Community Sing with ahlay blakely
What if singing is for all of us? What if singing is one of our oldest ways of building connection and community, especially in the darkest of times?
Join song leader and grief activist ahlay blakely at Evergreen this Monday for a community song circle that will bring us closer together through the power of our shared voices. ahlay holds a welcoming, soulful, and inclusive circle–if you’ve never sung in community, this event is for you.
Community Sing with ahlay blakely / Summer Wails Tour
When: Monday May 12, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. (please arrive on time!)
Doors at 5 p.m.
Where: Purce Hall 1
Tickets:
Evergreen students free / All others pay what you can / No one turned away for lack of funds
Ticket link (please reserve your spot!)
Hosted by Evergreen Community Song Circle
About ahlay
ahlay blakely (of Scandinavian, Ashkenazi, and British Isles ancestry, living on Coast Salish Lands) carries a repertoire of collective, participatory songs taught in the oral tradition. In this process, ahlay sings a line, and the group responds, echoing it back until the song lives in our bodies and we can sing it together, over and over. These songs are simple, often brief—designed for connection, for ease, for being in it together. More often than not, it’s an a cappella experience, touched by drumming and, occasionally, other instruments.
For many of us, singing is tied to religious or spiritual spaces—places we’ve been pushed out of, or run from, or lost. Some of us are living through or have lived through changes in our voices, unsure of spaces where we can reconnect with our singing voices as they evolve. Many of us carry shame around our voices, burdened by a culture that tells us only a select few, like Ariana Grande, are “allowed” to truly sing. But what if singing was never meant to be reserved for the chosen few? What if it was always meant to be ours?
