Hi folks,
Although there are still only 6 of us on this list, I wanted to give you a heads up that I'm ready to see what we can do to beef up the Song listings in the CDSS Events Calendar and Map. Emily, I know you've counter-posted a recommendation to hold off as CDSS is looking into upgrade options for the backend of the calendar and map to improve data entry and search. Heard and understood, so I'll back off of Facebook and look to get better aligned with this group and with the CDSS team that's looking into the platform upgrade.
A national song events registry is The One Big Thing I care most about as a song session organizer, and I'm ready and able to volunteer substantive time in the next few months as I am between jobs and awaiting knee replacement in June. Since I've been under the weather the last few months with shoulder surgery and the loss of both parents, I'm re-engaging and realizing that I still owe you a bio that will give you some background for my interest in this project. I'll post that as a separate thread.
Emily, can you advise us on two points? Thanks.
1) Who is the committee looking into the platform upgrade for the events calendar/map, and how can we engage with them as community champions?
2) What can we do NOW, to capture interest and engage our fellow organizers, while aligning with the long-term goals of improving data entry and search on the events platform?
Foolish question, but . . . is the "None" in your e-mail address a first
name or last name or other . . . ? Just curious. Thanks. Ridge
(abbreviated middle name/nickname)
On Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 12:19 PM None via Song Organizers <
songorganizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> Hi folks, I'm late to the party with my List Champion bio, but hope you
> may find this useful in matching me up with volunteer opportunities and
> like-minded peers under the CDSS umbrella.
>
> Musically, I am a session organizer, performer, and touring artist both
> solo as Crosscurrents Music and with The Old Howard Troupe and the
> Gloucester Hornpipe and Clog Society, formerly with the Lingua Franca
> multilingual a cappella quartet. I'm a founder of Greater Boston
> Traditional Song organizers' group, the Boston Area Chantey and Maritime
> Sing (BACAMS), the Somerville (was Skellig) Pub Sings, the Northeast
> Chanteysings regional calendar and events map, the AFTer Hours Adult
> Folktale Telling series, and a member of the Folksong Society of Greater
> Boston. CDSS was kind enough to designate me a Local Hero for your
> centennial, which was a great honor.
>
> I'm best known as a chantey singer from Mystic Sea Music Festival,
> Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, Old Songs Festival, Vermont and New
> Hampshire Humanities Council touring artist, and international festivals in
> the UK and the Netherlands. The larger a cappella community might not know
> that I also play treble and bass mountain dulcimer, guitar, percussion, and
> string bass, and am working on the concertina. I’m one of those
> thousand-song repertoire singers (yes, I counted) with ballads, pub songs,
> music hall, sacred harp, Celtic, colonial and early music, multilingual
> folksong, and genuinely obscure stuff. I have scholarly interests in
> folksong of Atlantic and French Canada, music of the Viking Age, and the
> work of women folksong collectors. As a living history professional, I
> offer a musical history series, A Woman's Way, of Voyageurs, Vikings,
> Pirates, and other traditional women's roles.
>
> On the dance side, I'm a retired morris dancer and a lifelong contra,
> English Country, international, and Scottish dancer. I've been a member of
> CDSS and NEFFA since high school, when I helped found the Newton North High
> School Folk Dance Club. danced with the MIT and served as a Youth Volunteer
> at NEFFA in the 1970s. I'm an alumna of Ha'Penny and Muddy River Morris,
> Red Herring Morris, Oak Apple Morris, Bells of the North, and That Long
> Tall Sword, and the founder/Squire of the Paper Bag Mummers. We all hope my
> third joint replacement in ten years will get me back on the dance floor
> this fall, but in the meantime, song and music are a big part of my life.
>
> Professionally, I am a certified digital business strategist and career IT
> professional as an enterprise architect, certified user experience
> designer, data management consultant, director of collaboration and content
> management, and visual information designer. I have hands-on enterprise
> design and admin experience with SalesForce, Microsoft, Google, and most
> major digital platforms, particularly with CRM portals like the new CDSS
> platform. My Master of Science is in human-environment geography and I have
> worked professionally as a cartographer and infographic designer, hence my
> interest in the events calendar and map. I’m giving conference
> presentations this month on Aligning Digital Strategy with Data Management
> and Design Thinking for Data Management, both of which I think might be
> germane to the CDSS platform team. I am an independent consultant and small
> business owner of Digital Heritage Consulting, LLC, which is an umbrella
> over my heritage arts, traditional music, visual design, and digital data
> management consulting work.
>
> My passions as a volunteer are for mentoring young women/female-identified
> song leaders and for building a rich national registry and map of
> traditional song events. I offer a womens’ workshop with Cate Clifford on
> #TheFutureOfFolk, which I’d love to expand under CDSS. I hope to take a
> more active role as a curator and platform consultant for the events
> calendar and map, as well as championing Shared Weight for Song Organizers
> on this list and on social media. Thanks for this community leadership
> opportunity with CDSS.
> _______________________________________________
> Song Organizers mailing list -- songorganizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> To unsubscribe send an email to
> songorganizers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
>
--
Ridge Kennedy [Exit 145]
When you stumble, make it part of the dance. - Anonymous
And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least
once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at
least one laugh. - Friedrich Nietzsche
Hi folks, I'm late to the party with my List Champion bio, but hope you may find this useful in matching me up with volunteer opportunities and like-minded peers under the CDSS umbrella.
Musically, I am a session organizer, performer, and touring artist both solo as Crosscurrents Music and with The Old Howard Troupe and the Gloucester Hornpipe and Clog Society, formerly with the Lingua Franca multilingual a cappella quartet. I'm a founder of Greater Boston Traditional Song organizers' group, the Boston Area Chantey and Maritime Sing (BACAMS), the Somerville (was Skellig) Pub Sings, the Northeast Chanteysings regional calendar and events map, the AFTer Hours Adult Folktale Telling series, and a member of the Folksong Society of Greater Boston. CDSS was kind enough to designate me a Local Hero for your centennial, which was a great honor.
I'm best known as a chantey singer from Mystic Sea Music Festival, Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, Old Songs Festival, Vermont and New Hampshire Humanities Council touring artist, and international festivals in the UK and the Netherlands. The larger a cappella community might not know that I also play treble and bass mountain dulcimer, guitar, percussion, and string bass, and am working on the concertina. I’m one of those thousand-song repertoire singers (yes, I counted) with ballads, pub songs, music hall, sacred harp, Celtic, colonial and early music, multilingual folksong, and genuinely obscure stuff. I have scholarly interests in folksong of Atlantic and French Canada, music of the Viking Age, and the work of women folksong collectors. As a living history professional, I offer a musical history series, A Woman's Way, of Voyageurs, Vikings, Pirates, and other traditional women's roles.
On the dance side, I'm a retired morris dancer and a lifelong contra, English Country, international, and Scottish dancer. I've been a member of CDSS and NEFFA since high school, when I helped found the Newton North High School Folk Dance Club. danced with the MIT and served as a Youth Volunteer at NEFFA in the 1970s. I'm an alumna of Ha'Penny and Muddy River Morris, Red Herring Morris, Oak Apple Morris, Bells of the North, and That Long Tall Sword, and the founder/Squire of the Paper Bag Mummers. We all hope my third joint replacement in ten years will get me back on the dance floor this fall, but in the meantime, song and music are a big part of my life.
Professionally, I am a certified digital business strategist and career IT professional as an enterprise architect, certified user experience designer, data management consultant, director of collaboration and content management, and visual information designer. I have hands-on enterprise design and admin experience with SalesForce, Microsoft, Google, and most major digital platforms, particularly with CRM portals like the new CDSS platform. My Master of Science is in human-environment geography and I have worked professionally as a cartographer and infographic designer, hence my interest in the events calendar and map. I’m giving conference presentations this month on Aligning Digital Strategy with Data Management and Design Thinking for Data Management, both of which I think might be germane to the CDSS platform team. I am an independent consultant and small business owner of Digital Heritage Consulting, LLC, which is an umbrella over my heritage arts, traditional music, visual design, and digital data management consulting work.
My passions as a volunteer are for mentoring young women/female-identified song leaders and for building a rich national registry and map of traditional song events. I offer a womens’ workshop with Cate Clifford on #TheFutureOfFolk, which I’d love to expand under CDSS. I hope to take a more active role as a curator and platform consultant for the events calendar and map, as well as championing Shared Weight for Song Organizers on this list and on social media. Thanks for this community leadership opportunity with CDSS.
What type of session(s) or event(s) do you organize?
Where do you gather and when?
What sorts of people does your group attract?
How did your sing get started?
How long have you been singing together?
What are your group's norms - do you sing from books, or by memory, or
anything goes?
Do you have any particular customs, rules, or traditions that shape the
personality and experience of your sing(s)?
Is there anything that you think makes your sing unique?
Tell us anything and everything!
Ridge, this is certainly a welcome topic for discussion. Anything at all
relating to song sessions from the perspective of an organizer is welcome
here.
Can you be more specific about what types of songs you're looking for? Our
sing runs entirely on chorus songs by memory only, so I know quite a few,
but I wonder if you have something specific in mind. I'd also love to hear
what you've got to suggest.
And welcome, Jeremy!
Amanda Witman
Brattleboro, Vermont
On Sat, Feb 22, 2020 at 4:20 PM Suzanne Mrozak via Song Organizers <
songorganizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> Thanks for the info on Matt Watroba, Jeremy. I’m going to check out that
> album with the Reverend Robert Jones. I just had the pleasure of hearing
> him last week and he did a great job of getting the audience singing!
>
> Cheers,
> Suzanne Mrozak
> _______________________________________________
> Song Organizers mailing list -- songorganizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> To unsubscribe send an email to
> songorganizers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
>
Thanks for the info on Matt Watroba, Jeremy. I’m going to check out that album with the Reverend Robert Jones. I just had the pleasure of hearing him last week and he did a great job of getting the audience singing!
Cheers,
Suzanne Mrozak
Hi Ridge,
I hope the answer to your first question is an enthusiastic yes! I'm always looking for that same category of songs and would love to see the titles of the songs you've encountered recently. I can also think about my own short list so I can share it. Earlier this month, I got Matt Watroba's new CD of silly Si Kahn songs, which has a bunch of simple chorus songs that I'm planning to try out when song leading (see https://www.mattwatroba.net/).
Since this is my first post, here's my quick intro: I grew up in the DC area attending my parents' and their friends' frequent singalongs. Starting in the late 1990s, I joined Peter Blood and Annie Patterson's volunteer team selecting songs for Rise Again. I now live in Claremont, California, outside LA. I too do a modest amount amount of song leading, in addition to a greater amount of time doing contra and community dance calling. My standing songleading commitment is during the summer, when I spend time in Woods Hole, Mass. and am in my tenth year leading a weekly community folksinging series that's run continuously each summer since the late 1950s and thus has a nice multigenerational group of attendees, some of whom have been coming for 60 years.
Jeremy, in Claremont CA
Matt Watroba<https://www.mattwatroba.net/>
Home page of Matt Watroba. Matt Watroba is first and foremost a community singer. He has the knack for picking the perfect songs and stories for the audience in front of him. In concert, at a festival, in a library, in a school, or in the park, you c
www.mattwatroba.net
________________________________
From: Ridge Kennedy via Song Organizers <songorganizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2020 2:32 PM
To: songorganizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net <songorganizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Cc: Ridge Kennedy <ridgek(a)gmail.com>
Subject: [SongOrganizers] Chorus Song Repertoire
Dear All,
Two questions, I guess.
You don't talk a lot about repertoire in the list vision, etc. I do a modest amount of song leading. I am always looking for new, interesting songs that have good chorus singing opportunities, but without word books and song sheets, etc. Songs you don't find in Rise Up Singing, either. I can share the titles of a few I've encountered recently that fit the criteria.
Is that a topic within your boundaries for discussion?
If above is answered affirmatively, I would continue: Got any good ones to suggest?
Thanks,
Ridge (in New Joisey)
_______________________________________________
Song Organizers mailing list -- songorganizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to songorganizers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Dear All,
Two questions, I guess.
You don't talk a lot about repertoire in the list vision, etc. I do a modest amount of song leading. I am always looking for new, interesting songs that have good chorus singing opportunities, but without word books and song sheets, etc. Songs you don't find in Rise Up Singing, either. I can share the titles of a few I've encountered recently that fit the criteria.
Is that a topic within your boundaries for discussion?
If above is answered affirmatively, I would continue: Got any good ones to suggest?
Thanks,
Ridge (in New Joisey)
There are still spots to sign up for remote participation in this event to raise awareness of women folklorists! Please consider joining this community event to honor the women who saved the songs we sing.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/american-folklife-centers-wikipedia-edit-a-tho…
If you need some ideas, Chris Setari, Lynn Feingold and I are doing a workshop on this topic at NEFFA in April. Here is the work in progress website we’re preparing, which I hope will someday be a resource on the CDSS portal.
https://sites.google.com/view/womensongcatchers
____________________________
Lynn E. Noel
Digital Heritage Consulting
978-985-2707
lynnoel(a)lynnoel.com
www.lynnoel.com
