SongTender
Monday Nights starting Mid September
Facilitated by Lauren Arrow
in San Rafael, CA
​8 Evenings - 2 Daylong Retreats
Optional Small Group Mentorship
Music Fundamentals Zoom Group "Resonance"​
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Monday 6:30-9pm:
September 16 , 23
October 7, 14, 21
November 4, 18
December 2​
Saturday Retreats from 11-5:
September 28
November 23
Singing in Solidarity: Harnessing the Power of Song Leading for Civil Disobedience and Justice with Kyle Lemle
Listening to the Room: Group Dynamics and Energy Sculpting with Te Martin
One Song: Exploring the Interconnectedness of Our Music and Why We Must Share It with Kele Nitoto
The Elixir of Dissonance: Discovering the Beauty of the Unexpected through Song with Kelly Atkins
Courses
Lift Every Voice: Disrupting Stories of Voice Trauma and Reclaiming our Communal Power with Aaron Johnson
Singing the Bones: Ancestral Cultural Recovery in Song + Integrous Song Sharing
with Lydia Violet
Tending to the Whole:
Deep listening, tuning and blending for bliss
with Heather Houston
Facilitated by Lauren Arrow:
Songfacilitating 101: Essential Skills for Becoming an Unshakeable Songtender
Casting the Circle: Creating Ritual for Musical Magick
Saying YES: Navigating Obstacles and Challenges While Keeping Your Cool
Lead With Love: Harnessing the Healing Power of Music by Embracing It All
Song Facilitators:
​Facilitating song is a skill, an art, and a talent. We have been absolutely blessed to have some of the best song facilitators to share their special version of magick with us.
What does it take to be a skillful song facilitator?
You may be a seasoned pro at facilitation, or an absolute beginner. You may want to make this part of your life path or really just want to feel comfortable teaching a song to a few friends around the fire.
Song Facilitation is an art and a skill, and we are so lucky to be in the midst of such prolific teachers dedicated to their craft. I’m all about teaching the classes I wish I could’ve taken back in the day and I wish I’d been exposed to these ideas sooner. It would’ve helped me hold a more integrous song space from the start.
I’ve been teaching and facilitating song for over a decade, and my absolute favorite thing is helping people feel confident in their ability to share song. Because here’s the thing—singing isn’t just for those with the most beautiful voices or ridiculous talent. It’s a core part of creating community, and it’s something that has been intentionally stripped away from us. But there’s a song renaissance happening right now and more and more people are craving and creating song circles. We’ve got an incredible lineup of teachers here that I’m beyond honored to have with us.
You are invited to dive deep with these masterclasses so you can in turn take song to your community. So, let’s dive in and bring the joy of singing back where it belongs—with everyone.
How to hold song in an INTEGROUS way
Being a white woman and joining predominantly white singing circles, I've experienced (and been part of creating) spaces that lack cultural integrity. At Breitenbush, a hot springs retreat center in Northern Oregon, a very charismatic and talented song leader invited us to dance in a circle "Indian-style" while singing indigenous sounding vocables. A lot of song circles were born out of spiritual circles, where "no one sees color" and all are equal. In a perfect world that would be ideal but we don't live in a perfect world. I used to share sacred songs that weren't in my lineage without permission and believed that because I was sharing them with the intention of healing meant that it was ok.
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Learning about cultural integrity is a key component in what I see lacking in song circles. Asking permission, offering reciprocity, and truly asking yourself "is this for me to share"? can be a powerful lens in creating singing circles that feel safe for all to participate in.
Lydia Violet
Co-founder of Singing the Bones
Singing the Bones: Ancestral Cultural Recovery in Song + Integrous Song Sharing
Singing the Bones is an exploration of diasporic healing through learning about our own cultural inheritance through music, song, and cultural study. This work not only empowers our own cultural literacy and ancestral reconnection, it also offers a framework for carrying song with a compass of cultural integrity.
Lydia Violet is an Iranian-Armenian-American folk multi-instrumentalist, revolution-bringer, culture-tender, grief-worker, and mischief-maker. With her live band, she weaves together her songwriting, folk standards, Iranian ballads, 3-part harmonies, fiddle, banjo, and collective singing into an altar of music to lay at our feet. She is the creator behind Singing the Bones, a course with Leah Song of Rising Appalachia, and a music project that brings American artists together to explore and share folk music from their ancestries, encouraging cultural revitalization and diasporic healing. She has engaged in vibrant collaborations with world-renowned artists Climbing PoeTree, Rising Appalachia, MaMuse, and Lyla June.
Kyle Lemle
Co-Founder of the Wildchoir & Thrive Street Choir
Singing in Solidarity: Harnessing the Power of Song Leading for Civil Disobedience and Justice
Kyle is a co-founder of the Wildchoir & Thrive Street Choir, through which he is blessed to write & perform his original soul-stirring music for justice & healing. Kyle is also a forester and climate organizer, having worked around the world on community forestry and climate justice organizing (kylelemle.com). Kyle is also the co-founder of Lead to Life, a collective of artists transforming guns into shovels, hosting transformative public rituals and planting trees at sites impacted by violence (leadtolife.org). IG: @lemle
Kelly Atkins
Deputy Director of Kitka
The Elixir of Dissonance: Discovering the Beauty of the Unexpected through Song
Kelly Atkins is the Deputy Director of Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble, a treble-voiced professional vocal arts ensemble inspired by traditional songs and vocal techniques from Eastern Europe and Eurasia. For more than two decades, she has also composed, performed, recorded and toured in a remarkable variety of other genres, including Indierock, Triphop, Freakpop, Folk, Experimental, New Music, Alt-Country and beyond. Kelly takes great joy in helping others find their voice by providing vocal coaching services for all ages, directing the weekly Marin Kitka Community Choir, and leading the advanced vocal clinic ensemble “Echoes of the Grove”.
Kele Nitoto
Founder of Oakland Hand Drums
One Song: Exploring the Interconnectedness of Our Music and Why We Must Share It
Pulling from the cultures of the African diaspora to weave a tapestry of music and spirit, Kele Nitoto uses traditional drumming and singing as well as storytelling and hip hop, to explore the meaning of music in our lives; the connections between modern and traditional musics, as well as its connections with the wider, and inner worlds.
Heather Houston
Founder of Sisters in Harmony
Tending to the Whole:
​Deep listening, tuning and blending for bliss
Beloved community choir director and vocal empowerment coach Heather Houston is dedicated to uplifting hearts, freeing voices, and building loving communities through singing. With over 30 years of experience, she offers transformative singing experiences at renowned locations like Sivananda Bahamas, Soulshine Bali, The Esalen Institute, and more and has curated large Sisters in Harmony Retreats.
During the pandemic, Heather united global singing communities via Zoom for healing and prayer, and she continues to offer online courses in mindful singing and song leadership. Her globally sung songs focus on themes of nature, healing, prayer, unity, and inspiration. Look for her new album, Shadows & Light, arriving in Fall 2024.
Te Martin
Listening to the Room: Group Dynamics and Energy Sculpting
Te is a song-keeper and ritual artist. They were born on Ramaytush Ohlone land in San Francisco and have been shaped by Ocean, Redwoods, circus arts, and theater games. They facilitate oral tradition singing classes and workshops that focus on song as a tool for collective liberation, somatic regulation, and ancestral connection. Te served as co-organizer of Thrive Street Choir in the San Francisco bay area for six years, is a student of Gaelic song, and released their first professional music video and EP of original songs, “Water & Bones“, in 2021.
Aaron Johnson
Founder of Holistic Resistance
Lift Every Voice: Disrupting Stories of Voice Trauma and Reclaiming our Communal Power
Song Leading welcomes both singers and non-singers. We invite you to bring your hearts and join in the ritual of creating a vocal nest. This is a space for your voice, mind, and body to be sonically renewed.
Many of us have experienced pain around our voices and are seeking healing. These circles offer a place to receive emotional nourishment by challenging the belief that we cannot sing together. We believe that music, tears, and laughter are deeply intertwined and essential to the human voice. Through singing, creating sound, and practicing deep listening together, we reach out to one another.
If you've been told you can't sing, this space is especially for you. White supremacy has invested in the belief that we cannot sing, especially in community. Let’s disrupt these stories of voice trauma and reclaim our communal power.
Lauren Arrow
Founder of ProcessSING!
Courses:​
Songfacilitating 101: Essential Skills for Becoming an Unshakeable Songtender
Lead With Love: Harnessing the Healing Power of Music by Embracing It All
Saying YES: Navigating Obstacles and Challenges While Keeping Your Cool
Casting the Circle: Creating Ritual for Musical Magick
Lauren Arrow creates and teaches the classes she wishes she could’ve taken herself. With over a decade of experience in teaching and facilitating song, Lauren is passionate about learning alongside her students and believes that these classes are just as much for her own growth as they are for others. She wishes she had been exposed to these ideas earlier, as they would have helped her hold a more integrous song space from the start.
Lauren Arrow (she/her) is a queer Jewitch song-tender and facilitator in the Bay Area. After overcoming a debilitating fear around singing and sharing her voice, her life’s mission has centered around holding trauma-informed singing circles for the past 10 years, helping folks reclaim their voice and embrace their creativity through her organization, ProcessSING. She facilitates intimate singing retreats, huge song festivals, and everything in between and loves nothing more than to sing with big groups of folks so come warmed up and ready to dive in!
Ila Cantor
Co-founder of Sonora Guitar
RESONANCE : an 8-week Zoom series
exploring music fundamentals, theory, rhythm, scale, composition, ear training, improvisation + technique to meet you exactly where you are in your creative journey and elevate your musicality.
Part of the way we can be in integrity as song tenders is to cultivate a reverence toward music itself. Whether we are trained musicians or healers and community makers just beginning a musical journey, having an active relationship with the language of music and your own practice is essential in providing a rich musical experience to deliver your message. This series will give you clarity about what music actually is, how you can relate to it with reverence at any level for your individual goals, and how to deepen your own musical understanding, technique, and expression.
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Ila Cantor is a musician, composer, educator. Her career began as a teen on jazz guitar in NYC and has led her through touring in big name jazz venues (Smalls, 55Bar, Smoke NYC; Bimhaus, Amsterdam; Jamboree, Barcelona; SF Jazz, Stanford CA), studying and playing with masters (John Scofield, John Abercrombie, Steve Cardenas, Reid Anderson, Aaron Parks) and releasing several albums under her own name. She later moved into other genres ranging from modern classical and singer/songwriter to meditative, and has always loved teaching both privately and in workshop settings. Ila has a special fascination for the energy of inspiration and how musicians can cultivate a relationship with their music practice that is unique and fulfilling. While her style has been extremely technical, she has learned that information is only useful when bringing one closer to their truest musical expression. Ila loves to discuss the use of musical information as a tool for deeper musical connection, and to help people discern what they need for their individual goals.
Carrie Staller
Guest drummer facilitator
Carrie Staller is thrilled to be supporting Songtender through rhythm. Carrie has been drumming for more than 25 years and has guested with renowned artists such as Joan Baez, MaMuse, The String Cheese Incident, Ayla Nereo, and members of The California Honeydrops. She plays with local favorites such as Lauren Arrow's Big Effin Sing and Octopretzel. She is passionate about traditional West African ensemble music and is grateful to all of her teachers.
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When Carrie isn't drumming, she organizes foraging classes with Fork In The Path.
Tuition
We offer these classes at a tiered rate with a range of $600 to $3,000 with scholarship and work trade at the low end of the scale and private mentorship at the high end. We are committed to making this work as inclusive as possible, giving scholarship priority to BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Disabled, Low income, and those who are not often represented in these spaces.
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Please fill out the form below to connect with Lauren about the different opportunities this group provides.
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We have a max capacity of 30 people in this group so please fill out the form below if you're ready!
