JoAnne Spies and special guests 

in concert Sunday, July 31st 

at Bascom Lodge 

atop Mt. Greylock                     

Come to the incantation workshop at 2:00 and discover your own brand of magic.   contact: spiesarts@gmail.com

I'll be weaving in songs and poems from 'Me & Melville' and words from  Berkshire literary luminaries who have visited this majestic peak, along with original songs.                     

              5:30 - 7:00pm

Allow at least a half hour drive from Rt. 7 in Lanesborough to the top, and consider staying for dinner at the Lodge at 7:00. Reservations strongly suggested.

http://www.bascomlodge.net/

Many thanks to the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire and the Massachusetts Cultural Council for keeping the arts alive in our communities.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency."

For more info: www.massculturalcouncil.org

Monday, June 27th - Air
It was a warm, sunny morning with not much of a breeze.
Poems went inward to breath, lungs and depth of breathing.
Noticing number of breaths for inhale and exhale.

someone wrote:
leaves on tree beside me
shimmer and move
 my lungs smile

                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are an infinite array of fire mandalas, and infinite ways
 to create your own mandala representing the fire element in your life.

Join me tomorrow outside the Stockbridge Library, June 20th
the first day of summer,  to create your mandala.

I'll provide the paper and colors. Bring your favorite pen and a notebook or paper.

Twelve thousand years of tears are standing in my throat
A hundred million fears are woven in my coat
Illusion and memory are all the same
Can you tell me, what is my name?
Beyond the mountains I move along
My voice is hidden, then my voice is strong
After so much silence and separation
Will you praise my beauty, my reparation?

Where is the watershed?

from "Where is the Watershed?" by JoAnne Spies 
listen ~>: "Where is the Watershed?"


local~>:Housatonic River Initiative

Quick Bioregional Quiz
1.Where is the place that urbanites, suburbanites, and rural residents inhabit together?
2.Where is the place to learn and practice sustainable ways that satisfy basic human needs?
3.Where is the place nearest at hand to restore & maintain ecosystems & wildlife?
4.Where is the place to re-localize & decentralize political, social and economic features?
5.Where is the place to remanufacture products from recycled material?
6.Where is the place for students to learn about ecology?
7.Where is the place to begin both reducing climate change & planning suitable adaptations?
Answer: The watershed in the bioregion where you live.
See planetdrum.org

"Once in our lives we ought to concentrate our minds upon the Remembered Earth. We ought to give ourselves up to a particular landscape in our experience, to look at it from as many angles as we can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. We ought to imagine that we touch it with our hands at every season and listen to the sounds that are made upon it. We ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. We ought to recollect the glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk." 

    -- N. Scott Momaday (from the movie Remembered Earth)

How intimately I knew the ants' hillocks of soft grey earth and the feel of the sidewalk's

stubbly concrete where I grew up. I yearn to take the time to wonder about and dwell upon (live in) the elements around me today and 'all the colors of the dawn and dusk.'

We won't meet at dawn, but at 10 a.m. the next few Mondays to 'concentrate our minds on the Remembered Earth.'
Each session focuses on an element.
            Monday June 6  -  earth
                          June 13 - water
                          June 20 -  fire
                          June 27 -  air
                          July  11 -  ether

contact spiesarts@gmail.com to sign up

 a dancer warming up for dance, dream and doodle
wearing my Earthdance mask 

The first session of Dance, Dream and Doodle on June 6th moved outdoors into the sunshine.

Dancing, singing in harmony and writing  culminated in individual songs.

 Next week we meet at Stockbridge Bowl at 10:00 am to celebrate water using a similar format.

These  DDD sessions grew out of an exploration of mindful eating.

For every meal that I eat mindfully, 

I put $1 in a box that can be given to a food bank

at the end of the month. $3 a day would be close to $100.                                                                  Let's share and collect boxes.

The Stockbridge Library annual meeting hosted four representatives of the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe that was a fitting tribute to the first people who lived here.

The Procter Museum and Archives reopens June 25th, and will have a wonderful display of Stockbridge Indian artifacts and art.

Barbara Allen of Stockbridge Library's Museum and Archives
holds newly made gift from Stockbridge Indians

peace pipe gift from Stockbridge Indians


~>Native Languages and Mohican Culture

        

"Sounding Mohican Pathways,"  an educational and cultural exchange program that I created in collaboration with Tammis Coffin, former Education Director at the Mission House, received a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 2011.
I'm grateful to the MCC and the Stockbridge Cultural Council  for this program that helped build bridges between the Stockbridge community here in Massachusetts and the Stockbridge Mohican community in Wisconsin. In addition to a 'historical/musical' walk that I led to the Housatonic River and Indian burial ground in Stockbridge, there was  a  music program at the library that wove together stories, songs and history. 

There's a wealth of new books that the Stockbridge Indians gifted to the library museum with new stories and history to explore!