HOMECOMING is an exploration of early African American music and sound meditation as binding and healing mediums. This sound journey will take participants through the not-so-distant past to the present juncture of time.

America has written the complete African American narrative out of history and continues to try with cries of Critical Race Theory. These songs contain a portion of the record. Several tracks are church, field and prison work, or a capella songs. They tell the stories of a people, motivate change, and help ease the struggle of surviving extreme injustice.

They record resilience, the pursuit of meaning, and the joy of living. In encountering these recordings, we honor the ancestors’ voices and reclaim the power of the first instrument, the human voice, to heal.

This offering reflects deep meditation, an encounter with early prison work songs, and contemplations on what we are learning about history. As we dive deeper into the music, we can hear the elders speaking through time, not to be discarded or ignored. This project is not the experience of all Black people in America but rather a snapshot or dream of forgotten voices made present.

“Trees make symphonies without their trunks ever moving, almost as it the stillness of their centers amplifies their sound. The tree may appear still, but if you look closer, you’ll see that each leaf flails with breath. The tree may seem alone, but plow deep and you’ll unearth its secret gnarled roots- the grotesque and the beautiful creeping in the soil, reaching toward the ancestors.” – Cole Arthur Riley

One of the paths to finding healing is to be seen and heard. The experience of HOMECOMING allows us to explore the boundaries between sound and healing. We hope to expand on the voices and experiences unacknowledged, unheard and unseen.

Space is limited. We ask that you register in advance and arrive by 12:45 pm, as we will begin to open the space to others at 1:00 pm.

How can we use money in new and creative ways for community benefit? GWI hosts a conversation on how community funds can shift power and funnel resources to local people and initiatives, nurturing a rooted, connected sense of thriving. 

In a time of increasing instability and disconnection, we turn towards projects and approaches that are building alternatives. In this session, we will hear from two new community funds that have launched this fall: Mid-Hudson Energy Transition’s HELP Fund and the community-designed grant fund called Kingston Common Futures. Both aim to meet real community needs, informed by community input. They also demonstrate how we can thoughtfully design projects to use money as a transformative shared resource for community health and wellbeing. 

The session will include short presentations, facilitated Q&A and open discussion, and a chance to meet and hear from your neighbors. Snacks provided!

Rooted Resources is a GWI series that shines a light on localizing economic power to nurture solidarity, awareness, and action. Through Rooted Resources gatherings we offer a platform to learn from each other, connect with ideas and initiatives, and facilitate the hard and powerful conversations that come with looking at how we might better share resources to shift from individual survival to collective thriving.

HOMECOMING is an exploration of early African American music and sound meditation as binding and healing mediums. This sound journey will take participants through the not-so-distant past to the present juncture of time.

America has written the complete African American narrative out of history and continues to try with cries of Critical Race Theory. These songs contain a portion of the record. Several tracks are church, field and prison work, or a capella songs. They tell the stories of a people, motivate change, and help ease the struggle of surviving extreme injustice.

They record resilience, the pursuit of meaning, and the joy of living. In encountering these recordings, we honor the ancestors’ voices and reclaim the power of the first instrument, the human voice, to heal.

This offering reflects deep meditation, an encounter with early prison work songs, and contemplations on what we are learning about history. As we dive deeper into the music, we can hear the elders speaking through time, not to be discarded or ignored. This project is not the experience of all Black people in America but rather a snapshot or dream of forgotten voices made present.

“Trees make symphonies without their trunks ever moving, almost as it the stillness of their centers amplifies their sound. The tree may appear still, but if you look closer, you’ll see that each leaf flails with breath. The tree may seem alone, but plow deep and you’ll unearth its secret gnarled roots- the grotesque and the beautiful creeping in the soil, reaching toward the ancestors.” – Cole Arthur Riley

One of the paths to finding healing is to be seen and heard. The experience of HOMECOMING allows us to explore the boundaries between sound and healing. We hope to expand on the voices and experiences unacknowledged, unheard and unseen.

Space is limited. We ask that you register in advance and arrive by 12:45 pm, as we will begin to open the space to others at 1:00 pm.

Please join a group to read and talk about Dougald Hines’ At Work in the Ruins at GWI at 6 PM on Thursday evenings starting November 21.

Dougald Hine, author of At Work in the Ruins  recently spoke about his book along with David Brownstein and Tiokasin Ghosthorse at Good Work Institute.

Dougald Hine is a social thinker, writer and speaker. After an early career as a BBC journalist, he co-founded organizations including the Dark Mountain Project and a school called HOME. He has collaborated with scientists, artists and activists, serving as a leader of artistic development at Riksteatern (Sweden’s national theater) and as an associate of the Centre for Environment and Development Studies at Uppsala University. His latest book is At Work in the Ruins: Finding Our Place in the Time of Science, Climate Change, Pandemics & All the Other Emergencies (2023). He co-hosts The Great Humbling podcast and publishes a Substack called Writing Home. https://dougald.nu/

Contact Janet at [email protected] for more information.

Please join a group to read and talk about Dougald Hines’ At Work in the Ruins at GWI at 6 PM on Thursday evenings starting November 21.

Dougald Hine, author of At Work in the Ruins  recently spoke about his book along with David Brownstein and Tiokasin Ghosthorse at Good Work Institute.

Dougald Hine is a social thinker, writer and speaker. After an early career as a BBC journalist, he co-founded organizations including the Dark Mountain Project and a school called HOME. He has collaborated with scientists, artists and activists, serving as a leader of artistic development at Riksteatern (Sweden’s national theater) and as an associate of the Centre for Environment and Development Studies at Uppsala University. His latest book is At Work in the Ruins: Finding Our Place in the Time of Science, Climate Change, Pandemics & All the Other Emergencies (2023). He co-hosts The Great Humbling podcast and publishes a Substack called Writing Home. https://dougald.nu/

Contact Janet at [email protected] for more information.

GWI and Jenny Bates are holding ongoing climate grief conversations. This group will meet on the first Thursdays of the month, (though this one is on the second Thursday) at The Greenhouse 65 St. James St. on the corner of Clinton street and St. James Street in Uptown Kingston. This group is free and open to anyone who has concerns about the climate, about our City of Kingston, and who are stressed about an uncertain future.

“We are picking up distress signals, as living beings on this planet” – Jenny Bates.

Grief is not easily processed alone. The grief felt, consciously or unconsciously regarding the planet is on a scale previously unknown to our species. This series of conversations is an opportunity to share and verbalize what is felt in the context of group that will be facilitated with care, support and a sense of belonging in a confidential and fully respectful manner.

You can listen to Micah and Jenny speak on The Good Work Hour about this topic.
If you have any questions, email [email protected] or [email protected]

GWI and Jenny Bates are holding ongoing climate grief conversations. This group will meet on the first Thursdays of the month, (though this one is on the second Thursday) at The Greenhouse 65 St. James St. on the corner of Clinton street and St. James Street in Uptown Kingston. This group is free and open to anyone who has concerns about the climate, about our City of Kingston, and who are stressed about an uncertain future.

“We are picking up distress signals, as living beings on this planet” – Jenny Bates.

Grief is not easily processed alone. The grief felt, consciously or unconsciously regarding the planet is on a scale previously unknown to our species. This series of conversations is an opportunity to share and verbalize what is felt in the context of group that will be facilitated with care, support and a sense of belonging in a confidential and fully respectful manner.

You can listen to Micah and Jenny speak on The Good Work Hour about this topic.
If you have any questions, email [email protected] or [email protected]

GWI and Jenny Bates are holding ongoing climate grief conversations. This group will meet on the first Thursdays of the month, (though this one is on the second Thursday) at The Greenhouse 65 St. James St. on the corner of Clinton street and St. James Street in Uptown Kingston. This group is free and open to anyone who has concerns about the climate, about our City of Kingston, and who are stressed about an uncertain future.

“We are picking up distress signals, as living beings on this planet” – Jenny Bates.

Grief is not easily processed alone. The grief felt, consciously or unconsciously regarding the planet is on a scale previously unknown to our species. This series of conversations is an opportunity to share and verbalize what is felt in the context of group that will be facilitated with care, support and a sense of belonging in a confidential and fully respectful manner.

You can listen to Micah and Jenny speak on The Good Work Hour about this topic.
If you have any questions, email [email protected] or [email protected]

GWI and Jenny Bates are holding ongoing climate grief conversations. This group will meet on the first Thursdays of the month, (though this one is on the second Thursday) at The Greenhouse 65 St. James St. on the corner of Clinton street and St. James Street in Uptown Kingston. This group is free and open to anyone who has concerns about the climate, about our City of Kingston, and who are stressed about an uncertain future.

“We are picking up distress signals, as living beings on this planet” – Jenny Bates.

Grief is not easily processed alone. The grief felt, consciously or unconsciously regarding the planet is on a scale previously unknown to our species. This series of conversations is an opportunity to share and verbalize what is felt in the context of group that will be facilitated with care, support and a sense of belonging in a confidential and fully respectful manner.

You can listen to Micah and Jenny speak on The Good Work Hour about this topic.
If you have any questions, email [email protected] or [email protected]

“Let [Hine’s] song of loss and longing, his call to fugitivity, dispossess you of your steady gait and poise. Perhaps then we, collectively infected, might together witness the incomprehensible.”—Bayo Akomolafe, author of These Wilds Beyond Our Fences

GWI is excited to welcome writer and social thinker Dougald Hine to Kingston for a talk highlighting his book, At Work in the Ruins: Finding Our Place in the Time of Climate Crisis and Other Emergencies. Join us at the GWI Greenhouse, where we will gather to hear reflections on the consequences of our over-reliance on the single lens of science while inviting us to collectively explore paths beyond panic and polarization. Registration for this event includes a copy of the book and will be available on the evening of the event. The talk will be followed by a Q&A.

Event Overview:

5:45-6:15pm Check-in, pick up your book, grab a drink/snack, and settle in!

6:15-7:15pm Dougald, in conversation with David Brownstein, will discuss At Work in the Ruins. They will then open it up to the audience for a Q&A

7:15-8:00pm Book-signing + mingling!

About Dougald Hine:

Dougald Hine is a social thinker, writer and speaker. After an early career as a BBC journalist, he co-founded organizations including the Dark Mountain Project and a school called HOME. He has collaborated with scientists, artists and activists, serving as a leader of artistic development at Riksteatern (Sweden’s national theater) and as an associate of the Centre for Environment and Development Studies at Uppsala University. His latest book is At Work in the Ruins: Finding Our Place in the Time of Science, Climate Change, Pandemics & All the Other Emergencies (2023). He co-hosts The Great Humbling podcast and publishes a Substack called Writing Home. https://dougald.nu/