Singing à la Nightingales

Mohawk Valley Meeting and Liseli Haines’s house
April 17–19, 2009

Nightingales is a Northern Yearly Meeting a cappella singing group that Mary Jacobs and Christopher Sammond have enjoyed, and want to share with Friends here. Getting together and singing as the Nightingales do it is about singing from the heart. It is not about being a great singer. It is about being in a community singing with love. If you were told by your kindergarten teacher to “just mouth the words,” because “you can’t sing”—you can sing. If you can talk, you can sing. We sing from Rise Up Singing and Worship in Song, but we often bring songs or rounds we have encountered to teach each other. We go around in a circle, and every person present, even the very youngest, gets to name a song they want sung, and if the person wants, they set the pitch for it too. There are also times when we break into song without books and without structure, our hearts leading us from one song to another, one genre to another, sacred, silly, schmaltzy, rounds, hymns, show tunes—we wander into some amazing bayous of song.

These weekends are also about fellowship and food. We all bring food to share, and have potluck meals that we take turns organizing and cleaning up after. And we tell about our lives. We do that in words, and in the songs we initiate, for there is little more revealing than the song in your heart. Sometimes we sing our way into the truth of who we are, and receive that from the singing.

Those that can camp, do so, or sleep in sleeping bags on the floor. Those that need a bed, due to age or physical need, get the few that are available. We charge a small fee for breakfast staples, but otherwise we do everything ourselves, so the cost is negligible. If this sounds like fun to you, please come, and bring those you love with you.

Shuttle service from Utica Amtrak station is a possibility. Children are most welcome, though those not wanting to participate in the singing are the responsibility of their parents.

Suggested fee: $10

For more information: Contact Christopher Sammond, c1sammond [at] aol.com, or Mary Jacobs, mjacobs61 [at] mac.com.

Registration: Contact NYYM office at 212-673-5750, office [at] nyym.org. We need to know how many to plan for, who needs a bed, and what food you plan to share.