Three New Projects
Dear friend,
I’ve been immersed in 3 different projects this year I’d like to tell you about in this chonker of a post. As an artist, I feel like no art is fully shared if there is no village to share it with. I realized if I create art then I must also work to create a village.
With the way of the current world, it feels like there is no greater need than for women to gather. This year, it’s been apparent to me that what I’ve sought for so long could only be found in sisterhood. Sisterhood was one of those words I used to hate. It was a sore spot because a group of women seemed scary to me…full of competition and judgement. I’ve come to know that most or many women feel this way—we’ve all been betrayed or hurt too many times by one another, trying to survive the best we could in a male-dominated world. I had a lot of blind spots to how patriarchy affects my life. The isolation of women is one of the cruelest consequences. When we are isolated from one another, we are also isolated from our authenticity and empowerment. When there is no sisterhood challenging and supporting us, reminding us of our power, it’s easy to say yes when we mean no, bend to external pressures to be unproblematic rather than truthful, minimize our greatness, accept breadcrumbs rather than our true worth, or try to do it all alone, carrying the weight of the world. I’ve had the privilege this year of witnessing women face their greatest fears and create what they dream in their lives. Their bravery is the most potent medicine I’ve ever received. Just the other day in a group call, a sister said, after taking a big risk that day to live in her truth, “I know I’ll be okay because I have you all.” I feel the same.
Last spring, I founded The Center for Female Sovereignty. I wanted to claim that we are all artists, our lives the grand piece of art, what we create is essential to daily life, and what we leave behind of our souls’ work is a wilderness needed by our family, our village, the whole dang world in whatever tiny or big way…because all we create is a cascade of events, building off of one another.
The Center for Female Sovereignty now has two permutations to bring women together:
SOULBIRTHING & SONGBIRD SUPPER CLUB
Soulbirthing is open for 2023! And it is changing its shape. The women of this year are staying on for next year to continue to co-create and co-lead. It is now donation-based, has an online-only option, and will span 12 months following the ancient wheel of the female archetypes. It will also include travel for anyone who wants to join. We are going to France next month for a pilgrimage to the caves of Mary Magdalene and to steep ourselves in the artistic pleasures of Paris. We will continue to explore the world in 2023, sit with elders, and unearth the lost and oppressed wisdom of our ancestors.
In Soulbirthing this year, the women and I have discovered that each archetype simply is a starting place to discover all our inner potential energy and bring it out into the world. We create, design, co-create, laugh, dance, sing, dig in, tend fire, shed tears, move through our blocks…it’s a space we hold tenderly, so we can be all our flavors…so very human and goofy in the joy of connection. What we’ve witnessed one another create and manifest this year brings me to tears. To share a safe, loving sisterhood with women bringing our blind spots to more consciousness, claiming our authenticity, moving into the world empowered, boldly sharing our gifts in service, aligned with our values…feeds and nourishes in a way that heals those voids where we have been left adrift and isolated in our culture.
Soulbirthing 2023 begins in March. Sign up now.
Songbird Supper Club
The Last Tuesday of Every Month
6pm
West Salem Public House
Women artists gathered in houses in Winston-Salem this past summer and asked each other what we long for, need, and what is possible. Songbird Supper Club was born.
Songbird Supper Club is a cozy and casual performance series to celebrate women who create and express, or want to start! At Songbird, we shed all the pressures we've taken on and embrace our vulnerability so we can be our raw, authentic selves and experiment with our expression in a safe, loving space of friendship and support. We've got nothing to prove here. We can be messy. It might be your first time performing or sharing your vision--we are here to cheer you on, encourage you, and see you shine. Or you might be a seasoned professional who wants deeper connections in our community. QTBIPOC women are especially encouraged to participate. Each night will be hosted by an Emcee who will help us get to know 6 featured women. All are welcome! Bring your kids, friends, partners, and families! Let's build this village where we honor and uplift women and their visions, because we believe that all that we imagine is meant to be birthed into the world and shared.
Songbird is rooted in building trust and collectively healing patriarchal-conditioning that has led to sisterhood wounds, perfectionism, and outmoded belief systems that keep us isolated from one another and our magic. We want to fundamentally change the landscape for women artists in Winston-Salem and the surrounding areas. Songbird's goal is to always have your back and help make your dreams possible. Anything is possible when we do it together. Join us for supper!
Our first Songbird Supper Club on October 25th will have me as Emcee featuring local artists and musicians Ely B, Martha Bassett, Casey Noels, Hannah Pabon, and more.
I hope that every woman in town will hear about this. Please spread the word!
And what about the music?
METAMORPHOSIS was just that. I’m getting to know this new form. The album had its one-year anniversary on Oct. 1st. I’m deep in my next project, and am in the surrender I’ve grown accustomed to of not knowing when or if it will all come together. I trust the process now more than I used to. I seem to be on a 3-year cycle, releasing work once every 3 years. We’ll see if that happens again. I’m re-thinking a lot, unsatisfied that big parts of myself have not been fully expressed. I had a health scare recently and I felt a tremendous need to share my work in process, to feel the comfort of leaving it all out there to be known. I began to post on social media the poems or segments of what I write, realizing that every stage of the creative process is an art piece in itself. That it all will change as I create a new album shouldn’t mean that the stages of what it was are disregarded. I’ve been doing this daily writing in journals since I was 13, a relationship with myself to figure things out. To open it up feels like a lesson in vulnerability, in letting myself be seen as imperfect, authentic, messy. The Instagram algorithms really bury the poetry posts I’ve noticed, so if you’d like to follow along, please go to my page and like some posts so they show up in your feed.
Thank you all! I hope I get to see you at Songbird Supper Club on Oct. 25th.
Sending all my love,
Cashavelly Morrison