Hello folks! If you’re anything like me this festive season, you’re not interested in a pressured capitalist flurry, and plan on showing your love for your loved ones through presence (where possible) rather than presents. You might also be thinking of making a few carefully chosen purchases or handmade offerings for your close beloveds as another way to show love and care. If as a part of that you want to support local artists and/or important charity work, for any festive generosity you may be planning, please consider:
*Buying a Helping Hat!
Choose from what pre-made ones I have in for quickness, or have one specially made as you wish if you can wait longer and be patient. 50% of what you pay for this (postage excluded) will go to work at the crisis in Yemen via Save The Children Yemen or Oxfam Yemen, or you can choose another charity
https://getbrightonsinging.com/2019/04/29/helping-hats/
*Buying a print of some art! I can home print these for you or explore swankier printing methods (which will affect costs, I expect). 50% of fee, depending on extra printing costs, will go to a charity of your choosing, if it’s one I am happy to support
https://getbrightonsinging.com/art/
*Buying someone a Vocal Session! See details at getbrightonsinging.com You buy a number of vocal sessions (however many you like) for somebody you know would love them, I make you a personalised Vocal Voucher with their name which I send to you by email, so you can forward it to them or print it to give them by hand. They then contact me to arrange when to have their sessions. Please note that vocal voucher sessions take place during my normal days and hours at Hobgoblin (see website). The Vocal Vouchers aren’t a charity supporting gift, for practical survival reasons. However I am an independent artist doing creative empowering uplifting connective work with people, and you can choose to support this if you think you know somebody who would love a singing lesson or vocal coaching session! If Hobgoblin is unsuitable for your person of choice (it has stairs), tell me at the beginning of the booking process so we can look at options.
*Buying someone a session at GLOW Choir next term, or a whole term of GLOW Choir fun! GLOW Choir is a Natural Voice Community Choir for LGBTQ+ Folks and Allies, at which all voices are welcome. Give someone the gift of community singing, making wonderful friends, learning a cappella musics in a wide variety of moods and genres from across the globe, and a fun encouraging space in which to explore group singing and learn about their voice without judgement. Contact me for deets.
Those are my personal offerings, for support-local-creative-folks-and-global-charity-work gift ideas! Also if you have other friends who are artists of any kind, do see if they might have anything suitable for your purposes and wishes, and support small independent folkses rather than big evil corps, when you can (we’ve all seen the articles about appalling treatment of amazon workers, right? Let’s do what we can to avoid/reduce supporting things like that, and be resourceful elsewhere).
You might also like to come to GLOW Choir End of Term Sharing, a fiesta of community arts, from which 50% of the profits will go to support local charity the Survivors Network. At the Sharing, as well as music, poetry, improv, food and friendly folks, there will also be a charity craft table with items by GLOW choir members supporting MindOut and Autism Sussex, and more. Details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1024435764599871/ And below:
On that same day as GLOW End of Term Sharing, there is a craft fair 11-5 at Friends Meeting House: The Visability Arts Winter Fair. With work by artists and Makers with invisible Disabilities/long term health conditions/neuro-divergences. The event sounds amazing! https://www.facebook.com/events/2192465227710261/
Big love peeps. Please prioritise love, human kindness and self care this festive season. xx
we have fallen into the place where everything is music - rumi 