We live in the Kali Yuga: the age of quarrel and hypocrisy. With so much external stimuli and illusory distractions bombarding our everyday surroundings (maya), we often forget to listen to the inner voice that resides within our Being. Through this interactive course, we will examine the seven elements of music through the chakra system so we can become in tune with our Higher Selves. We will dive into the teachings of Bhakti Yoga; discovering our purpose, and hearing the stories and pastimes of Hindu demigods so we can learn to become instruments of the Divine.

Presented By: Jamil Apostol

2018 Pre-Convergence Workshop: Music as Medicine Day Long Intensive

Thurs, Sept 20| 10:00am – 5:00pm

We are super thrilled to have all of these outstanding heart centered musical artists board for 2018.

This work helps cultivate healing and resilience in our hearts and psyches as we continue to show up for the heartbreak and desecration of our world. Showing up in our time is inherently taxing on our empathy, our faith in humanity, and our energy to show up for our communities. When we acknowledge this, we can rest into this shared experience and that our pain is born out of our still giving a damn, which is a holy feeling in our time. The combination of Joanna’s work and music offer a beautiful set of tools for growing our inner resources to stay engaged in our world, and somatically experience our belonging in community and in the living body of Earth.

Saturday Oct 7| 11am| Willow Grove

Presented By: Lydia Violet Harutoonian

2017 Workshop:

Music As Medicine In Our Time

“This second record of mine comes at a time of massive change in my world, and in the world around me. It represents a stripping down, a simplification, a return to the places i’m from and the emotions i’ve lived with. My first record was a tour-de-force, all-in attempt at encapsulating my entire existence up until that point- twenty seven musicians, strings and horns, over an hour of musical journeying, through the void and back. With Morning Son it felt super important for me to at least temporarily scale back, down to the base ingredients of voice and guitar, harmony, with sounds of everyday life peppered in, and just a select few other instruments to add to the overall texture and feel. It feels to me more like a single chapter this time around, as opposed to an entire book.

It began as simply an extended letter of gratitude and acknowledgment to the small child within my own self, who still felt like something was missing or had been left unsaid. I had no initial intentions of even having it professionally mixed. But what it became over the course of the recording sessions was something else entirely- a spotlight on certain emotions that in our culture don’t often see the light of day; and in turn, an offering to those who may have (or still) feel the same way…”

www.orionfreeman.com
www.facebook.com/orionfreeman
www.youtube.com/orionfreeman
instagram: @orionfreeman

2017 Convergence Performance: Thurs, Oct 5th | 10:30 – 11:30 PM | Main Stage

Front man Juán Cuba’s vocals, along with José Vergelín’s drums, and Francisco Ferrer’s lead guitar, serve as the anchor for the band, having played together for over a decade in Bay Area Latin rock bands like Zudaka and Santero. Multitalented percussionist Garsha Shavankhani brings an array of Afro-Peruvian, Afro-Cuban and Flamenco experience into the band’s cache of rhythmic arsenal. Along with Cuba, guitarist Mateo Nube composes the band’s lyrics and shares in vocal duties. Bassist Marco Bianchi is the newest addition to the Los nadies family.

Los nadies take their name from a poem/essay by Uruguayan historian Eduardo Galeano decrying the invisibility cast upon the millions of dispossessed people around the world.

www.losnadies.com

2017 Convergence Performance: Friday, Oct 6th | 11:00 pm – 12:00 AM | Main Stage

2017 Convergence Panel: Artists in Action

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Tara Marchant is re-defining herself, like many others, in the emerging Green paradigm. As the Local Director for Emerald Cities Bay Area – Oakland Council, Tara is working across a host of stakeholder organizations (public, labor, community and industry and workforce development) to bring a collective effort to retrofit our urban core. In doing so, create high road job and build our democracy, reduce energy use and direct investments to our local communities. Tara also created and was the program manager of the Green Assets Program at the Greenlining Institute, where alliances, advocates and elected officials contributed to California’s Climate legislation AB 32: an ambitious climate framework for pricing Green House Gases (GHGs) and pricing carbon.  She holds a permaculture credential, and longs for a big garden to produce food and develop urban food systems that are sustainable.

Tara graduated from Yale University with a degree in Theater. Her first love was performing. Yes, as a little girl, she sang, and twirled and made up songs.  As she explores what her expanding role is in healing of Pachamama, she recognizes that it involves music and song and narrative: which are universal and necessary for the health of the human ‘body’ on this planet called earth.

2016 Convergence Workshop: Music of the Movement – Singing our Community into Life (Circle Songs Around the Fire) 

Come gather around the fire, and let the richness of the day’s events and learning integrate and resonate in song!  Music builds community, and is essential to carrying a movement forward!  What are the songs for our time, and how can we use music to catalyze our communities, create unity, uplift hearts and build our movements?  Composer and singer Ysaye Barnwell teaches that in the African-American tradition, every song has a purpose and that songs are the backbone of building community.  We will share simple songs that you can sing and teach to others, and will invite you to share your songs also.  

Presented By: Tara Marchant, Katia Sol, Christopher Kuntzsch

Saturday, September 17th | 7:45 – 8:45 PM | Fire Pit (Hops Tipi)

XEO is an electronic/acoustic/vocal artist. His songs are often inspired by nature, spirituality, and the human condition.

2016 Convergence Performance: Thursday, September 15th | 8:00 – 9:00 PM | Main Stage 

Thrive East Bay is a purpose-driven community for people of all ages and backgrounds who are committed to transforming our lives, the places we live, and the world.

We are building a new type of community that is informed by modern science and ancient wisdom, infused with a profound sense of love and interconnection, and focused on social change. We welcome all people on the journey toward personal growth, shared learning, and collective action.

Thrive East Bay hosts regular Sunday events (currently on the 4th Sunday of each month from 4 – 6pm) and deep fellowship with others, focused on the following core principles:

Thriving Lives – We support each other in overcoming personal challenges and injustice, and creating lives filled with purpose, joy, and creative expression.

Love in Action – We let love guide us toward compassion, gratitude, empathy, and community among diverse groups of people.

Shared Learning & Practice – We seek to expand our critical awareness and evidenced-based understanding of the world, and to grow together through shared inquiry and transformative practices.

Systemic Change – We unite to build equitable systems where we can flourish as individuals, as communities, and as a planet.

Please join us!

2017 Convergence Performance: Sunday, Oct 8 | 12:30 – 1:30 PM | Main Stage

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Since forming in San Francisco’s own Boom Boom Room in the summer of 2013, Royal Jelly Jive has quickly ascended to become one of the Bay Area’s most anticipated acts. After releasing their debut album to a packed house at Slims in late 2014, they hit the road and and have been touring non-stop ever since. Playing hi-energy shows and festivals in cities and towns all across the West Coast, they have captivated the ears and hearts of almost all who hear them, intoxicating the masses with their unique and infectious music. They have been lucky enough to share stages with notable acts such as Michael Franti, Rebrirth Brass Band, The California Honeydrops as well as performing at this past year’s Outsidelands Music Festival, Soul’d Out Music Festival, and are on the bill for this years’ Bottlerock Music Festival, Joshua Tree Music Festival and Portland’s Waterfront Blues Festival. With plans to release their new album “Stand Up” this summer and send it on a national tour, Royal Jelly Jive is off to making 2016 their biggest and best year yet!

2016 Convergence Performance: Friday, September 16th | 9:30 – 10:30 PM | Main Stage

Namorados Da Lua – translated from Portuguese as “Moon Lovers” – is the newest Brazilian band to hit the Bay Area. The band unites Brazilian and North American musicians with a common love of creating positive music with a message.

NDL showcases a beautiful blend of diverse styles, incorporation musical influences from reggae, jazz, pop, rock and funk as well as Brazilian samba, forró, and Axe carnival music.

Their music brings unstoppable driving rhythms, fiery lyrical grooves, harmonious instrumentation and original funk that makes them irresistibly danceable for any audience.

2016 Convergence Performance: Saturday, September 17th | 11:30 PM – 12:30 AM | Main Stage 

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Anthony Singing Bear is a stylistic singer-songwriter weaving wise words and personal stories into jazzy swing, world beat, reggae, hip hop and soul. His popularity is in large part due to his conscious well-thought lyrics, inventive songwriting, and soulful emotive voice. Bear’s prolific garden of songs seem developed and timeless like something out of the archives, and yet his ever evolving repertoire is very much here and now. It is a unique brand of music, in the style of John Mayer, Jason Mraz, and Brett Dennen, but really defying all genre classifications. 

2016 RED Talk Presentation: TBD

2016 Convergence Performance: Saturday, September 17th | 6:00 – 6:45 PM | Main Stage

2016 Convergence Panel: Artists In Action