Music Festival Workshops
Participate in our workshops! We have a range of workshops that cover a variety of topics including singing, spiritual healing, storytelling, etc. The workshops will occur on January 25th. Workshops are included in both the $20 (either Saturday or Sunday) and $35 (both days) passes.
Yiddish Labor songs, and songs of hope and struggle
Facilitator(s): Ami Goodman and Marvin Feldman
Time Slot(s): Saturday 3:00 – 4:45pm
Join members of the Jewish Folk Chorus of San Francisco as we explore Yiddish songs which, since the late 1800’s with the rise of socialism and labor rights, have been deeply concerned with the timeless themes of worker’s rights, women’s rights, the rights of all marginalized and oppressed groups, and all who continue to struggle to throw off the yoke of social economic injustice. We will sample a number of these timeless songs, explore their historical and political contexts, discover more about the composers, and even do some singing together! Absolutely NO musical abilities are necessary, and NO knowledge of Yiddish is required. Materials will be in English and will include English transliterations of the Yiddish. Many songs also have singable verses in English.
Yiddish is the 1000-year old Germanic-Hebrew language originating among the Jews of Eastern Europe and remarkably, is still very much alive and vibrant today, with new songs, poetry and literature being written, and universities offering Yiddish courses worldwide.
Raising My Voice For Liberation
Facilitator(s): Rashida
Time Slot(s): Saturday 10:15 – 11:45 am
Discover the power that lifts a voice and carries it across a room or a field with a presence that says “I have the floor and I will be heard now.” Focus, ground and shake off your nerves. Your greatness is required. Your heart knows the way. We will connect and move to music in a circle, gradually engage with each participant, and learn, practice speaking into a microphone, and deliver a few lines of a speech or poem of your choosing, written by you on the spot or one provided.
Writing Parodies
Facilitator(s): Hali Hammer
Time Slot(s): Saturday 1:00 – 2:45pm
Participants will learn skills to enable them to write their own parodies. We will start with an overview and examples of parody writing, and how to choose the right song to use in your parody. There will be time for people to work on a parody (either solo or with a group) and then share what they’ve come up with. Folks should leave with some new skills and ideas. Worksheets will be passed out for people to reference and use.
Immigrant Workers Speak!
Facilitator(s): Guilllermina Castellanos and Bill Shields
Time Slot(s): Sunday 3:00 – 4:45pm
*Speak! Move! Sing! For Immigrant Workers Rights!
The workshop teaches immigrant workers how to speak their truth to power. It is fun, participatory and powerful. Participants will do voice, singing, story-creation and storytelling exercises. We will also read through a story of front-line workers under COVID, and then create a short skit of resistance to Trumpism. Participants will receive scripts and training materials to use on their own after the festival. Join us and dive into the power of domestic workers on stage! The workshop will be conducted in Spanish and English.
*¡Hablar! ¡Mover! ¡Cantar! ¡Por los derechos de los trabajadores inmigrantes!
El taller enseña a los trabajadores inmigrantes cómo decir su verdad al poder. Es divertido, participativo y poderoso. Los participantes realizarán ejercicios de voz, canto, creación de cuentos y narración. También leeremos una historia de trabajadores de primera línea bajo COVID y luego crearemos una breve obra de teatro de resistencia al trumpismo. Los participantes recibirán guiones y materiales de capacitación para utilizarlos por su cuenta después del festival. ¡Únete a nosotros y sumérgete en el poder de las trabajadoras del hogar en el escenario! El taller se llevará a cabo en español e inglés.
Workers Voices - Storytelling for Justice
Facilitator(s): Bill Shields
Time Slot(s): Saturday 3:00 – 4:45 pm
This workshop will lead participants through the basics of crafting a powerful spoken word performance. Workers stories about their lack of jobs, their crappy jobs, their good jobs, their lives away from work, the steps they take to make their work more meaningful and, hopefully, more just – are essential to building working class power. Stealing a nap on the night shift, lingering over lunch, joking with co-workers, talking back to the boss, organizing a union, going out on strike and more. Funny, sad, struggling, and inspirational, workers voices lift our spirits. Are you a frontline worker or do you work at home post-COVID? Still working or retired? Want to write poems, plays, short stories or memoirs? – we’ve got room and resources for you. We are forming a new working class storytellers support group, and this workshop is one part of that process. Join us and let your voice ring out.
The Life and Times of Jim McWilliams
Facilitator(s): Andrea Turner
Time Slot(s): Saturday 3:00 – 4:45pm
This workshop will be both a showing and active process of a documentary to preserve a vital legacy for future generations. The documentary will cover Jim McWilliams’s story which encapsulates the struggles, triumphs and lessons of African Americans, offering a profound perspective on our shared humanity. Participants will be filmed during the workshop, including during singing circle songs from the civil rights movement and during discussion. You will be contributing to the preservation and promotion of invaluable knowledge that will enlighten and inspire generations to come.
Know Your Banking Rights
Time Slot(s): Saturday 3:00 – 4:45pm A Financial and Banking Capability Workshop, centered around building trust, sharing knowledge, and helping built the confidence to successfully practice banking. This includes open conversations and reflections around the social, racial, and economic injustices often still founds, as a result of redlining, gentrification, and even the financial services industry. We will have activities designed to unpack our habits and attitudes with money and what influences this. We will also cover an overview and the +/- of banks/credit unions, subprime, and cash – as a means of our day to day financial needs. Then continue with knowing our banking rights and protecting our assets. And will close out with practical next steps for our audience to proceed with and continue the successful practice of banking.
Planting Seeds for Economic Change.
Time Slot(s): Sunday 10:15 – 12pm Specifically for non-profit community based organizations. It will follow similar aspects of the Know Your Banking Rights, but it is centered around understanding the impact and needs from non-profits as it pertains to serving our people. This includes how banks/credit unions fit into this collaboration of resources. We will unpack the role and what a financial institution could consider as success to help promote a strong partnership. We will also go over what is lacking, what should be asked to encourage their participation into the non-profits work. We will evaluate the mission statement of several financial institutions to see if they are living up to this for the non-profits, and if they are in alignment. I will share resources and who to inquire with for this support within each financial institution: with the aim to develop a strong partnership with can include fiscal sponsorship and volunteerism. We will then introduce Self Help as one of their options and show impact in person as well as localized data on where the non-profits banking deposits are making a social and economic difference. We will close out sharing more on how the non-profits can join Self Help both as a member and to help plant Economic Seeds for Change.
La Peña Chorus Nueva Canción
Facilitator(s): Members of the Chorus including Jan Thyer, director
Time Slot(s): Sunday 3:00 – 4:45pm
The La Peña Community Chorus will share and teach two famous songs from Latin American Nueva Canción repertoire:
– El Arado by Chilean Victor Jara
– Canción con Todos popularized by Mercedes Sosa
Telling Your Story: Writing on Social Issues
Facilitator(s): Alice E. Rogoff
Time Slot(s): Saturday 10:15 – 12pm
In this workshop we will cover many types of writing including: poetry, short story, and play scenes to help one’s cause. We will go over exercises and give suggestions for different kinds of writing.
Immigrant Rights (in Spanish)
Time Slot(s): Saturday 10:15 – 12pm
Workers Rights (in Spanish)
Time Slot(s): Saturday 1:00 – 2:45pm
Russel City Reparations
Time Slot(s): Saturday 1:00 – 2:45pm
Rooms for themes of labor songs, women's songs and international music
Time Slot(s): Sunday 10:15 – 12:00pm,
Sunday 1:00 – 2:45pm,
Sunday 3:00 – 4:45pm
Music of the Word with Avotcja
Time Slot(s): Sunday 1:00 – 2:45pm
David Worm singing circle
Time Slot(s): Sunday 3:00 – 4:45pm