Category teacher

Mar 15 2012

Carrie Newcomer: There’s a Spiritual Current in My Work

Carrie Newcomer is a rare breed of singer/songwriter: the kind who illuminates life with startling depth, humor and clarity. Her ability for sharp observation of the world lead the Dallas Morning News to rave, “She’s the kind of artist whose music makes you stop, think and then say, ‘that is so true’.” She has been described as “a soaring songstress” by Billboard, a “prairie mystic” by the Boston Globe, and Rolling Stone has said that she “asks all the right questions.”

“There’s a spiritual current in my work because there’s a spiritual current in my life.” ~Carrie Newcomer

Listen to Carrie’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

She says, “When someone creates a work of art or when we hear a song and a person has put their finger right on the open palm of something true, it shakes the world just a little bit.”   

In the fall of 2011 Carrie released her fifteenth album, Everything is Everywhere, as a special benefit project for the Interfaith Hunger Initiative on Available Light Records. The Interfaith Hunger Initiative is an organization including faith leaders and laity Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Sikh congregations, dedicated to the common cause of providing for those most vulnerable in our communities. Carrie says, “In a time when we are encouraged to fear difference or diversity, Everything is Everywhere was created as an alternative to fear and an affirmation of creative and compassionate engagement. I am one of a growing number of people who are choosing to not put the Sacred in such a small container.” 

She says, “We live in a world of distractions and it’s easy to not be present in our own lives. But when I’m here, when I am present in attention, I start to see miracles and I sense the sacred everywhere. At the center of what I am doing is an artistic practice but it’s also a spiritual practice. It’s to be here and to be open — to what’s right here, right now in front of me — and then write about it.”

Carrie internationally facilitates workshops and presents keynotes on the topics of songwriting, spirituality and vocation at colleges, universities, and spiritual communities, retreat centers. Newcomer, a Quaker, cuts across secular and spiritual boundaries. In recent years, she has emerged as a respected and recognized artistic voice for the progressive spiritual community.

Find out more about Carrie and listen to free samples of her songs at www.carrienewcomer.com. Click on the link titled Messages from Carrie to read her poems and articles. I wonder if Carrie’s poem titled “The Dare” will offer as much encouragement to you as much as it has to me?

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.

Mar 9 2012

Chuck Cogliandro: Drumming Brings So Much Joy

Chuck Cogliandro is a drummer, teacher, healing practitioner and Director of Kumandi Drums & Healing. Since 1992, Chuck’s path has included bringing people together in the shared joy of West African drumming.  He is a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and is completing his second year of studies in Family Constellations work with Peter and Jamy Faust.

“Drumming brings so much joy. It gets people out of their minds and out of their anxieties – out of the mental level of worrying. It raises their energetic level of vibration into the spiritual level. That’s where healing comes through the music and the drums.” ~Chuck Cogliandro

Listen to Chuck’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

Chuck annually hosts and organizes the Kumandi African Drum & Dance Camp near Asheville.  He has directed performing community and professional drumming groups, helped organize and performed with the 100-member drum tribe in the Opening Ceremonies of the Atlanta Olympic Games, and has made CD, commercial and soundtrack recordings.

Chuck’s company name, Kumandi, is from the Malinke language spoken in West Africa. He says, “Kumandi means to call or to invite or to sound. So that’s the purpose of the drums – to call people together and to invite them to make sound.” Chuck adds, “Drumming is powerful. It creates vibration that affects you on all levels. On the physical level, your body feels the music and the vibration coming from the drum. Your spirit is touched from the people creating this vibration collectively. Especially with African drumming, drumming is used to bring the community together to celebrate.” 

His longing is to co-create communities for transformation, using expressive elements of drumming, music, voice and movement. Chuck is also an enrichment instructor at Atlanta’s Orion School, drumming with children diagnosed with autism and ADHD.

Find out more about Chuck at www.Kumandi.com.

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.

Mar 1 2012

Patricia Hayes: We Are Collectively Changing the World

Patricia Hayes is an international lecturer, teacher, author and artist. She is the author of five books and has been a pioneer in intuitive and spiritual development for over 45 years.

Patricia and her husband Marshall Smith are the founders of Delphi University in McCaysville, GA. Patricia developed the extensive career-oriented certification and degree programs offered through the University. Patricia worked with the well-known medium Arthur Ford in the 60’s and 70’s, and after his death, in 1974 founded the Arthur Ford International Academy of Mediumship. Today, graduates of the school from 42 different counties use their spiritual abilities for the purpose of channeling, guidance, and healing. In the early eighties, Patricia founded The RoHun Institute which offers an extensive study program in Spiritual Psychotherapy and Transpersonal Psychology for aspiring therapists. Patricia is the founder of selfenlighten.com; a Self Enlightenment correspondence study program.

Patricia is also an artist that works in soft pastels. She has developed a technique of channeling art that she has named Entura Art. Patricia has used this method of art throughout her career to establish a relationship with Spirit. Of all her accomplishments, her favorite thing to do is channeling art and teaching aspiring artists this unique technique.

“What you worship in life and what you value in life does matter. Everyone of us is creating this world. Every single one of us matters. I think that’s the biggest thing that people are awakening to. I matter. How can I, just a little me, matter? But we do. Because we are all collectively changing the world, positively all the time.” ~Patricia Hayes

Listen to Patricia’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

She says, “I’ve always loved the mystical. It is the mystical that keeps me moving and inspired, growing and expanding.”

Patricia teaches others how to channel energy and to create Entura Art. She says, “When I create my art, I never know what I’m going to draw before I do it. I am channeling an energy and each energy is totally unique. This kind of art is actually easier to teach someone that has never drawn anything than to teach an artist.” Full details about the next Entura Art intensive are available here. www.delphiu.com/entura.htm

Patricia has appeared on numerous television programs including Current Affairs, Unsolved Mysteries, Unexplained Mysteries and Strange Universe.  The producer and crew spent time at Delphi University filming Patricia for the Japanese version of 20/20 in Tokyo. Her work has been written about in over thirty books over the last thirty years. She is the author of four previous books: Intuitive and Spiritual Development, Know Yourself, The Gatekeeper and The Extension of Life that she co-authored with her husband, Marshall Smith. Her latest book, Prince Abba and Magi Patiput has just been published.

Find out more about Patricia at www.PatriciaHayesArt.com or at www.DelphiU.com.

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.