BIPOC Community Sing presents: Aaron Johnson

An affinity song circle in Portland, Oregon presented by Sing People Sing! specifically for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)

THE VENUE:

This event is taking place in the Center for ReENGAGEMENT at Sabin CDC, an affordable housing community that works toward social equity by stabilizing & improving the livability of culturally-diverse Portland neighborhoods, with a special focus on African American households, by encouraging community partnerships for local economic development, and by offering youth & senior programs.

We are so grateful for the generosity of Sabin CDC in offering us this space for our event. 

Please use street parking to respect the use of parking specifically designated for residents in the area.

The door entrance to the Community Space is accessible from the sidewalk on Alberta St. and is ADA accessible. 

EVENT DETAILS:

6:30-7pm arrival, we will sing from 7-9pm

This is a no-alcohol event

All ages welcome

$10-40 sliding scale

Pay what you can. No one turned away for lack of funds.

We request that you REGISTER ONLINE IN ADVANCE through Humanitix. We will absorb fees, so there are no hidden, added costs for you. This will just help us track attendance and better prepare. You are also WELCOME TO DROP-IN and pay at the event (cash, Venmo, or Paypal).

Your contribution offers reciprocity to the organizers, support staff, and song leaders of this offering as well as the living descendants of original caretakers of the land on which this event will take place.

Please be mindful that your reciprocity in whatever ways you can offer it allows this offering to sustain. We invite only folks who truly cannot afford to pay for this offering at this time to register with a "No one turned away ticket." And we are open to other forms of reciprocity such as help with set up and clean up, if that is something you can give. We are actively navigating the tricky terrain of being BIPOC community members ourselves trying to make this healing work accessible while also being able to replenish ourselves for the energy, skill, and care it takes to put this on. Thank you for being with us in this! 

DESCRIPTION:

We invite you to this singing gathering FOR BIPOC COMMUNITY to experience the power of song as medicine, as a tool for liberation, and to simply fill your well of joy and connection. We believe singing is a birthright and welcome all levels of experience. We teach songs on-the-spot, usually through call and echo, that are sourced from the modern community singing movement or have come through the song leaders themselves.

This offering is evolving in response to the emergent needs and alive energy of the community showing up to it. We often include moments of authentic sharing and community connection to inform, weave into, and deepen the experience of song.

We may sing some songs in Spanish! ¡Cantamos algunas canciones en español!

We may invite a space for song-sharing from the community.

We hope you will bring the wholeness of who you are to this embodied experience of singing with full permission to be in movement, grief, laughter and more.

We understand that this country has a legacy of taking cultural / musical gifts from BIPOC folks and using them inappropriately, out of context, or for profit. We will do our best to sing songs with permission, to acknowledge context wherever possible, or simply NOT sing certain songs if it feels at all harmful. We also understand that many of us have connections to community singing through religious contexts. This may still be meaningful or may be alienating. To create more inclusivity, we will avoid explicitly religious content. We do invite a spiritual space but do our best to sing from common ground.

WHO THIS SPACE IS FOR:

This singing event for BIPOC-ONLY. Mixed race folks are welcome. At this time, white-presenting folks are also welcome who understand the privilege that comes with being so. We will request that we share our ethnic backgrounds to the group to calm hyper vigilant nervous systems and also to hold the integrity of our container as a strictly-BIPOC space. If you are mostly white (here I will loosely define "mostly white" as 75% or more of white European descent) this may not be the space for you.

As part of registration, you will be required to answer a few questions. If you drop-in to the offering, we may ask you these questions in-person. If you have ALREADY answered these questions in the past, you DO NOT have to answer them again. Just put "already answered" or just simply put "--" in the response field.

If you are still unsure whether this space is for you, know that we welcome anyone who experiences dehumanization, discrimination, restricted access, the harm of implicit bias and micro-aggressions for their non-whiteness whether that be expressed in their familial upbringing, way of speaking, name, or physical features. We are doing our best to hold a sanctuary where those accustomed to code-switching and trauma-response strategies can rest, grieve, and feel safe expressing their joy.

If you are struggling with the pain of not knowing where you belong, I assure you, you belong to community singing. Please understand that this specific offering is to allow BIPOC community a chance for deeper resourcing where, in most other spaces, extra energy is spent tending to the stresses and disadvantages, the wear and tear on the soul, of navigating pre-dominantly white spaces and living inside of white supremacist culture, mentality, and institutions as a non-white person.

If this offering is not a fit, please consider attending one of Sing People Sing!'s all-inclusive events, currently happening ever other month. The next will be on April 16 at the Historic Alberta House.

***I reserve the right to adjust the language of and approach to this offering based on my evolving understanding of it, my needs as a leader, and the needs of the community I am intending to serve. It is still new and finding its settling place. So stay tuned and thank you for your grace.

REGARDING COVID-19:

If you are not feeling well, please stay home. You can request a refund for any Covid-related situations. Masking is not required for this event. We encourage you to mask and distance to your own comfort level and will hold a culture of respect for the choices everyone makes to take care of themselves.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & TITHING:

We acknowledge that the land upon which we will sing is the traditional territory of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, Grande Ronde and many more tribes.

A portion of donations will go to the Native American Youth and Family Center (nayapdx.org) to support our enduring indigenous community.

WHAT WILL BE PROVIDED:

Water and hot tea

Chairs

Restroom facilities

An outdoor area to get fresh air

WHAT TO BRING:

A water bottle or travel mug, if you can

A notebook, if you like to jot down inspiration or song information

Warm layers, if you want to get cozy

Your voice

Your open heart

Your whole truth

GUEST SONG LEADER:

Aaron Johnson (he/him) is an earth builder, teacher of closeness, and activist. He graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 2007 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He has made a lifelong commitment to use the skills he possesses to end racism. In addition to using intimacy and closeness to blackness as a primary means to that end, the tools he frequently uses are speaking, teaching, singing, photography, filmmaking, and minimalism. Aaron leads a mentoring program called Turn It Up Now that focuses on elevating the power, talent, love, and work ethic of youth. He believes that deep connection is one of the most powerful tools one can use in dismantling racism.

YOUR HOSTS:

Shireen Amini (non-binary using she/her) is a queer Puerto Rican-Iranian American, earth-loving song creator, rhythm maker, and community facilitator based on unceded Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and Grande Ronde territory, aka Portland, Oregon. As a human, she carries a deep commitment to her own liberation path and vision of a more just world. She blends pop, rock, hip hop, latin, and roots sensibilities with socially-conscious themes as a singer-songwriter and creates modern medicine music for community singing. As a community songleader, she holds transformational space, leading joyful, groove-based songs, evoking tenderness, and often engaging her participants in rhythm and ceremony. She also teaches drumming, hosts a Portland-based queer and poc-led song circle series called Sing People Sing!, and facilitates grief ritual as part of her community-based music empowerment project, Shireen Amini Music Medicine.

Darlissa Andrea (she/her) is a Puerto Rican, Cape Verdean, and Hawaiian singer-songwriter, community facilitator, life coach and lover of the people. She focuses on bringing folks together through self development, connection, community collaboration. Check out her website.