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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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