Listening Festival
led by Helen Hawes and Gena Corea
co-sponsored with the Brattleboro Time Trade
featured World class fiddler Lissa Schneckenburger
October 23rd, 2011
Sunday, 2–5 p.m.
A Listening Festival will be held October 23rd from 2-5 p.m. at Geryunant in West Dummerston, open to all Windham County residents reeling from the traumatic events of the last few months. The Listening Festival provides a structure in which neighbors can speak their experiences, feelings and thoughts and be well heard.
The recent traumatic events have included the Brooks fire displacing many renters and businesses in Brattleboro center; murder by the Covered Bridge in Dummerston and at the Brattleboro Coop; the disappearance of the young Marble Arvidson; the flooding caused by Hurricane Irene August 28 with damage and displacement suffered by many residents and businesses.
Jointly sponsored by the retreat center Geryunant near Stickney Brook and by Brattleboro Time Trade, a two-year-old member-helping-member organization, the Listening Festival is free of charge.
Why a Listening Festival? Carrying around experiences and feelings that one longs to express but cannot is a kind of suffering. The Festival aims to provide a space where people can be fully, compassionately and non-judgementally heard. This kind of unconditional listening allows inside things to come out of hiding, speak their truth, and continue their growth, rather than remaining frozen and stuck inside.
Listening circles will be facilitated by Geryunant co-directors Helen Hawes and Gena Corea. Both are certified trainers in Focusing, a practice that involves deep listening.
The Festival will include some brief instruction on listening. While it may seem strange to treat listening as something that needs to be taught, in fact true listening is rare. In a fast paced and goal-oriented society we are often rewarded for doing, fixing, and changing things. There is little practice in or time to slow down and be fully present to another person. Our common circumstances over the last few months provide us with an opportunity to give this gift of full presence to one another.
The listening circles at the Festival will be punctuated by good food and music. Everyone is welcome.
Co-facilitator Helen Hawes is a practicing artist with works in many private and corporate collections. She is also a Reiki Master, and the creativity consultant for a large software company. She works and plays at Geryunant, with groups and individuals, using the arts to encourage and support personal growth. She has developed a unique series of workshops, including More Than Meets the Eye, which teaches people to navigate in the world of the unseen reality.
Since 1998, co-facilitator Gena Corea has led Listening Circles and inner growth workshops for men serving long terms in a Massachusetts prison. The author of three books published by HarperCollins, Corea alternates work on her current writing project with private sessions of Focusing or sabuhalla, a hands-on healing practice, for her clients at Geryunant.
Geryunant, founded in 2003, is an intimate retreat center bringing together Focusing and artistic expression in the healing presence of nature. Details on its offerings are available at www.geryunant.com.
Geryunant co-directors Corea and Hawes both belong to Brattleboro Time Trade whose members are volunteering a variety of skills to create the Listening Festival.
Brattleboro Time Trade, in using a new currency of “time credits,” has found a way to value each person’s time/life equally. Time Trade members earn credits by using their time and skills to help others. Each hour of service provided to another member earns one time credit. Members can spend their time credits on services provided by any other members.
Under a “community service” category, members creating the Listening Festival receive time credits.
“Our future depends on depending on each other,” Brattleboro Time Trade maintains on its website: www.brattleborotimetrade.org.
By awarding credits to people who offer their labor to support their community in times of need, Brattleboro Time Trade builds strong networks of support among community members.
Questions? For more information and to RSVP, contact:
| Helen Hawes | 802-254-6881 | helenrhawes@gmail.com | geryunant.com |
| 802-257-3099 | |||
