A Season of Grief

Plus Jess Klein's Big Table Episode 3: Shannon Downey AKA Badass Cross Stitch

NC Music Love Army Wants You to Vote!

Before I dig into anything else, today is the LAST DAY TO REGISTER TO VOTE HERE IN NORTH CAROLINA! Please enjoy this picture of the NC Music Love Army and register to vote if you have not yet!

So proud to be part of this amazing group of artists led by Dawn Landes, and including MC Taylor, Skylar Gudasz, Django Haskins, Laurelyn Dossett, James Davy, Brett Harris, Jasme Kelly, Charly Lowry, Caitlin Cary. We’ll be releasing a song on October 17th - the first day of early voting - to help get out the vote, so stay tuned!

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Episode 3 of Jess Klein’s Big Table is Out Now: Shannon Downey AKA Badass Cross Stitch on Pick One Thing!

Y’all, Shannon Downey aka Badass Cross Stitch is a firebrand. I learned so much from listening to her speak. Shannon is an artist, activist, craftivist, community builder, and general instigator. Her work moves people from passive consumers of art into engaged creators and leverages craft-based art forms to bring people together, present them opportunities to transition from makers to change makers, and inspire radical hope for what is possible. 

I LOVED this conversation - Shannon’s directness - her way of streamlining what we can each do in this crazy world (pick one thing and do it!) - right-sized the ills of the world for me. There’s a humility and a grandeur in knowing that really, you only have to do YOUR part for social justice, and trust that if each of us does, we will collectively thrive. It’s not actually all on your shoulders. Whew!

Also, go order her brilliant new book: Let’s Move the Needle: An Activism Handbook for Artists, Crafters, Creatives, and Makers.

November! Providence! Boston!

Join me Saturday 11/9 at Stone Soup Coffeehouse in Providence! Ben Shaw opens. GET TICKETS HERE.

Sunday November 10th I’ll be at House of Play Concerts in Boston with my pal, the brilliant Jenny Reynolds. Suggested donation is $30. It’s open to the public but you gotta RSVP to let them know you’re coming. Do so HERE.

The Grief Part

I’m off the road for a few months this fall so I can focus on writing for my new album…

Like the show-woman I am, I worded that to sound like staying home was a choice, a perfectly laid plan in the arc of my artistic development. 

But the truth is that I’ve had five shows canceled in the last six weeks due to severe weather or medical emergencies. So here I am, a wanderer stuck in place, trying to do my best with circumstances I didn’t choose.

When I checked in with my guides (by which I mean my spiritual guides and my ancestors), they told me to reframe how I think about this time. “Look at it as a period to learn, live, write, study whatever you need to in order to do the writing you need to do now.  And face your damn self”, they said.  My guides are very practical.

In traditional Chinese medicine, fall is the season of grief , and boy is this one ever.   I’m still at a loss for words around hurricane Helene and our beloved western North Carolina and as I write this, according to the forecasts, Milton is twisting into an angry red ball over the ocean. My mom just drove two days straight to get here from Florida with Bentley, her one eyed Shitzu in tow. We’re going to try to enjoy whatever this moment in time is and hope Milton isn’t as brutal as they’re predicting.  Send the water loving energy and ask it to disperse, my astrologer said. I’m doing that too. I did also find some lyrics around some of it and I’ve shared them below for what it’s worth.

The psychics, scientists and activists say it’s time to get comfortable being uncomfortable. The sudden pivots, the massive shifts - they’re not slowing down.  it’s time for all of us to learn how to work with new timelines and stop assuming things are eventually going to go back to the previous “normal“.

I thought I was good with sudden changes. Part of me thrives in chaos.   I tend to see possibility in change and disruption.

But I’ve been surprised by the waves of grief these last weeks - over the damage from the storm, the loss of an old sense of normalcy, questions about what the future will hold.  And the smaller bits - a friend I’d lost touch with died and I didn’t know she was sick.   Kris Kristofferson passing.   The incessant grey skies.  Unimaginable pain in so many corners of the world.  

Mostly I’m shocked by how much wants to pour through my tear ducts, or hang over me like a cartoon cloud darkening everything. Sometimes instead it’s a sudden need to nap.  My husband thinks it’s hilarious that I will regularly nap in my car in a supermarket parking lot if that’s where I happen to be when the fatigue hits.  But my body knows what it needs. 

This all sounds so heavy and I’m fighting the urge to try and give you a “but here’s the good news!”, with a top hat and a cane. 

As soon as I typed that I realized I do actually think there is good news (sorry/not sorry, cynics).  Learning to grieve is healing.  Learning to pivot is necessary.  Sharing what I can of my process with you is hopefully a gift.  And we can actually deepen our understanding of how we are interconnected through the tenderness inherent in times of grief. When all the bullshit falls away, there we are: each a terrified little human, raw with emotion, just hoping we can join forces with another and make it a little better. That’s the real gem, and it’s something we all have access to when we truly surrender.

Here are some ways to help Western NC right now:

World Central Kitchen

Red Cross

Beloved Asheville

Upcoming shows:

11/9 Stone Soup Coffeehouse, Providence, RI

11/10 House of Play, Boston, MA w/Jenny Reynolds Please email for info/reservations

12/7 ArtsCenter, Carrboro, NC