Dear Singers and Song Leaders,
Thank you so very much for the open hearted presence and beautiful singing you shared in our gathering at Chapel of the Pines on June 7th. And thank you for your generosity in donating towards my work.
It was a joy to be in the music with you, and to know that all of us are out here in the world contributing music to the community of activism that is so alive right now in the Triangle and around the country. When you scroll down in this email you’ll find links to all the songs we sang in the workshop, and some notes on the theme of the workshop, singing and leading songs from the heart and from the whole body.
I have also included below some of those squiggly charts I told you about. It is a kind of shorthand for notating music which seems to work rather well for learning and sharing songs. Especially when I’m learning a lot of songs quickly as many of us are doing these days, these charts help me remember the tunes.
I expect we will have many chances to sing together at rallies for justice, peace and democracy in the months and years ahead. And at the very bottom of this email there is information about two other places where I lead singing from October through June each year. If either of those are interesting to you, I would love to sing with you there.
Love, Kathleen
P.S. Please contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions!
Explorations in
whole bodied, whole hearted
singing and song leading
&
Links to the songs we sang
at Chapel of the Pines
on Sunday, June 7, 2026
Opening Bodies and Hearts In Singing
Here are some of the things we experimented with at Chapel of the Pines.
You can play with these when singing by yourself or with others,
and guide singers into these awarenesses as you teach or lead songs.
- Tune into your breathing, soften belly, notice ribs moving with breath, relax into gravity. Notice that you and all of us are standing or sitting, walking or dancing on the same shared ground. This gives a different kinesthetic experience of grounding than just thinking
of rooting straight down below our bodies.
-Tune into your heart, and sing from there. Become aware, or consider the possibility that all of us, even people whose thoughts and actions we disagree with, share the beautiful heart that you know in yourself.
- Contact the space within, above, below, behind and all around.
Sing with awareness of that whole space, which has no boundaries..
- Sing from your whole body, including your feet, legs, arms, hands,
belly, pelvis, chest and whole head. (Remember how, during our last song, we were standing, and I noticed that people were looking a bit tired? I invited us to sing from our whole bodies, and particularly said, “Sing from your feet!” And your singing strengthened and enlivened and changed so much! Having that many people make that shift together let us see,
feel and hear what singing from our bodies can do!)
- Let your body move in rhythm to the music as you sing.
You can move just a little or a lot. The idea is to let
your body be moved by the music and let your voice
be moved by your body.
- Listen to the sound horizon, what is the farthest away sound you hear, what is the closest? Listen to a sound fade into silence, as we did with the piano. That can wake you up to deeper and fuller listening, which is perhaps the most important part of singing or any music making.
- Invite people into whole heart, whole body, whole space awareness as you teach or lead songs. Lead songs you love, and sing from that love!
- When leading call and response songs if you are by the side of the march as we were in Raleigh on May 1st, maybe you can try having 4 leaders,
2 with megaphones (one facing your singers and one facing the marchers) and 2 without megaphones singing the call backs
(one facing your singers and one facing the marchers).
- Keep exploring and experimenting. We are all always learning
how to do this singing and song leading thing!
Seven Songs We Sang Together
1.
Breathing In Breathing Out
(c) Thai Plum Village Nuns & Monks
words are from Thich Nhat Hanh
Here is the video where I learned this song
and the hand motions the Thai Plum Village
nuns and monks are doing.
I added a few other motions to make this into the dance as we did it at Chapel of the Pines, and we have sung and danced it with people at the beginning of
the No King rallies in the street. It is grounding and calming, and it makes a wonderful way to begin when we are about to march with hundreds or thousands of people. When we do this I feel connected to Thich Nhat Hanh and his legacy of helping people embody the peace that we would like to create in the world.
Breathing in, breathing out
Breathing in, breathing out
I am blooming as a flower
I am fresh as the dew
I am solid as a mountain
I am firm as the earth
I am free, I am free, I am free
Breathing in, breathing out
Breathing in, breathing out
I am water reflecting
what is real, what is true
And I feel there is space
Deep inside of me
I am free, I am free, I am free.
2.
Awake My Dear
lyrics by Hafiz, rendered by Daniel Ladinsky
music Nance Pettit and David Wilcox
Here is the original recording by Nance Pettit and David Wilcox.
Awake my dear
Be kind to your sleeping heart
Awake my dear
Be kind to your sleeping heart
Take it out to the vast fields of light
And let it breathe
Take it out to the vast fields of light
And let it breathe
Awake My Dear body movements we did for this song are below.
When I teach this, until people really are remembering the movements, I remind us each time the song begins to close our eyes and tune into our own heart on #1, open eyes and sing to partner on #2, etc. Because if we forget to tune into our own heart each time, the experience of their own heart for most people will not be as real and true, and therefore we will have less likelihood of truly tuning in to our partner’s heart.
Here, again, is the original recording by Nance Pettit and David Wilcox.
1. First, face a partner.
While singing the first line...
Awake my dear, be kind to your sleeping heart.
Close your eyes with hands on your own heart chakra, at the center of your chest, and sing first line to your own self, tuning into your own heart.
2. While singing the second line...
Awake my dear, be kind to your sleeping heart
Open your eyes, keeping your hands on your heart, and sing the words to your partner, while remaining aware of your own heart.
3. While singing the third line...
Take it out to the vast fields of light, and let it breathe
Gradually move hands outward to your sides, expansively wide and
moving up just a little bit as well.
4. While singing the fourth line...
Take it out to the vast fields of light,,,and let it breathe
With arms out and up, spin and move randomly until you meet a new partner and bow with prayer hands on the words: and let it breathe.
3.
Grief & Love
This next song has two parts that can be sung together. I made the sguiggly chart above to help me remember the song. I think you can make this kind of chart even if you do not know how to read music.
There is larger copy of the chart just below the song lyrics of this song. If you look at the chart as you listen to the song you can see how the squiggles work. Also, the chart points out where you enter
when you sing the two parts together.
Grief & Love
(c) Sarina Partridge
Here is the link to the song.
Here is that link to the song
Part 1
Grief, moving through me
Let my body
Feel the waves of love and
Grief, moving through me
Let my body
Feel the waves of love and grief...
Part 2
(part 2 starts on the word through of part 1)
Grief, grief and love
Let me feel it all
Let me feel it all
Geif, grief and love
Let me feel it all
Let me feel it all
4.
Woke Up This Morning
Traditional African American Spiritual
The Freedom Singers of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee traveled around the country singing the coming out of the
Civil Rights Movement in the southern US, and raising money
for the voter registration movement.
That is Bernice Johnson Reagon in the middle of both photos above,
who went on to found the group Sweet Honey in the Rock.
She was a song leader, composer, professor of American history,
curator at the Smithsonian, activist and a wonderful singer.
You can hear Bernice singing the lead
on Woke up This Morning
with the Freedom Singers here.
And here is Fannie Lou Hamer singing this song.
When I love a song and want to sing it and teach it, I like listening to as many recorded versions of it as I can, and then put them away for a while and sing the song a lot until I find my own way of singing it, which will be influenced probably by every version I listened to and every other song I ever sang!
Woke Up This Morning
With My Mind
Stayed On Freedom
traditional African American spiritual first sung in Black church services as:
Woke up this morning with my mind...stayed on Jesus
And later transformed to be sung in the Civil Rights movement as:
Woke up this morning with my mind... stayed on freedom.
I am going to give you the chords below with the lyrics in case someone you know would like to accompany your community singing with a guitar sometimes. A tambourine would also sound great on this, played on the 2 and 4 beat. As I mentioned when we were together, I feel that adding a small amount of instruments to singing in the street can be very strengthening and exciting for the singers.
It is very important that song leader knows that it is your job to help everyone get the balance right. You need to trust your ear and if you are not sure, have a trusted friend help you. The musicians may not notice that they are playing a bit too loudly or softly. So you can speak to them, saying play a little quieter (or louder) please, or move your hand down or up to lead them into playing at a volume that sounds right to you. You want to primarily be able to hear the singers, and have any instruments serve that. Musicians should play loudly enough for singers to hear them and enjoy them, but not covering or competing in any way with the clarity of sound of the singing voices. When you are the song leader, you are just like an orchestra leader. You listen to the whole sound and help the group harmonize and balance themselves.
Woke Up This Morning
traditional African American Spiritual modified in Civil Rights Movement
I play this in G capo 4 or 5 Soprano song leaders will like a higher key. Song leaders should find a key that works for themselves, and then work it out with guitarists for them to play in that key. There are 3 verses with the same chord pattern as verse 1, and two slightly different sections… Walk walk and Talk talk
G
Woke up this morning with my mind, stayed on freedom
C G
Woke up this morning with my mind, stayed on freedom
G G (B7) C
Woke up this morning with my mind, stayed on freedom
G D C G
Hallelu, (Hallelu) Hallelu, (Hallelu) Hallelu ia
Walkin' and talkin' with my mind, stayed on freedom …
It ain't no harm in keepin your mind, stayed on freedom…
Cant hate your neighbor when your mind…
You love everybody when your mind…
Singing and praying with my mind….
(optional section)….
G
Walk walk, walk walk Walk walk, with your mind on freedom
C G
Walk walk, walk walk Walk walk, with your mind on freedom
D C G
Whoa...... walk walk walk walk
Talk talk, talk talk
Talk talk with your mind on freedom
Talk talk, talk talk
Talk talk with your mind on freedom
Whoa whoa ... talk talk
5.
................No Nos Moveran / We Shall Not Be Moved
I have been leading one or two songs in Spanish at each of the rallies we go to, in solidarity and love with Latino and other Immigrant communities as they live through this very difficult time. If you are a beginner in Spanish, thank you for singing whatever you could. I do think that most people appreciate it when we try to speak or sing in their language, even when we are not too fluent in it. And if you teach the chorus in Spanish and have a solid group of people singing it,
you can sing the other parts in English. Maybe sing the chorus
in English a bit and end singing it in Spanish again.
We Shall Not Be Moved / No Nos Moveran
originally I Shall Not Be Moved , a traditional African American hymn
dating back to early 19th century, Southern USA. The song was modified
in the Civil Rights movement into a rally march song.
It has been sung in Spanish for a long time too.
Here is Mavis Staples, who sang this during the Civil Rights Movement years,
singing it in English on her 2007 album. So beautiful!
And here is a recording in Spanish.
No no, no nos moveran
(No, no we will not be moved)
No no, no nos moveran
Como un arbol firme junto al rio
(Like a tree firmly next to the river)
No nos moveran
Unidos en la lucha… (United in the struggle)
Por nuestras familias (For our families)
Por la libertad (For liberation)
...............-------------------
We shall not, we shall not be moved
We shall not, we shall not be moved
Just like a tree that’s planted by the water
We shall not be moved
Standing with our neighbors…
We’re standing here for justice…
We’re here for due process...
For all our relations....
We’re here for democracy....
6.
Our Power
© Rena Branson
Our Power
© Rena Branson
Here is the video of the song being recorded.
Dana Gillispie, of the Chatham Singing Resistance group,
taught and led this song beautifully at our gathering.
She had asked me to play guitar on it with her.
Cynthia Crossen sent me the chords, which
I will copy below the lyrics. It was so beautiful
to sing this with 50 singers!!!
We will not underestimate our power any longer
We know that together we are strong
We will not underestimate our power any longer
We know that together we are strong……
Like drops of water shape the rocks
As they rush down the falls
We know that together we are strong
We will not underestimate our power any longer
We know that together we are strong
We will not underestimate our power any longer
We know that together we are strong……
Like drops of water shape the rocks
As they rush down the falls
We know that together we are strong
Like drops of water shape the rocks
As they rush down the falls
We know that together we are strong
Chords for Our Power
Our Power
© Rena Branson G capo 2
G Am C C D
We will not undersestimate our power any longer
G Am G (C all other times) G
We know that together we are strong
G Am C C D
We will not underestimate our power any longer
G Am C D
We know that together we are strong……
C G
Like drops of water shape the rocks
Em D
As they rush down the falls
G D G G
We know that together we are strong
We will not underestimate our power any longer
We know that together we are strong
We will not underestimate our power any longer
We know that together we are strong……
Like drops of water shape the rocks
As they rush down the falls
We know that together we are strong
Last time one chord change on strong:
C G
Like drops of water shape the rocks
Em D
As they rush down the falls
G D C G
We know that together we are strong
7.
We Are Here
We ended our gathering singing this call and response song. This is being led by Sarina Partridge in this video, so I think she maybe wrote it, but I am not sure. The moment in the video was in Minneapolis in a church around when Alex Pretti was killed. This song had me crying the first time I saw and heard it, and I bet a lot of you cried too!
We Are Here
by Sarina Partridge maybe?
We are here We are here
With our city With our city
Our love for each other will carry us through
Our love for each other will cry us through
Here are some more possible verses...
We are here with our families....
We are here for our neighbors....
We are here standing for immigrants....
Bonus!
Three more squiggle charts for songs which
were sung in Minneapolis and which some of you know...
We Belong To Each Other
We Belong To Each Other
(c) Annie Schlaefer
This song can be sung as a round
Here is the song
Everyone oh everyone oh
Everyone of these people are ours
Just like we are theirs
We belong to them
And they belong to us
Hold On
by Heidi Wilson
Hold On
(c) Heidi Wilson
This is another one of the beautiful songs we learned from videos which were recorded in Minneapolis this winter. This song was actually written before that by Heidi Wilson in Vermont for a community memorial for a young man who had died. Heidi was in Minneapolis with her band mates during the time when all the ICE surge and all the community support was happening. She and her bandmate Sarina Partridge did a lot of song leading in the street and churches in between several hours a day in a music studio where they were recording an album. If I could go to a workshop led by them I 100% would. They are mostly leading workshops in the northern and western states though. I love their music! They are in a trio called Heartwood.
If you search youtube you will find many many people have recorded videos of this song since we all heard it this winter on youtube or instagram, or on a Sixty Minutes episode that Anderson Cooper put together in Minneapolis.
Here is a recording of the song
Hold on, hold on
My dear ones, here comes the dawn
No Estan Solos
No Estan Solos
by Francisco Herrera, Emma’s Revolution and The Peace Poets
Here is a sound file from the streets of Minneapolis
No estan solos (You are not alone)
No estan solas (You are not alone)
Junto hacemos (Together we are creating)
La liberacion (Liberation, Freedom)
Where you can sing with me....
I love that so many of us will be singing & leading singing
in the streets, at rallies for justice for all human and
non-human beings this year and in years to come.
Below are a couple of other places where
I regularly lead singing and circle dancing.
P.S. Please contact me at [email protected]
if you have any questions!
1. Bodies, Voices & Spirit Community Chorus of Women.
This is a women’s chorus I lead. We are not a performing group. We sing and dance in heart connection with all beings. Songs of nature, songs of activism, songs and dances based In phrases and teachings from spiritual traditions around the world. We meet outdoors in Hillsborough in the Farmers Market Pavilion behind the courthouse (near Weaver Street) on Thursday nights at 6:30, and we continue through the last Thursday of June, then take a summer break till October. (We also have a Zoom group on Wednesday nights which will meet the last week of June as well, and start up again in October.) Details about chorus are at www.kathleenhannan.com (In September I will post specific details about the fall season, which will start the first week in October.)
2. Durham Dances of Universal Peace
These are circle dances with songs based in sacred phrases and teachings of spiritual traditions and mystics from around the world. All genders are welcome, and no experience is needed. We teach the dances from the beginning. I am one of the four dance leaders at this monthly event, which happens on the 3rd Saturday of every month at the Durham Friends Meetinghouse at 404 Alexander Avenue, Durham, 27705. In the spring and summer months we dance from 4-6 pm, and we switch to 3-6 pm when EST time changes in the fall. The new meetinghouse is at the back of the property, and has a big wooden staircase at the front.
In summer and winter we dance inside the Meetinghouse, in a room with beautiful acoustics. When weather permits in fall and spring we sometimes sing outdoors.We ask for voluntary donations to cover rental of the building. I’ll be away over the summer, and the dances will be led
each month by the other dance leaders. I will be back in NC
and leading dances again in October and November.
Please contact me with any questions at [email protected]
Thank you! Love, Kathleen