"For me, the crux of music is to find your own voice. You put yourself and your spirit into it. If you do, we'll feel you" --Linda Carvery.
Join Linda Carvery, award-winning blues and gospel singer, and Nanci Lee, poet, facilitator and new singer, for a fun, healing singing workshop to connect us to our spirits, bring us back into our bodies and into play. Joy is part of Rematriation, reconnecting to ourselves, each other and the land. Last year in this workshop, we sang "Down by the Riverside" down by the riverside. There was a lot of impromptu singing, celebration and invitation for participants to co-create the time together. We had a ball with all ages and all levels of experience and background including wonderful piano playing by Lloyd MacLean!
Linda Carvery (she/her) began her musical journey at the New Horizons Baptist Church, formerly known as the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church, in Halifax. In her late teens, Carvery traveled throughout the Maritimes as a vocalist with composer and pianist Joe Sealy and saxophonist Bucky Adams.
Former President of the award-winning Nova Scotia Mass Choir, her musical journey has taken her to Washington's Capitol Hill. It was on Capitol Hill that she performed with the Nova Scotia Mass Choir during the 30th anniversary celebrations of Martin Luther King's March.
In time, Linda embarked on a solo career, recording her first CD Yesterday/Today.
Linda has expanded her musical horizons by performing in the Neptune Theatre productions of the musicals Gospel at Colonus and Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She also performed in Eastern Front Theatre’s production of Whylah Falls which staged a series of performances at the National Arts Centre.
Linda has created and performed in one-woman shows. First came Make That Gospel, Double Double for Halifax Fringe Festival, followed by Soulful Sunday Sounds of Africville.
Most recently Watch Over Me was mounted by Mulgrave Road Theatre.
Ms. Carvery has served as a board member on the Social Assistance Appeal Board, Halifax Housing Authority and the National Parole Board. She was a member of the Solicitor General's Special Committee on Provincially Incarcerated Women and served as President of the Congress of Black Women. She was a minority hiring advisor for Atlantic Superstores and a night monitor at the YWCA.
Her concern for the well-being of others and her contributions to the music community have earned her an Honorary Doctor of Letters.
Nanci Lee (she/her). I'm a Syrian-Chinese poet and facilitator who lives in Kjipuktuk. Part-time, I facilitate strategy, governance, equity, and anti-racism for organizations and collectives. Part-time, I am a personal trainer for strength and wellness. I leave ample time for spirit and art, collective play. Poetry and storytelling have long been in my practices and I'm now learning piano and an excited newbie to the Madrigals choir and the Nova Scotia Mass Choir. Linda and the lovely singing circle from last year opened this world for me so it is fun to be back. And... the acoustics in the Sanctuary space are divine!