MEN SINGING WITH MEN

🗣️💕ATTN : ALL YE *MEN, FRIENDS, ACQUAINTANCES & NEIGHBORS ✨✨

FEELING LONELY? HEAVY? DISCONNECTED? NUMB? TENDER? SONG CURIOUS?

We've got songs for that.

Maybe you're a man and you're new to singing with other men. That's ok. A lot of men are.

Please join fellow Bellingham neighbor and resident 'no holds bard' Brian 'Yam' O'Dwyer and his associates for an evening of coming together with other open-hearted and song curious men to connect, practice and remember how to sing and make beauty together.

...perhaps something like our original indigenous ancestors did, but also probably a lot different, too.

Through time-tested ancient practices like singing, moving, screaming, shouting, storytelling, poetry and sharing courageously from our hearts, we will co-create a malleable and adaptive creative container that invites us to drop-in, slow down, connect to ourselves and our fellow mammals and remember what it feels - and sounds like - to be whole human beings together for a little while.

NO PRIOR EXPERIENCE SINGING W/ MEN NECESSARY TO ATTEND * * * *

ALL MUSICALITY LEVELS WELCOMED & CELEBRATED * * * * *

🍀🌈✨

AND DID YOU KNOW? MEN SINGING WITH OTHER MEN HELPS WITH:

• STUCK FEELINGS

• UNNECESSARY MALE CONDITIONING

• THE BLUES

• OVERSTIMULATED NERVOUS SYSTEMS

• INHERITED GENERATIONAL TRAUMA

• DEPRESSION

• ANXIETY

• LONELINESS

• NUMBNESS

• MENTAL & EMOTIONAL HEALTH

• THOUGHT-ROT

• HEART-FOG

• SOUL-AMNESIA

• AND MORE!

* 'MEN' in this context = 🌈 people, dudes & bodies of all ages and stages who have been socialized as a boy or man in some way in their life - as well as any body or person looking to tap in w/ the masculine, low-end, playful and joyously rhythmic aspects of themselves in a collective, supportive and well held way. This includes every flavor of fem, queer, trans, non-binary folk and more. This also includes all ancestries, lineages, heritages, cosmologies, races, religions, belief systems and beyond. For the highest personal & collective benefit.

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WHAT IT IS:

People who identify as men circling up and singing, feeling, expressing, going wild and coming alive together. For the benefit of our families, friends, loved ones and all who have come before us and will continue after us.

WHY IT'S HAPPENING:

Because men singing and expressing beauty and aliveness together - and all that it opens up and makes space for - is something that in my own personal experience has shown itself to profoundly helpful, healthfull, medicinal, fun and needed between and within men in the world today.

WHEN & WHERE IT'S HAPPENING:

• Saturday 10/10 6:00 - 9:00 p.m (Doors are at 6. Circle will begin promptly at 6:15)

• Location: Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship (3rd Floor)

• Sliding scale donations are welcomed in the form of a purchased ticket or showing up the night of the event and offering a donation at the door.

*All donations go directly to BUF for renting the space and to me (Brian Yam Dwyer) for facilitating the container as a self-employed music instructor and single dad.

**If you don't have the resource to make the suggested financial contribution but you'd still like to attend, please pay what you can (or not at all) and know that you are welcome, wanted and appreciated to attend.

"Making music together is a fundamental way humans uplift and heal ourselves and one another." - Shamsi Cummings

Friends & men of all ages, stages and flavors, would you please join me for a night of singing and creativity that we might remember forever?

We'll do it in a judgement-free, non-performative and embodied way, while encouraging one another to try new things out with our minds, hearts, bodies and voices. They'll be space for checking in, sharing from our hearts, and being seen and witnessed in any and all of our particular explorations and expressions of what it means to be a man who likes to sing with other men in the world today.

🗣️💕

ABOUT ME:

I've been living in Bellingham and singing with men in one form or another for the past ten years.

More than anything else I identify as a walking tree. My favorite pastime is becoming music with my surroundings.

My ancestral name is Brian Vincenzo O'Dwyer but a lot of people in Bellingham know me as 'Yam' and other playful variations of that name (such as Yambaby, Yammy boy, Yamwise, Yamdalf and so on).

My human ancestors were from Ireland, Poland and Italy and beyond. I was born in Syracuse, New York in 1984. I became an artist, musician & professional-pizza-partier in Philadelphia, PA from 2005-2016 until moving to Belongingham, WA in the winter of 2016 to pursue life as a young father and tree-worshiper.

Currently I identify as a human, man and glad dad of a 12 year old young adult named Ceader, and I long to live in a world where more vibrancy, tenderness, creativity, wildness and beauty is demonstrated and personified between men.

I'm calling this circle together because I long for more of it in the world and in my life. It's one of the best ways I know to support my mental, emotional and spiritual health, and one of the most effective remedies I know to help with depression, anxiety, loneliness and so many other ailments that seem to trouble and negatively impact so many of us as humans in the world today.

"EVERYBODY, OPEN YOUR MOUTHS AND SING!"

- Music Instructor & Mentor Banyan (Age 6) Salt Lake City, UT

SLIDING SCALE DONATIONS 💝

It is the honor and delight of lifetimes to offer my musical and spiritual gifts with my community. I offer sliding scale pricing in support of renting the space and resourcing myself to continue doing the work I'm here to do as a single parent and self-employed music instructor.

Please choose the tier that feels right for you. No one will be turned away for lack of cash.

Bless you and your sharing of resource with me, and a deep thank you in advance 🤲🕊️

• $1.08-$20 - Scholarship Tier - This tier might apply to you if you stress about meeting your basic needs, and don't always meet them. Some criteria to determine if this is you: you have no or limited expendable income; regularly qualify for government assistance programs; have apple health, unstable housing, are currently unemployed or have irregular access to a vehicle or enough food.

*True story? Bless you and thank you and your contribution.

• $20-40 - Sustaining Tier - This tier might apply to you if you sometimes stress about meeting basic needs but still regularly meet them. Some criteria to determine if this is describing you: you have limited financial savings; are employed part-time or are under-employed; own or lease a vehicle but are not always able to afford the associated costs; have to actively save in order to take a vacation or time off.

*Sound familiar? Bless you and thank you for your contribution.

• $40-60 - Supportive Tier - "I am able to meet all my basic needs". "I own a home or rent a high-end property". "I own or lease a car". "I am employed or self-employed." "I can take an annual vacation without much financial burden."

*Is this you? Bless you and thank you for your contribution.

• $60- $108 - Very Good Plus+ Tier - "I am comfortably able to meet all my basic needs". "I own a home or another property and have inherited wealth or property in my life." "I own a car." "I have regular access to healthcare." "I have investments and expendable income." "I am employed or don't need to work". "I can afford to travel for pleasure and take time off for rest & recreation."

*If this describes you, bless your heart and please consider offering something within this range.

I look so forward to singing and being in togetherness.

With a kind & wild heart,

Brian Yam Dwyer 🍀🌈✨