Community Song

יִשְׂמְחוּ בְמַלְכוּתְךָ, שׁוֹמְרֵי שַׁבָּת וְקֽוֹרְאֵי עֹֽנֶג

Yismechu v’malchuscha shomrei shabbos v’korei oneg

They will delight in your all empowering sovereignty - those who tend and care for shabbos and call it a joyous celebration

Credits from Karov, released August 20, 2020:
Batya Levine - lead vocals
Anat Halevy Hochberg - vocals
Aly Halpert - vocals
Molly Bajgot - vocals
Micah Shapiro - vocals
Arielle Rivera Korman - violin
Joey Weisenberg - percussion & bass
Richie Barshay - percussion

Please check out and support Batya! She has a website here: www.batyalevine.com, a Bandcamp here: batyalevine.bandcamp.com/album/karov, a Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/batyalevine, and is on streaming services such as Spotify. Also, make sure to check out Rising Song Records and all of their amazing artists: https://risingsongrecords.bandcamp.com/.

This remix also features Chris Dickson on the bass and me on guitar.

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If you made it this far, you get to read a quick personal note:
 
I first came upon Batya's original Soundcloud recording (https://soundcloud.com/batyalevine/yismechu-batya-levine) after I had just quit my job and was walking my former colleague's dog for money. The magic of the melody struck me hard and I listened to it on repeat while Basil dragged me through the streets of Somerville. I was so stoked it made the album and made everyone at my sister's socially distant birthday party listen to it the day it came out. I must have heard the melody a thousand times working on the remix and the magic still holds.

It's been a tremendous joy to work with Batya and their melody on this remix. I'm not sure if music production is really my thing in the long run, but my stance remains strong regarding the creation of contemporary Jewish dance music: somebody's got to do it.

Batya Levine - Yismechu (Diva Nigun Remix) - Now on Spotify!

Ahava V'rachamim by Bon Singer 
Ahava V'rachamim Chesed V'shalom
Love and compassion, kindness and peace/wholeness

Recorded by IfNotNow Boston Summer 2016.

Ahavah V'Rahamim

Sweetheart

I've been given feet, not wings.
Is 'Up' the best direction for me to go? Is that the ladder to success that I'm really meant to climb?

Hmm...

Oh, the Beauty

They've Got Wings

"Everything flows on and on like this river, without pause day and night." -Confucius

Original melody/arrangement caught while standing beside the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon at night.

Finding Our Voice

Everything Flows On and On

Paul Barton (Toronto) brought this song with a humble yet powerful presence to the Village Fire 2018 gathering. He explained in the midst of teaching it that he was crafting the harmony parts on the spot. Suffice to say, the 100 or so of us around the fire with him were floored by the beauty of the song.  

This recording is from the Texas State Capitol rotunda, where about thirty of us gathered on the first Monday of the month (as we do - also on the last Monday of the month) lead by community song leader, Josh Blaine, to sing songs of connection and courage.

Song posted with permission of Paul Barton. To hear more of his music, check out: http://www.paulbartonmusic.com/community-songs.html

8.6.18 Rotunda Sing

I Am Me (Paul Barton) - Live in the Rotunda

Song/prayer/meditation to heal personal and societal grief. For ordinary grief, extraordinary grief, the unbearable kind and the unseen kind and the enduring kind, in service of exhales and letting go of what is ours and not ours, of compassion, lightness, & becoming who we are after and through it all.

Aly Halpert's Album

Loosen Loosen

Yismechu, words from Shabbat liturgy, melody by Batya Levine sung at Let My People Sing! 2018.

(Sung & transliterated in Ashkenazi pronunciation of Hebrew)
Yismechu b'malchuscha shoimrei shabbos v'korei oneg

Translation: They will rejoice in your Sovreignty/Interconnected-Reality, those who guard/honor/keep sacred shabbat and call it a true celebration.

LMPS 2018

Yismechu - Batya Levine - LMPS 2018

This song came through in pieces over the course of many weeks. As I was writing and uncovering it I experienced it as a song that was demanding itself be heard, despite the discomfort it often provoked for me. It is relentlessly fiery - an expression of love as a fierce "no" our boundary, as a mother protecting her young. As I was writing it felt clear to me that this voice is essential and called for in our world now. In a world where it is all too easy to lose sight of how our actions and lifestyle impact others and where we often lurch into excess and greed at the expense of others, this song offers a voice of fierce boundary that can be helpful in waking us up and restoring balance.As I've been teaching it to Wholehearted Chorus, I have been encouraging my singers to make it their own, so it is personally meaningful for them. For me much of this song has been a response to climate grief, and some parts a response to the "me too" movement, along with a deeply personal journey of feeling the spirit of fierce, feminine power within. I wish to express my gratitude to Patra Lounsbury for making the connection of this energy with Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of fierce power, and for Deva Munay and all who supported this song's birth and my integration of Sekhmet's archetype within it. I would also like to thank Ben Gould for writing the men's part, and Annie Anton for her contribution of one of the melodic lines.

Original song by Lisa G. Littlebird, with contributions by and appreciations to Ben Gould & Annie Anton. Recorded by Lisa G. Littlebird with Ben Gould.

For lyrics, individual part tracks and more, visit: http://thebirdsings.com/sekhmet/

Song of Sekhmet by Lisa G. Littlebird

On this episode Kadijah Means returns to Hella Black and discusses trauma and non violent communication. Tap in!

EP 49: Non-violent Communication at a Glance with Kadijah Means

how can I ...

be a little more soft today
feel a little more connected today
get a little more grounded today
be a little more free today 
___ a little more ____ today

A part of the melody inspired by and based on "Faith's Hymn" by Beautiful Chorus

How Can I

let it blow through
let it blow through 

open up the windows of your soul and let it blow through

hard times come and hard times go 

let it blow through

Let It Blow Through by Maggie Wheeler

to hear more community songs by ahlay, visit: https://www.alexandrablakely.com/songlibrary

The Neuroplasticity Song

Finding Our Voice is a project created and tended by Joshua Blaine (@joshuahblaine), a community song leader and organizer currently living on Narraganset land along the Atlantic Ocean. His songs are inspired by some of his favorite teachings and landscapes, from John O'Donohue to the Grand Canyon to mystical Jewish wisdom. Pre-COVID, he lead regularly community sings in the glorious domed rotunda of the Texas State Capitol in Austin, TX, where he lived for 8 years. Now, he continues to write and lead song in the virtual realm in service of collective liberation and systemic transformational justice and peace. You can support and follow his work more closely by becoming a patron at http://www.patreon.com/findingourvox and stay in the loop about his virtual song circles and other offerings on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/findingourvoiceproject/ or by joining his newsletter at http://findingourvoice.net

I Am Me (Paul Barton) - Live in the Rotunda

Finding Our Voice

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