Stills from music videos from Laurel Premo's record Laments
Aiwa • featuring macrocinematography and orchestrated chemical reactions created by YonkersVidal
Grief of the Angler • featuring dance by Yali Rivlin, cinematography and art direction from John Hanson, and music, editing, and color from Laurel Premo
Lament 1 • featuring macrocinematography and orchestrated chemical reactions created by YonkersVidal
On Art, Ritual, and Music:
Laurel Premo and Brad Kik in Conversation
Taped one year ago. Click below to listen, or read on for a short excerpt. We're still editing the full transcript and will share it at a later date.
Laurel: Okay - excellent. I am no expert in this department but can definitely shed
some light on the background of lamentation traditions. This knowledge came to
me first as an impulse around age nineteen / twenty when I was studying folk
music in Finland - that was my first exposure to the concept of lamentation through
the lens of the traditions of Karelia and Ireland / Scotland. Just in the last two
years, I returned to this research to learn more about lamentation after I had
created these songs, these wailing songs that were nonverbal and grief-based,
and I had this realization that instead of just being inspired by the emotional guide
work of those traditions (an impulse which had moved me in my twenties and
shaped some of the ethos around music), that now in this period that I might be
working with actual lamentation. So I returned to study more. I returned to others’
research to learn about laments and to come to understand that they're a global
phenomenon, as old as humans are probably. ‘Keening’ is the word used in Irish
Scottish traditions. There's a term in every language for it.
Brad: I think of Bob Marley and the Wailers, right? Like the ‘Wailers’ were also
coming out of that similar kind of...
Laurel: Beautiful
Brad: ...like the wailing, the ‘crying’ - that word is often an interpretation of the
word in different languages.
Laurel: Yes. When there is a need to grieve, a lamenter is a community member
who holds the role to offer, academically, what is referred to as ‘performative
ritualized mourning.’ So, through the layered weaving of recitation, prayer, or
improvised spoken word and song or improvised sounding that swells to quavering
sounds and crying tones with the voice, that expression, that leadership of
emotion allows the witnesses to enter emotion themselves. So, it's kind of a role
as a guide into feeling and perhaps out through the other side of it, and offered
because feeling is really difficult, increasingly more so in our societies as we as
humans get more and more disconnected. Grieving in our Western culture has
been quite bound - bound up, suppressed in a way that we've forgotten how to
grieve for some generations. But - they needed help with this even three hundred
years ago...
The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration
|| 1 || Witnessing a buddy totally in his element—that's been one of my favorite pieces of Crosshatch’s involvement with the Heirloom Apple Orchard this past season. Grant is passionate about apples, and while you might not pick up on that in other everyday settings, work alongside him in the orchard and you’ll sense the “right person—right place” electricity. A while ago, he told me about Gnarly Pippins, another member of the apple-passionate ilk. I knew I appreciated the aesthetics of Matt “Gnarly Pippins” Kaminsky’s work, but it wasn’t until listening to this podcast that I got it.
Scrump! Your Guide to Foraging Wild Apples with Matt Kaminsky on the WildFed Podcast is a fascinating conversation about the genus Malus, delving into history, genetics, culture, and more, all from a perspective especially appealing to fans of low-intervention systems, handwork, and fermentation. If nothing else, you'll get a better understanding of what in the world "scrumping" and "pippins" mean. And if you're already familiar with those, Eliza (another of the apple ilk) Greenman's note of caution on heterozygosity in settings where commercial production and highly diversified orchards meet might spark a reaction.
|| 2 || From Rob Lewis' poem Two Ways In To A Forest:
The mind divines for a sum
but as you walk
something else enters the body.
And if some later night
a fragment appears in dream
consider it a gift
and a kind of accomplishment, it means
when you went in to the woods
you let the woods in.
Lewis' poem comes with a quick write-up from Washington state's Guemes Island, where the author explores the distinction between learning about the wet woods and getting to know them. There’s a visitor in his reflection, a doe, that reminds me of the subject matter of Leaf Litter: Notes on Restoring and Reinhabiting the Great Lakes Bioregion, Vol. #2. It isn’t in print. Now that I think of it, I don’t know that the first volume, featuring Stephanie Mills, is either. Leaf Litter was put together by a few folks, including Jeremy Siegrist, who had a couple of foraging-centric writings featured in the Whole Field Vol. 4, No. 8.
I’ll leave you with that. Whether or not you're able to find the zine, I hope you’re truly encountering the places you call home. That practice of encounter might be a balm to many maladies, a Clearing in the Wild, perhaps.
The Weft — News and Events
We’re heartened by a wide-range of expressions of resilient communities and gatherings. Here’s a smattering of regional events and happenings that reflect that diversity, collected for your consideration. Choose your own adventure!
|| 1 || Antrim Writers Series - Lane Regan. Lane (Iliana) Regan is the Michelin-star chef and prior owner of Elizabeth restaurant in New York, which she turned over to her employees in 2020 in order to run the Milkweed Inn Bed and Breakfast in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Their debut memoir, Burn the Place, was longlisted for the National Book Award, the first time a food writer has been nominated since Julia Child. In addition to working as the chef and owner of Milkweed Inn, they earned an MFA in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and authored a new memoir, Fieldwork: A Forager's Memoir.
-Reading and Book Signing: Nov. 18, 7-8:30pm, Boston Winery (Elk Rapids).
-Memoir Writing Workshop: Nov. 19, 1-3pm, Grass River Natural Area (Bellaire).
|| 2 || Bellaire Artist Guild Holiday Art Market @ Crosshatch Meeting Place + Mercantile. Saturday, December 5th, noon-6pm. Explore a curated selection of artists and makers offering a variety of art and artisan goods available for sale, all during downtown Bellaire's annual Light Up The Night celebration.
|| 3 || Ship Yard is back! A program of Crosshatch at The Alluvion, Ship Yard is a way to support upcoming songwriters in our region. The application is free, and accepted artists receive:
-a high-quality audio and video recording (including files for later mastering) of your performance
professional head shots from photographer Tyler Franz
-a high-quality space to perform
-a generous and attentive audience
-lots of technical support
-a $50 /musician stipend (capped at $250/band)
|| 4 || Doing It Ourselves: Fifty Years of Critique & Action in Punk. On display through January 2027, East Lansing. "In 1976, punk sprang onto the scene, creating a movement that rejected cultural gatekeeping and prioritized a DIY ethos. Featuring selections from one of the most comprehensive zine collections in the United States, “Doing it Ourselves: 50 Years of Critique and Action in Punk” celebrates the zines, music, and art of the movement, from the first waves of British punk to the global community. Now on display at the Michigan State University Libraries in the Main Gallery through January 2027."
|| 5 || Upcoming Ship Yard performance: Dec. 1 - Handsome Dan and the Hooligans + Meski
|| 6 || The Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable, & Farm Market Expo (GLEXPO) - December 8th-10th, Grand Rapids. Early bird registration available until November 15th. Find more information in the brochure here or tickets here.
|| 7 || Happenings at The Alluvion Between Now and the Next Whole Field include: Funky Uncle + DJ Ras Marco, The Jeff Haas Trio feat Laurie Sears + Lisa Flahive, Tariq Gardner’s Evening Star + SkyeLea, The Fabulous Horndogs, the olllam, Here:Say Storytelling Presents: Different Strokes, Laurel Premo Laments Vinyl & Book Release Show, and Fabiola Méndez.
Find more information at thealluvion.org.
sponsored by:
Desmond Liggett Wealth Advisors is a mission-driven, fee-only wealth management company with a simple purpose: to generate exceptional value for the individuals, families, small business owners, and non-profit organizations they serve. Desmond Liggett Wealth Advisors believe in and adhere to triple-bottom-line analysis for portfolio investments, ensuring that they review how a company’s environmental and social values impact its long-term resilience and, consequently, value.
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