Our 2025 Facilitators will be announced in January 2025

Our 2024 facilitators were:

Alexandra “ahlay” Blakely

Ahlay is an Ashkenazi, Scandinavian singer-songwriter, grief tender, community organizer, and ceramicist walking the path of ancestral healing and the reclaiming of lost cultural memories. Her community singing album, Spells from the Unknown encapsulates songs for the community to transform, ask questions, and seek to lead lives that might make us ancestors worth honoring. Her upcoming 2024 community singing album,WAILS: Songs for Grief was recorded in July 2023 with a choir of 200 voices. The album is completely dedicated to grief, inspired by the Whales and Frances Weller’s “the five gates of grief.”

Amanda West

Amanda is an award-winning singer, songwriter, song-circle leader, music teacher and mother. She is co-founder of Womb Song, U.S., an organization that supports women into motherhood through music. She understands music to be a part of our human birthright, playing an essential role in our experience of being alive, and has found her life-path and greatest joy through sharing music with others.

Becky Reardon 

Becky Reardon’s voice is familiar to the millions of people who heard her sing on the Charlie Brown TV specials (Charles Schultz called her his favorite singer!). She performed in folk venues in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years before moving to New Mexico and making the shift to writing, performing, and teaching her own compositions. Now her songs and rounds are widely sung by community choruses, song circles, university choirs, and people out for a walk in the beautiful world. Becky is currently writing a musical about a women’s singing circle. 

Debbie Nargi-Brown

For over 3 decades, Debbie Nargi-Brown has been leading dancing and singing in Santa Cruz and beyond; teaching African-inspired dance classes, leading Community Sings as well as facilitating retreats and workshops. She writes songs for the heart, for healing, for transformation, for love, for grief and all those things that connects us as human beings. Bringing people together in dance and song is one of her greatest sources of joy!

Heather Houston

Born with a voice full of heart and soul, Central Coast Californian Heather Houston is passionate about uplifting spirits, freeing voices, and building strong, loving communities through the power of singing. Heather is a community choir directing virtuoso and vocal coach extraordinaire with over 20-years experience writing and producing music, leading song circles, and offering life transforming events at venues like Esalen and 1440 Multiversity. In these trying times, Heather continues to spread her magic through her multiple online offerings: The Art of Mindful Singing, Singing as Sanctuary, S.H.E. Sings, Sisters in Harmony Song and Chant Leader Training, and her Sisters in Harmony Global drop-in series with guest artists and song leaders. You can find her music on all of the streaming platforms.

Kaitie Ty Warren

Melanie DeMore

Singer-songwriter Melanie DeMore has a remarkable voice, weaving the fibers of African American folk music with soulful ballads, spirituals, and her own original music. DeMore beautifully brings her audience together through her music and commentary. She has toured extensively, singing at festivals, universities, coffee houses, and concert halls. Her recordings, “Share My Song” and “Come Follow Me,” are both heartfelt collections of her music.

What to Bring: 

• Ear plugs (If you’re a sensitive sleeper)
• Snacks (Especially for Sunday. We need to be off campus by noon, so no lunch will be provided that day, unless you’re also enrolled in the song leader training)
• Water bottle
• Travel mug 
• Flashlight / headlamp 
• Comfortable layers of clothing that you can move and breathe in
• Good walking shoes
• Hiking shoes if you’d like to hike on the property
• Shower / pool shoes
• Bathing suit
• Towel for pool (shower towels are provided)
• Sunglasses 
• Sun hat
• Warm hat
• Sunscreen
• Toiletries
• Journal
• An item for our collective altar — something that you want to charge up with the powerful energy of our time together and take home with you as a reminder.