away. It’s a plate of hope. It tells you in your darkest hour that someone, somewhere, cares about you.” –Chef José Andrés
Choose from between these panels on the event site. Remember–all recordings will be available for attendees for 1 year following the event, so you don’t have to worry about missing anything!
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Panel 3 “Other ways of knowing and relating: Animal-Plant-Divine”
Monica Mody: “When Yoginis Appear with Animals: Animistic Relational Elements and the Non-dual Matrix”
Monica Mody
Monica Mody is a writer, poet, and trans-disciplinary feminist scholar from India. Her doctoral dissertation, “Claiming Voice, Vitality, and Authority in Post-secular South Asian Borderlands,” was awarded ASWM’s 2020 Kore Award for best dissertation.
Emma Dymock
Emma Dymock: “The Living Cauldron: Transformative Landscapes in Celtic Mythology”
Emma Dymockteaches classes in Celtic Civilization and Literature at the University of Edinburgh. She has published books and articles on Celtic poetry, prose, and drama, and edited collections of poetry and academic essays in the field of Gaelic and Scottish studies.
Barbara Crescimanno
Barbara Crescimanno: “Siciliian Nymphs. Animal, Human, Divine Creatures”
Barbara Crescimanno is a singer, percussionist and dancer, and researcher of practices of the sacred feminine in Sicily. She is founder and coordinator of the anthropological and ethnocoreutical research group TrizziRiDonna with whom she conducted research on the female repertoire of traditional songs in Sicily.
Reagan Wytsalucy
Reagan Wytsalucy: “The Land Still Bears Fruit: Restoring the Navajo Peach through Strengthened Community Traditions”
Reagan Wytsalucy, who holds a Master’s Degree in Plant Science, is an Assistant Professor at Utah State University Extension. She is currently working with community gardens in the Four Corners region to re-establish ancient food sources for Native communities.
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Panel 4 “Restoring Right Relationships with Sentient Beings”
Brenda Peterson
Brenda Peterson: “Silkies in Myth and on the Beach”
Brenda Petersonis author of award-winning books including Wolf Nation and I Want To Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth. She is the co-founder of Seal Sitters, a citizen naturalist group that, as part of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, does conservation and field work to protect and educate about marine animals.
Melissa Rosati
Melissa Rosati:”The Horse: A Gallop through its Creation Myths and Agency as Visionary, Warrior, Savior, and Healer in Human Relationships”
Melissa Rosati, a horse enthusiast and former semi-professional barrel racer, is Creative Director at EcoCulture Productions LLC, in New York City. Previously, She served as editorial director of McGraw-Hill International. She has served on the boards of the International Women’s Writing Guild and The Women’s National Book Association.
Andrea Fleckinger
Andrea Fleckinger:“Frau Holle: In the Footsteps of the Great Goddess: Recalling Europe’s Indigenous Roots”
Andrea Fleckingeris a sociologist, social worker, lecturer on Modern Matriarchal Studies, and founder of the MatriForum, which aims to encourage constructive dialogue regarding egalitarian forms of society supported by findings from matriarchal research, sociology and political science.
Judy Grahn:“Insects in Our Everyday Lives”
Judy Grahn
Judy Grahn is an internationally known poet, writer, and cultural theorist, whose works include Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World, Another Mother Tongue, and Eruptions of Inanna: Justice, Gender and Erotic Power. She has written about interactions with insects and others in her latest book,Touching Creatures, Touching Spirit: Living in a Sentient World.
Choose from between these panels on the event site. Remember–all recordings will be available for attendees for 1 year following the event, so you don’t have to worry about missing anything!
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PANEL 1 “Celestial Cycles and Earthly Rhythms”
Ann Filemyr, PhD
Ann Filemyr: “Celestial Ecologies: Living within the Solar and Lunar Wheels as Rhythmic Cycles of Change”
Ann Filemyr is President of Southwestern College, a consciousness-based graduate school in Santa Fe, NM, where she serves as the Founder and Director of the new transdisciplinary, applied PhD in Visionary Practice & Regenerative Leadership. She has also served as Director of the Ecotherapy Certificate at SWC and a teacher of consciousness and visionary practice.
Annie Finch, photo by Kate Warren
Annie Finch: “Riding Meter’s Magic Language Home: How an Ancient Poetic Technology Can Help Reunite Us with the Earth, the Divine Feminine and Each Other”
Annie Finch’s books include Spells: New and Selected Poems, A Poet’s Craft, and Among the Goddesses (Sarasvati Award, ASWM). Her poems have appeared onstage at Carnegie Hall and in The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry. As Poetry Witch, Annie collaborates on multimedia performances. She offers community, classes, and rituals at PoetryWitch.org.
Marna Hauk, PhD
Marna Hauk: “Hygeia, Green and Shealing; Cultivating and Embodying Green Healing Energy with Asteroid, Dream and Myth”
Marna Hauk is Founding Faculty and Associate Director of the Doctoral Program in Visionary Practice and Regenerative Leadership at Southwestern College. She innovates learning circles and scholarship in regenerative futures, multispecies and ecological feminisms, arts-based methods, and climate justice.
Laura Shannon
Laura Shannon: “Basil, apple and rose: women, protection and plants in Greek folk songs”
Laura Shannon has been researching traditional women’s dances for 35 years, learning from village grandmothers in Greece and the Balkans. Founding Director of the Athena Institute for Women’s Dance and Culture, she is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Gloucester. In 2021, Carol P. Christ chose Laura to succeed her as Director of the Ariadne Institute for the Study of Myth and Ritual.
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PANEL 2“Listening to ~ and Speaking with ~ Animals and Other Sentient Beings”
Dr. Barbara Mann
Barbara Mann: “Thinking Yours Doesn’t Stink: Dis/Respect for Others”
Barbara Alice Mann is Professor of Humanities, University of Toledo, Ohio, USA. The latest of her fifteen books are President by Massacre: Indian-Killing for Political Gain (2019). She is currently working on a book about woman-and-bear traditions in the global north. Mann was for twenty-five years the Speaker and/or Northern Director of the Native American Alliance of Ohio.
Dr. Kaarina Kailo
Kaarina Kailo: “The Woman who Married the Bear and Original Instructions”
Kaarina Kailo has worked as prof. or senior scholar of Women’s Studies in Finland and Canada. Her expertise includes Northern indigenous studies, ecomythology and bear spirituality. Her publications include Wo/men & Bears— Nature, Culture, Gender; Finnish Goddess Mythology and the Golden Woman; Mothering, GIft and Revolution and studies on sauna spirituality.
Susan Moulton
Susan Moulton:”WILD vs DOMESTIC”
Susan Moulton was a university professor for 44 years at Sonoma State University and visiting professor at additional universities in the U.S. and abroad. She has published articles and lectured on art, including Palaeolithic Cave Art, and Animal Behavior. She manages a small farm with diverse plants, heritage trees, and domestic and wild animals, including rescued American mustangs and burros. She is currently working on a book on Learning from Animals.
Rebecca Vincent
Rebeca Vincent: “Why We Need Selkies”
Rebeca Vincent is a writer, editor, and environmental educator with a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies. Her writing centers on water, nature, myth, and the intersection between myth and the environment. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in various publications, anthologies, literary reviews, and blogs.
Plenary Panel: Engaging Interconnectedness: Lessons from Sentient Beings/Ecosystems
We are honored to present this panel of women whose work advances the essential conversations of an interrelated world, protecting and fostering the unique contributions of ecosystems, people, and other sentient beings to the dialogue of life on earth. This panel will be followed by an opportunity for panelists to respond to one another, as well as a Q & A with attendees.
Asoka Bandarage, PhD: “Paradigm Shift: From Domination to Partnership”
Dr. Cristina Eisenberg: “Honoring Reciprocity: Collaborating with Indigenous Peoples on Traditional Ecological Knowledge”
Denise Mitten, PhD:“Blurring boundaries and disturbing dichotomies”
Apela Colorado, PhD: “Manuakepa ~ Reawaken Our Power to Connect”
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“Paradigm Shift: From Domination to Partnership”
Dr. Asoka Bandarage
Asoka Bandarage, PhD, formerly Chair of the Women’s Studies Program at Mount Holyoke College, is currently Distinguished Adjunct Professor at the California Institute for Integral Studies. She has also taught at Yale University, Brandeis University, Macalester College, Georgetown University, and European Peace University. She is the author of Women, Population and Global Crisis and Sustainability and Well-Being: The Middle Path to Environment, Society and the Economy, and other publications. Asoka is a co-founder of the Committee on Women, Population and Health, and served as guest editor of Political Environments and Woman of Power. She conducts workshops on social change and works with the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate.
“Manuakepa ~ Reawaken Our Power to Connect”
Dr. Apela Colorado
Apela Colorado, PhD, of Oneida-Gaul ancestry, has dedicated her life’s work to bridging Western thought and indigenous worldviews. As a Ford Fellow, Dr. Colorado studied for her doctorate at both Harvard and Brandeis Universities and received her PhD from Brandeis in Social Policy in 1982. She founded the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network (WISN) in 1989 to foster the revitalization, growth, and worldwide exchange of traditional knowledge, develop an authentic interface with Western science, and safeguard the lives and work of the world’s endangered indigenous culture practitioners. In 1997, Dr. Colorado was one of twelve women chosen from 52 countries by the State of the World Forum to be honored for her role as a woman leader.
“Honoring Reciprocity: Collaborating with Indigenous Peoples on Traditional Ecological Knowledge”
Dr. Cristina Eisenberg
Dr. Cristina Eisenberg is graduate faculty at Oregon State University in the College of Forestry. An Indigenous woman scientist, she is the principal investigator on two major on-the-ground projects with First Nations (Alberta, Canada) and Native American (Montana, USA) communities to integrate Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into plant and wildlife conservation in Western North America. The former Chief Scientist at Earthwatch Institute, Cristina oversaw a global research program focusing on ecological restoration, social justice for Indigenous peoples, and sustainable production of natural resources. She serves on the board of Society for Ecological Restoration, where she chairs the TEK Working Group. She has written two books about conservation and keystone predators and is at work on two more under contract, one about climate change and wildlife and another about bison conservation.
“Blurring boundaries and disturbing dichotomies”
Dr. Denise Mitten
Denise Mitten, PhD, is professor of the graduate program of Sustainability Education and Adventure Education at Prescott College, Her work is informed by an interdisciplinary background that includes parent education, forest ecology, outdoor leadership, complementary and alternative therapies, and health and wellness. She studies the intersection of health and wellness while being in nature including spirituality, a sense of place, and the effect of outdoor activity participation on body image. Internationally recognized for her innovative scholarship in outdoor and environmental pedagogy, gender, and compassionate leadership, Denise has developed award-winning outdoor leadership programs for women, women felons, nuns in recovery, and socially and economically disadvantaged women and children.
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