||| FROM JEFFRY STEELE |||

I have assembled an experimental mix of music, poetry, and expressive movement that seeks to promote compassion, solidarity, and the healing power of music—that of J. S. Bach in particular. I am blessed by the participation of talented members of our community (see flyer) in what I hope will be a series of evolving collaborations. An underlying motivation is to create communal grieving spaces where all the personal and external losses experienced by each of us can find expression. Here I offer a quote from The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller:

What has become clear to me is the powerful role grief plays in enabling us to face what is taking place in our lives, our communities, our ecologies, families, and culture. Through our ability to acknowledge the layers of loss, we can truly discover our capacity to respond, to protect, and to restore what has been damaged. Grief registers the sorrows that befall everything that matters deeply to our souls. Our hearts are kept flexible, fluid, and open to the world through this closeness with loss. [p 10]

The printed program will offer a page of quotes by him, accompanied by a suggested application of the Chaconne (from Bach’s second violin partita) as a grieving ritual. The program includes light-hearted moments as well, I should add.

 

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