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NAVARO'S NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER OF EVENTS

Dear Drummers, Dancers, Friends & Community,

It's been a long time since I wrote a letter to you, in my class listing. I wanted to not overwhelm you with information and more writing, so haven't been adding this lately, but noticed how I do enjoy receiving personal news from other such newsletters, and had a request from a friend, so.....Here is some sharing from my life - Windows into our city and what I have been up to in it.

I am loving being in Vancouver. This marks the beginning of my fourth year here in town. This community is so rich and diverse! I love the level of creativity, and how much people show up for art and spirit events here. Two of my favourite events this last month were Parade of Lost Souls on Commercial Drive, and the last Work Less Party in Japan Town - which I attended with my darling daughter who just turned 19! www.worklessparty.org This was Willow's first adults only event, and she chose to be there with her mom! How's that for pretty cool?! We danced for hours and hours. And enjoyed, among other things, a body painting contest, a band called the Furry Animals, great burlesque by Little Woo, music by an awesome DJ - best I've ever danced to! - DJ Timothy Wisdom.

At the Parade of Lost Souls, I loved dancing with the Carnival Band Dancers, who I recently joined. (A beautiful community of musicians and dancers), and playing Shekere with the band as they paraded. One creative household along our band parade route thru the neighbourhood had created a red fabric backdrop for a stage in their house's huge wall of windows. They danced in fun costumes as we passed, creating the impression of a sexy theatre stage in the middle of the residential neighbourhood of quaint old homes. We were accompanied by torch bearers and incredible stilt walkers in masks that added a mythical element to our parade. Fire and music and costume in the dark spoke to my subconscious and stirred ancient forces within me. Delight and wildness!

I also loved catching some of Little Woo's Shadow Puppet Show, www.littlewoo.org and hearing her silky voice crooning the delightful rhymed verse / voices of her characters. The crowd was tightly milled around her tent in Grandview Park as an archetypal drama played out in shadow and light. I looooved seeing all the costumed people. One of my favourite costumes: 2 Barbie women in boxes head to hip with windows to see them in, and on the boxes it said 'Mattel' & 'Barbie'. I loved hearing the faint strains of Sambata thru the crowds. Trying to find them was fun, too.....following the ghostly strains of music, yet never quite finding them.... The fire dancers in the tennis courts at the evening's grand finale was very different this year, as I was inside playing with the band. Last year pressing up against the fence surrounded by hundreds of costumed parade goers somehow made it even more magical!
If you haven't attended the Parade of Lost Souls, you must next year! I think of it as our own West Coast kind of creative craziness along the lines of Brazilian Carnival :-) (I just wish it went on all night like it does there!).

I just started training with Drum Cafe, www.drumcafe.com -headed by Munkie Ncapayi & his powerhouse wife, Sarah. I am blown away by the positive energy of their team (in the office and on the drums) and so impressed by the amazing Corporate show that they do. They bring drumming to the business world on an international level. There are so many niches of the world of the drum, here in Vancouver and all over the planet. I am very moved by the movement of the drum and all the tribal wisdom that it carries into our modern world. What Colonialism did its best to erase on a global level can never be held down or back! As father of the community drum scene in the West, Yoruba land's Babatunde Olatunji liked to say: 'One day there will be a drum in every household" (of N America). - A side note for drum fans: 'Babatunde' in Yoruba means 'the return of the Grandfather spirit. Like many other peoples connected to their ancient wisdom, African tribal people believe that the spirits of ancestors keep reincarnating down the family line. What better place to be!? - than with those you have loved over and over again, and who love you... What better place to bring forth knowledge held by the soul, than in the family lineage that understands and can best uphold it, continuing and strengthening it over and over again! For more info along these lines check out one of my favourite writings, currently: www.anastasia.com
In the book about Anastasia called The Book of Kin, there is fascinating and resonant info about lineage and the history of our planet.

Coming up for me that is exciting: My next Earth Prayers Ecstatic Dance Journey. (Nov 22). I am looking forward to the sacred-sweat and the moving-as-one-with-the-group..the exalted moments as we dance to live drumming (this time with a wonderful new musical connection (the very sensitive and dynamic percussionist, Robin Layne of Kocassale Dioubate's Jarimba). I am waiting to 'download' the themes for this November's Journey. Dancing to drums is my bliss. Dancing in an intentional group of people and having a mini experience of tribe in the ancient sense of the word, as well as the kind of 'Tribe' that we can be when we gather in this day, age, and gorgeous city of Vancouver, is something I await with pleasurable anticipation. I will send out an individual email soon with details. We will dance, raise our voices in song, and share deeply thru dance and community. Check my site for info on previous Earth Prayers (Posters in recent events & plenty of letters about it in my Testimonials Page Hope to see you on the dance floor!

May the fall find you enjoying the fruits of your year's learning and labour, and all the seeds that you have sown, as we approach the deep gestation and reflection of winter.

deep joy to you,
Navaro

"The ancestors are alive now in the land, alive in us.....We can hear their voices in the wind and water, in the soil and trees, in the voices of the animals....in our own bodies and spirits. When we resonate with the longer, deeper rhythms of Earth, we have access to All Knowledge, All Memory, all Knowing.

Gaia's (Earth's) body is strengthened by our physical joy, and by our awareness of her as a living, conscious being. Her strength is our strength. Her health is our children's legacy."

~ Navaro

CONTACT INFORMATION

Email : navaro@tribal-bliss.com
Address : Vancouver Canada

Cell: (778) 239-8444


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