Registration
Free registration for this event is open to all members of PMN. Not a member? Check out our inclusive sliding scale membership policy.
Immediately upon registering, you will receive an e-mail confirmation that provides you a link to a private Zoom meeting.
Description
Come join us in this shared experience of Community and Heart. You're invited to enjoy a (digital) community circle where inspirational and empowering songs from many traditions rise up from the group. Singers offer a song one by one without instruments or song sheets. These are songs that people know or can learn easily without requiring a lot of teaching.
In this online event, we are drawing upon the tradition of Songs of the Spirit, which has been a consistent feature of PMN/SFS Gatherings since 1977. One person will sing and others will sing along. We ask everyone to mute themselves while the one person is singing, allowing all of us to at least see each other as we fill our separate physical spaces with music.
Between songs, we pause, breathe and feel the energy and connection of the group. We are sustaining this rich tradition during the pandemic, despite the inherent limits of Zoom. One part of our tradition is recognizing that the silence is sacred. In avoiding the urgency to fill a space with song, once we finally do fill a space with song, that song sinks in more deeply.
This is a wonderful opportunity to build community and to harmonize (in your own home) and to start the day with some grounded sacredness.
This event will not be livestreamed or recorded.
If you have any questions, please contact the coordinator:
SPECIAL INVITATIONS: If you can think of a person you know who would enjoy Songs of the Spirit, but they are not a PMN member, you can invite them to participate in this event. All you need to do is contact Joanne Tuller <jt4cmn@yahoo.com> and let her know that you are inviting folks. She will send you very simple instructions for how to invite guests to be part of this experience.
Register IN-PERSON
Read: PMN Winter Convergence Program
The 2025 People’s Music Network Winter Convergence takes place at Central Park East II School (433 East 100th Street, NYC): Enter the school from First Avenue and East 101st Street, NYC.
Click on the PMN Winter Convergence Program for details about Schedule, Workshops, Logistics (Food, Housing and Other), Directions, Transportation and more.
MEMBER RATES: To make member rates available and pre-fill your contact information, please login before registering. Not a member? Join PMN before registering and get a member discount.
Non-Member Registration Rate Table:
Full Weekend
non-member
Fri
Only
Sat.
Sun.
Adults (Standard)
$40
$90
$70
Adults (Discounted)
$30
$65
$45
Youth (Ages 13-25)
$85
$10
Children (Ages 5-12)
$50
Member Registration Rate Table:
$35
$25
$60
Discounts
Registration Policies:
The Matt Jones Scholarship Fund (MJSF): The MJTF fosters a multi-racial and inter-generational artistic and political community at PMN by covering registration costs (including meals) and travel costs for young people and people of color. Scholarship applicants may request up to $50 in travel stipends to reimburse for the cost of travel. Since 2016, the fund has awarded $24,400 in scholarship funds to people attending PMN gatherings. We're inviting individual registrants to consider making an extra contribution to the Matt Jones Scholarship Fund when you register in order to sustain this fund.
Note: When registering, please do not enter an e-mail address for children younger than 13 years of age. E-mail addresses for youth are optional, and for adults are optional but requested.
Register ZOOM-ONLY
Read: PMN Winter Gathering Program
The People's Music Network Winter Convergence takes place in NYC from January 24-26, 2025. Throughout the weekend, PMN will be using Zoom to livestream many parts of the event. We'll also be weaving in opportunities to be part of the dialog and share music, even if you can only participate through Zoom.
Recordings of all these sessions will be made available to PMN Members in the week following the Gathering.
ZOOM-Only REGISTRATION FEES EXPLAINED:
This inspiring concert features a diverse range of choral groups, demonstrating the power of music to foster “Community, Courage, and Resistance”. The concert opens up the People’s Music Network Winter Convergence in East Harlem, which runs from January 24-26, 2025. The convergence is a space where artists and activists from across the Northeast and beyond gather in person and online to sustain and develop traditions of music as a tool of social change. This music is essential to our activism, which brings us together in community. The songs strengthen the courage of people to resist injustice, war, and the destruction of the planet.
NOTE: One concert ticket is included when you register for the PMN Winter Convergence. Buy a concert ticket if you wish to attend the concert without registering for the full Winter Convergence.
*** PMN’S policy is to not turn anyone away for lack of funds.
PMN Pick Up Chorus, led by Jane Sapp: Jane Sapp is a powerful and highly regarded performer, songwriter, recording artist and educator who for many years has engaged with disenfranchised urban and rural communities in the United States and around the world. She has years of experience leading choirs as well as helping young people find their own voice through music. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia and is a member of the PMN Steering Committee. www.janesapp.org
New York City Labor Chorus: We bring labor’s message wherever we can, sharing the importance of unions in the struggle for social and economic justice and encouraging solidarity among working people everywhere. Our members belong to over 20 different unions, and we promote union solidarity and social justice through song. Our repertoire tells the story of labor’s history and ongoing struggles, drawing on gospel, jazz, classical, and folk traditions. We sing on picket lines, and we’ve sung at Carnegie Hall. Since 1991 we’ve brought our musical message to union halls, community centers, protests, and stages throughout the New York area and to Canada, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Sweden and Wales. https://nyclaborchorus.org/about-us/
Professor Louie: The “Poet of the Streets” has performed at more rallies, benefits, street fairs, meetings, and demonstrations than he, or anyone else, can remember.
Cappella Sur: We are a chamber vocal group dedicated to promoting the music of the Americas. Our members are artists from around the world, musicians, professionals, travelers, dreamers, teachers, dancers. Formed and conducted since 2013 by Maestro Guillermo Vaisman (musician and choral conductor), Cappella Sur invites you to take a musical road trip through Latin America.
The Brooklyn Women’s Chorus. We are a community chorus that was formed in October 1997 by Bev Grant, who was the director until she retired in 2021. This year we are thrilled to introduce our new director Caroline Kuhn. The chorus sings socially relevant songs by contemporary American songwriters such as Bev Grant, Garth Brooks, Jackson Browne, Pat Humphries and Sandy O. Topics range from freedom and social justice, to peace, resistance, women’s labor history, and empowerment. There are no auditions necessary to join the Brooklyn Women’s Chorus, only a strong desire to sing. The Brooklyn Women’s Chorus communicates with a joyful voice, sure to uplift anyone who hears them. https://www.brooklynwomenschorus.com/
The DC Labor Chorus. Founded in 1998, Elise Bryant continues to serve as Director of the chorus, and Steve Jones as the Music Director. Over the course of 25 years, the chorus has thrived while sticking closely to its core missions—to make music together and to advance the cause of social justice. We have sung for protest marches and union meetings, serenaded workers on picket lines, and performed at political rallies, church services, parades, and funerals. The chorus has performed the classic works of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Joe Glazer, Bernice Johnson Reagon, and Bev Grant, sung traditional folk songs, jazz and Broadway standards, and spirituals, and offered up original compositions tied to the breaking news of the day. We’ve performed two concerts every year and served as a vital part of the annual Great Labor Arts Exchange. And we’ve even staged two full original “jazz labor operas,” entirely composed by Steve Jones. The DCLC is excited and honored to be featured at the People Music Network’s Winter Convergence opening concert of 2025.
Register IN-PERSON (Coming Soon!)
Read Summer Gathering Program (Coming Soon!)
The 2025 People’s Music Network Summer Gathering takes place at Camp Grotonwood, Groton, MA.
Save the date: add the PMN Summer Gathering to your Google calendar.
The event begins with arrival and participatory singing on Friday, May 23, 2025. Then on Saturday and Sunday (May 24 & 25), we’ll have participatory workshops and song swaps, and a Saturday night “Collaborative Concert Round Robin” – all highlighting the role of music in progressive social change. Expect numerous opportunities to share music, sing together, and to join efforts to bring music into the heart of struggles for justice and freedom today.
Click on the Summer Gathering Overview (coming soon!) for details about Schedule, Workshops, Logistics (Food, Housing and Other), Directions, Transportation and more.
Registration Rate Table:
With Lodging
No Lodging
$305
$215
$120
$95
$240
$185
$100
$125
$115
$75
©2017-2021 People's Music Network for Songs of Freedom and Struggle is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
