Snack and chat
Welcome and opening circle
Learn a new song and relearn two recent songs
Hear from our community partner about the work they are doing in the Denver Metro area at the intersection of environmental, indigenous and immigration justice and request for optional donation
Break
Join back together to sing for another 30-45 minutes (community chooses from song sheets)
Community announcements
We rotate between members' homes, aiming to alternate between different parts of the city—west, east, central, north, and south—to make gatherings as accessible and convenient as possible for everyone.
Because we meet in different locations each month, the logistics and accessibility of the space will vary. Some gatherings may be outdoors in members' yards during the warmer months (we aim to meet outside 2–3 times each year). Other locations may have stairs, while others will be step-free.
Each month's email will include specific logistics and accessibility information for that gathering so you know what to expect.
Sitting in a circle with options for floor and chair seating (armchairs, couches, kitchen table chairs, cushions on the floor, lazy creeks)
Lighting varies depending on the home (leaning toward lamps instead of overhead lights when possible)
Attendance can range from 15-45 people
Background music playing on soft speaker in the background as people arrive
Sound levels can get as loud as 45 people singing with drums, shakers, and occasionally guitar
Sometimes spontaneous dancing!
Most people in attendance sing, but singing is not required
No knowledge of singing or Hebrew needed
Some members bring potluck snacks to share, and there are usually gluten free and dairy free options available
No childcare is available on site, and there isn't kid-specific programming, but kids of all ages are welcome!
We generally have a quiet room available at each location for nursing parents and folx who might need a lower stim space
We ask that you be mindful of perfumes and strong scents
We're mask-optional & community-minded. Sick or just post-Covid? Take care now and come back shining next time. We will provide masks at each event for folx who want to mask.
We gather on a monthly basis to nourish our souls and recharge our bodies. We are here to explore the expansiveness of Jewish tradition outside of institutional space and connect to our diasporic ancestral roots. As members of the Nigun Collective, we recognize that we are gathering across political ideology in relation to Palestine and Israel.
And so we ask and continue to ask: Can we gather here together, in a liminal space? Can we hold all our experiences? How might we rely on the generational tools of gathering in community to sing, uplifting connection and care?
In our exploration of clarity and language around these questions, we turn to the words of Jewish singer/song-writer Batya Levine: “I’m praying and fighting for a world where every single human can live in freedom and dignity, where nobody is treated as disposable, and where everyone can thrive. I’m davening for a world where the safety, dignity, and freedom of Palestinians is not in contradiction with the safety, dignity, and freedom of Israelis and Jews, because the shalom that I am praying for is wide enough to hold us all.”
May the Nigun Collective be a place where we gather in song to widen that which can “hold us all.” May song hold the loneliness and fears we sometimes experience in Jewish space. May song loosen the ways we narrow our perspectives and constrict around narrative. May song encompass us under a sukkah of peace and liberation, not peace and quiet. May song hold us to allow space for the brokenness of all hearts. And may song bring alignment to our souls and action to our bodies. Ken y'hi ratzon, may it be so!
A core part of our mission is to offer a space where people can rest, reconnect, and find restoration after engaging in protest and justice work. Many other communities exist to organize, mobilize, and sustain that important work, and many of our members are active in those spaces. Our role is different. As a result, we don't sing protest songs in support of a particular political ideology or movement.
At the same time, we're a space where conversations about I/P are welcome. When someone offers a song to teach, they usually share what the song means to them or what it brings up for them personally. Over the years, people have dedicated songs to Palestinian liberation, to family in Israel, and to many other deeply held experiences. We intentionally hold an intergenerational space where people with a wide range of relationships to I/P gather and sing together.