Dear Friends,
Welcome! Thanks for coming to visit!
 This is an exciting time in our history, as we commemorate one of our most important civil rights campaigns in our country. In Washington State we’ve been celebrating one hundred years of women's right to vote…soon to be followed by California and Oregon.
I’ve been on the road with my multi-media presentation, Here's to the Women!...32 towns, so far! I am thrilled to be going to small communities throughout the State presenting these stories of the silencing and the raising up of women's voices. Many thanks to the Inquiring Mind program of Humanities Washington, to the Washington Women's History Consortium, and to the many organizations and individuals who have supported me in this work.
I'm also celebrating the release of a brand new CD of the same name: Nineteen songs with stories out of women’s history, with a special emphasis on the campaign for Suffrage, in Washington and nationally.
Here at home, I am proud to be the director of the Bellingham Threshold Choir. I’m now a Certified Clinical Musician, so I've had many hours in that sacred place, at the bedside of those who are suffering or dying. Our Choir has a new web site: www.bellinghamthresholdchoir.org. I'm loving giving workshops on “Singing at the Threshold”.
In addition to the “Here's to the Women!” program, I am presenting my other multi-media presentation, Pilgrimage: Journey to the Heart of Israel and Palestine. It chronicles my experiences of the conflict in the Middle East with an emphasis on children's experience through art. I was invited to visit in 2006, where I sang for school children and groups of all ages, and visited with Israeli and Palestinian peace workers.
In these pages you can hear songs, see the lyrics, read old newsletters, learn more about workshops, see old photos, and see where I'll be next. You can sign up for my email newsletter, which I send quite sporadically, which may contain recipes, bits of wisdom, poems, song bits and reminiscences.
These have been dark times for so many people. As I write, huge corporations seem to be gaining unlimited power, health care is a shambles, and our environment is under attack at every level. Many dear friends have lost their jobs. As the late Studs Terkel said, “Hope dies last”. It is in you, my friends and community, that I find hope. Let's keep it going.
In the light of hope,
Linda
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 PRESENTATION:
Here's to the Women!
Songs, Stories & Images Of Washington's Women;
Presented by Linda Allen
Washington State is celebrating 100 years since the passage of Women's Suffrage. Linda has prepared a special program, highlighting both the silencing and the empowering of women's voices in Washington State. Linda's power-point, musical presentation features songs, stories, readings and images, with a special emphasis on the fifty-year struggle for the vote. Concerts and workshops are also available on the theme of women's history.
 PILGRIMAGE:
Journey to the
Heart of Israel and Palestine
In 2006, Linda was invited to visit Palestine and Israel with the Peacebuilders program to sing for school children. When she returned, she created a recording of songs to be used with the educational curriculum being developed, and she created a power point/musical presentation to share her experience. At the heart of the presentation are children's drawings from the Palestinian Child Arts Center. Please click on the poster for more information. For photos of Linda's journey, click here.
 TOPICAL SONGS
“We Are The Rainbow Sign”
Written for Al Gore's Climate Project.
A song on global warming.
LISTEN (mp3 file, 2.1 MB)
“Nobody Came”
A lament for New Orleans
LISTEN (mp3 file, 5.6 MB)
ABOUT LINDA ALLEN . . .
Linda Allen is a passionate and engaging performer whose songs are rooted in tradition and honed by years of commitment to an art that both informs and transforms. Her songs are bold, poignant, funny, informative, insightful and best described in a review from Folknik which called her music "·good holistic medicine for the spirit." She’s released nine CDs of original music.
Her passion, as a songwriter, presenter, choir director, and educator, is to help people find their physical, creative, and spiritual voices. Her songs also give voice to those whose voices may have been silenced.
Her songs have been sung and/or recorded by many artists including Rebel Voices, Seattle Women's Ensemble, Kulshan Chorus, Wisconsin Women's Chorus, Cindy Mangsen, Joe Jencks, Frankie Armstrong, Judy Small and many others. They have appeared in publications such as Sing Out! and Broadside, in books and song collections, and have been used for numerous film, radio and television programs.
Her albums and CD's have featured outstanding artists including Margie Adam, Betsy Rose, Frankie Armstrong, Alison Brown, Geof Morgan, Cary Black, Julian Smedley, Philip Boulding, Nina Gerber, Tracy Spring and her own talented daughters, Jen and Kristin Allen-Zito.
A prolific writer, Linda is also a song collector. She was Resident Songwriter for the State of Washington's Centennial Project; she also worked extensively with the Washington Women’s History Consortium, the Washington Women's Heritage Project and the Washington Grange Music Heritage Project.
Linda teaches classes, retreats, workshops and keynote presentations, serves as an artist-in-residence and enjoys going into schools, communities and conferences to give customized workshops on history, singing, songwriting, and creativity. Linda has organized two community folk centers and is a recipient of an Artist Trust Fellowship. She is also an ordained interfaith Doctor of Ministry, and offers sermons and presentations for various spiritual communities and retreat centers. Her doctoral thesis was “The Bridge Between the Earth and Sky: The Spirituality of Voice”.
In 2007, Linda organized the Bellingham Threshold Choir, whose purpose is to sing at the bedside of those who are seriously ill or dying. She is a certified Clinical Musician, and presents workshops on “Singing at the Threshold: Principles and Practices for Singing at the Bedside”. Linda was recently inducted into the Northwest Women’s Hall of Fame for her work with the Choir. |
Linda Allen sings the songs that tell of the lives and the work, the hopes and the dreams of people everywhere. Her interest in songwriting has grown out of her love for traditional music as well as her interest in our collective history. She has a talent for reaching into the ordinary to find the profound, setting it to music and singing it home.
MOVIE!
THE POWER
OF VOICE
Offers clips from Linda's vocal workshop, songwriting workshop, and keynote address, along with participant's comments.
Clark College Women's Conference, 2003
To Watch - Click Here
(7.8 MB, Quicktime Movie)
For booking information, comments,
or to sign up for our email list
Contact October Rose Productions:
Email Linda
Copyright ©2011
October Rose Productions,
2224 Utter St. Bellingham, WA
98225 USA
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