BOOM: Building on our Momentum Learning Conference

Screening and discussion of Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Project's film "Music of Strangers.” Introduction by Lan Wu, Assistant Professor of History. Co-sponsored by Adeline Muller, Music Department, and Annette McDermott, Amelia Ender, Elizaveta Lozovaya, Leslie Fraser, and Annmarie Clattenburg of Religious and Spiritual Life.
(Part 2 of this session - panel discussion, performance showcase and participatory dancing workshop - will take place on 3/27.)

Open-Mic: Bridges / Not Walls 

While we try cope with the January elections and the harmful rhetoric promoting 'the wall', the International Students Organizing Committee (ISOC) believes its essential to listen to individual voices.  ISOC has arranged an open mic for the public (international + domestic)  in collaboration with the Spanish, Latina O/X & Latin American Studies Department.

Come talk about 'Bridges/ not Walls' through poetry, songs or monologues, in the language you prefer (your mother tongues are strongly encouraged). The open mic is a prelude to the BOOM! conference at Mount Holyoke.

Please sign up with this google form if you are interested on performing, we will limit this form to 15 performers but we will have space for others if time permits:
https://docs.google.com/ forms/d/ 1lnkHcWrbmveu7E2lel9po4rwFs3kOmWSvuuT5LZ-XLk/edit

All performers will get one free item (under $5) at Thirsty!!

This event is sponsored by McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives.

Ecstatic Dance is a non-judgemental container for free form movement, inclusive of all ages and all levels of ability. A diverse soundscape of positive music and an intention is provided by the facilitator, and the music moves in a wave from quiet, rising, crescendo, denouement and stillness. The dancer is invited into a personal journey that may involve others if they choose, though the journey may remain solitary while in a space with other people. This practice can help in moving stuck emotions, and tends to be connecting and fun. 

The Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and the Department of Music continue their exploration of “Music and Dance as Agents of East-West Cultural Exchange."

Following Sunday's screening of the Silk Road Project film "The Music of Strangers," this session includes a panel discussion, student ensemble showcase, and open music + dance workshop led by guest artists from Circle World Arts (Boston), in which we celebrate MHC Music department ensembles and student orgs that represent the music and dance traditions of Central, South, and East Asia. 

With xenophobia and religious intolerance on the rise, immersive cross-cultural experiences in the performing arts are more important than ever in helping students at Mount Holyoke, and communities beyond our gates, to forge bonds across national, ethnic, and religious borders. As "The Music of Strangers" reminds us: "To change the world you have to make a little noise." Bring your voices and your dancing shoes! Participation in Sunday session is NOT required.

This is not your ordinary conference fare. This is relational somatics.

This workshop explores the intentional practice of reclaiming our relational, ecological body, which has been forgotten in a world defined by separation from the environment and between communities and cultures. We do this by remembering the basic principles of life itself: enduring interdependent organization, profound mutuality and rich diversity. These key adaptations ensure that every part of the ecology will have a wired-in connection to critical resources for recovery and coherence.

Workshop participants dive deeper into somatic movement exercises that support a collective experience of relationality. In the process, participants mimic the evolutionary journey of life, discovering that the capacities for vitality, sensitivity, mobility, emotionality, and vulnerability are much older than human beings, reaching far back in the Story of Life.

Participants re-energize their bodies in community, creating the needed support to confront trauma and systems of oppression and instead come together to shift culture.

Facilitated by Cedar Landman and Lucién Demaris, Collaborations Group.