The Wake with Spirits Up! | Ars Nova Workshop
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New Grass

The Wake

with Spirits Up!

June 20 – September 22, 2021

“My music is the spiritual expression of what I am – my faith, my knowledge, my being. When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hang-ups.”
— John Coltrane

This summer, Ars Nova Workshop, The Woodlands, and Spirits Up! will host The Wake, a series of free outdoor yoga and mindfulness sessions paired with live music. We will mold mindfulness, meditation, and movement into each of these sessions while paying homage to many of the foundational forces in Black Liberation Music, such as Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler, and John Coltrane. Most sessions will feature Philadelphia harpist Elizabeth Steiner, who has performed with everyone from Orchestra 2001 to Moses Sumney.

The Woodlands historic cemetery at 4000 Woodland Avenue holds over 30,000 of Philadelphia’s most controversial and beautiful spirits. It’s an opportune setting for Spirits Up! — an organization birthed out of reclamation: reclaiming healing, reclaiming health, and reclaiming space —  to lead The Wake and assist the community in returning to this spiritual space, by practicing yoga, meditating, and tapping into deep cultural ties to Philadelphia with the help of transcendent jazz.

We hope to see you this summer, every other Wednesday at The Woodlands starting July 7!

Program Schedule

July 7
Breath Work with Aubrey Beddia + live music by Alexia Oliviera

July 21
Movement and Poetry with Caitlin Green and Ursula Rucker

August 4
Poetry and Music Meditation with Ursula Rucker and Charlie Raboteau

August 18 (rescheduled to August 23)
Sound Meditation and Movement with A’tiya Sinae

September 1 (canceled)
September 15
September 22
Yoga and Black Liberation Music with jean-jacques gabriel and Elizabeth Steiner

Spirits Up!

Spirits Up! is a Philadelphia-based organization that offers tools for personal liberation and healing through yoga, meditation, the arts, and innovative activity to support the continued work towards collective Black liberation. Spirits Up! provides safe spaces for people consistently on the frontlines for Black lives and those long suffering from systemic racial traumas.

Collectively working to heal the black community through yoga & meditation.

By any means necessary.


Cover: jean-jacques gabriel leads a group of yoga practitioners in a West Philadelphia park.
June 20 – September 22, 2021

Category

  • Mindfulness
  • Performance

Program Info

Free with RSVP
All Ages

Program Schedule

June 20 – September 22, 2021, every other Wednesday, from 6:30 – 7:30PM.

  • June 20
  • July 7
  • July 21
  • August 4
  • August 18
  • September 1
  • September 15
  • September 22

Venue

The Woodlands
Philadelphia, PA

  • The Woodlands, Philadelphia

Presented by

The Wake program series is organized by Spirits Up!, a Philadelphia-based organization supporting the continued work towards collective Black liberation.

The New Grass program series is presented by Ars Nova Workshop in collaboration with The Woodlands, Philadelphia.

summer 2021

New Grass

  • Series

New Grass

In collaboration with The Woodlands historic site in West Philadelphia, Ars Nova Workshop presents an exploration of fostering spaces where the creativity, thoughtfulness, and joy of everyday life in West Philadelphia can be shared.