songspell for listening + giving.
video description: a songspell ripples and envelopes, cozy and warm, co-crafted and cast in care-filled crip community for dreaming our futures + embodying our dreams. we’re dreaming of listening + giving. soft blurs of mossy green translucent fabric portals overlaid over bright green and yellowgreen fabric portals (shaped into alexa dexa’s bed opera costume by Rebirth Garments) shimmer and slowly shift with the peach pink of alexa dexa’s body in motion. our libretto, co-crafted by all, floats to the top. sound descriptions by Hayley Ku’unani float to the bottom within brackets. all text is handwritten by alexa dexa, half-script scribbles and etches. sounds are shared by alexa dexa and their toychestra, our gorgeous crip community, and live electronic processing in maxmsp.
In my hands I have my dreaming our futures + embodying our dreams oracle//composition deck and each card shares a dream that we can have to sort of anchor us through ableist chaos — a little crip wisdom from the cosmos. And I am just shuffling these cards in my hands for some thoughts on a theme for us to dream on today and into the future.
And if whatever comes up is something that really resonates with you and you want to keep dreaming on it, That’s wonderful. And If it doesn’t resonate with you, that’s also totally fine. You are welcome to dream about anything that you like while we are here together and to share any dreams that are surfacing for you so there is no wrong way to do it.
Okay. so I’m just selecting a card. Okay. So this card is one of the super pastel ones. It’s a pastel pink to blue overlay scale so purples come up in the in‑betweens. And it’s got ‑‑ if you imagined a hand, the shape of a hand where maybe there were extra fingers and all of them were just sort of like little lumps, so shorter and not as long and they are sort of reaching — there are some from below that are reaching up and there are some from up that are reaching below. And their little squiggly shapes are glitched out into both larger color patterns that are overlaid as well as like the little crayon drawings of these little reaching and gathering somewhat reminiscent of hand shapes. and the card says listening and giving.
I really love that this has comes up for last of this year’s gatherings and rituals because it’s really something that we’ve been doing this whole time and so it really feels like it’s a neat wrapping together while also being something that we can continue to carry forward with us. This listening and giving moment, this listening to ourselves, listening to each other. Being open to listening to what messages are surfacing from the we don’t know where, maybe from the tunnels, from the landscapes, from the ether, from ancestors, from moon beams and star light, from sun shine rays and really having that connection to see what’s surfacing.
And then the giving, which is equally as important, which is giving ourselves and each other and everywhere that we can give the things that surface, whatever the message are saying. Hey. This is a thing to be paying attention to. Like we were talking about our access needs and being able to share them and having them be treated as sacred and so giving ourselves also these things, these needs, giving ourselves what we need as a sacred moment in time, as a sacred way of being with ourselves and being with each other and giving what we can to the needs of those that we’re with and to the atmospheres.
And so I’m just really happy that this has surfaced. And what I’m going to do is ‑‑ I will be reading this card musically when we are co‑casting our songspell together and right now I’m just looking ‑‑ there is a little spell poem that goes along with this card so I’m just looking in my guide book to find the corresponding spell poem for us that so that I can read it.
listening and giving
a portal for messages
we listen in, held and learning
with the power and the tools
to give to and of ourselves
And I’ll read it again. It says:
listening and giving
a portal for messages
we listen in, held and learning
with the power and the tools
to give to and of ourselves
Okay. So what I’m going to do here is write down listening and giving. If there are any prayers, spells, wishes, dreams, messages, that you’d like to add, and they can be about listening and giving or they can be about anything that you would like to carry forward with you into the future, any messages you want to remember and spells you want to activate, you can share them, you can unmute to speak or type into the chat and radio will read it aloud. And the things that we choose to share, I will write them down and it will become the libretto for our songspell which we will sound out together when we finish writing it.
listening + giving
my most beautiful
black shirt blew away
into a tree, out of reach
from anywhere.
the wild storms
didn’t bring her down
i look at her absorb the sun
stable and changing
i imagine her acquiring
the thinning and holes
of time. i want to grow
like the tree and like the
beautiful shirt.
our portal is zoom
we listen to our guide alexa dexa
we listen, read, dream
and give……attention
in exchange for enlightenment
dreaming of our
needs being met
a portal to the
kind of gentle
sacred stillness
that is a family of deer
stepping through a forest
sniffing sweetly
staring serenely
sensing the sound
behind the silence
i dream of a time
where trauma is a distant past
so that listening and receiving
no longer triggers memories
of being used as a receptacle
for abuse.
so that listening and receiving
means something different entirely
and it relies on trust
which is freely given and received
with no question or assumption
or suspicion that malicious intent
lies behind it.
sound waves are pastel horses.
i dream of riding a lilac horse
through changing weather
listening to the sounds of cities
from my moorland road.
i wish the people well.
i’m feeling the air
waiting for the path to appear
that will let me visit
one of the communities i hear.
hoping in my bones
that i’ll find home
for a while.
in my backyard at night
with my ritualistic joint
greeting the moon as i do
i reached for the long vine
hanging down by my side
and held the vine in my hand
gently to listen with the intention
of letting it know me
and getting to know it
through our touch
we transferred energy
and i felt it as wavy texture
like a sound wave
returning from the portal
of our touch
i let the vine
drop down gently
dreams and reality
where is the boundary . . .
listening to my desires
not being so afraid to let them show
being a little brave and a little bold
sharing myself and my love more freely
letting my intuition guide me
listening to the energy surrounding me
giving everything what i can when i can
remembering to give back to myself
receiving with grace
people should be nice to other people
when you coming on a train
just let them come
let them be on the train
as much as you do
home is the road
and the road is home
sound description by Hayley Ku’unani.
[gentle humming listens and gives]
[timely tapping of glasses rhythmically ripple]
[electronic keyboard bells sine and sigh melodic phrases]
[a collection of ethereal vocals build and beckon us in, to listen and to give]
[deep breaths, inhale and exhale, ebb and flow]
[purrrrrrrrs and bells reverberate in the songspell dreamsphere]
[harmonious humming and toning tickle between bells and purrs]
[angelic toning rises and envelops]
[a synthesis and fusion of mellow tones rise and fall]
[we listen for collective calls that freely give, abundant and hopeful]
[a cascade of tones and melodies current and circle soundings of serenity]
[revs of bells tinkle, telling tales to receive, to listen to believe]
[textural raspberries percuss plosive potential]
[supplement bottles shake us into sovereignty]
[guitar strings pluck and peruse]
[taps, knock knowingly, inviting us to pay attention]
[swishing sounds of water shimmer]
[guitar strings riff and run alongside the vocalisations of invitation]
[mewing meows entrain us]
[twinkling tones of electronic sounds elevate and shimmer into awakening]
[sounds summon the synchronicities blurring boundaries between realities and dreams]
[creative collective sound making facilitates reciprocity – listening, giving, listening]
[gentle keychains twinkle and spin stims of songspell rhythms]
[yummy yodels vibrate breathy belief]
[liminal ethereal vocals enchant in the background beneath rhythmic rumbles of vitamin bottles]
[recorders peak and pivot attention to listen and to give]
[tender taps and loving slaps]
[a cauldron of collective sound making simmers and ensues]
[melodica melodies sing and sway]
[recorders relay with the melodica, enchanting us alongside affirmations]
[pitter-patters pattern with the rising angelic vocals]
[mews and meows meander]
[knockings of knowing lead our ears to zips of listening]
[a soup of sound pools with the libretto]
[textural patterns amplify and divine]
[pretty programming invites loops of listening]
[baby bells shine]
[tunnels of tones travel and journey us towards our dreams]
[hymns of humms hover in the dreamscape]
[sighs of relief purr protection]
[fading soundframes suspend as we receive with grace]
[gentle toning and vocalisations contain capacity to listen and give to and of ourselves with sanctity]
group portrait <3
