Art is the medicine that actually allows us to metabolize charge. It allows us to metabolize trauma. It takes the intensity that’s left in the system, and this goes all the way back to ritual. Art, for me, is a sort of a tributary coming off from ritual that is still sort of consensually allowed in this reality when the direct communication with nature through ritual was silenced. 

shante sojourn zenith, conscient podcast, May 4, 2021, Minnesota

Shante’ Sojourn Zenith is an animist somatic practitioner creating Edge Rituals to tend the wounds of her kin’s unmetabolized ancestral trauma and developmental dissociation from embodiment by re-enlivening relationship to elemental earth consciousness and initiatory process. She works both one-on-one and in group spaces to create emergent explorations informed by nervous system state shifting, metaphor-based symbolic modeling, constellations, intuitive voice and movement, grief tending, and earth-rooted ritual. Shante’ is currently germinating an art project called Long Body Prayers, a podcast, oracle deck, and pedagogical process for re-membering the relational root system of support each being is embedded in. 

Shante’ has asked to name that in this podcast she is speaking from an entangled root system of animist somatics that will have aspects of her teachers and collaborators voices in her own words. What she speaks is a transmutation of many voices, including Kris Nourse, Azul Valerie Thome, Francis Weller, Annemiek van Helsdingen, Susan Raffo, Liz Koch, Tada Hozumi, Dare Sohei, Larissa Kaul, Deb Dana, and Sarah Peyton. Specifically in this podcast, her understanding of the way the Peak Valley Recovery Pattern relates to cultural bodies is credited to Tada Hozumi’s essay What comes next? The dawn of a new era of cultural somatic activism (https://tadahozumi.com/what-comes-next-the-dawn-of-a-new-era-of-cultural-somatic-activism/).  Other influential beings in Shante’s unfolding have been the moon, a birch tree in Vermont, an oak tree in California, and the turtles of Bass Lake marsh on Dakota land in Mni Sota Makoce.

I first heard about Shante’s work through her Fruiting Bodies: Collapse as Medicine, Liminal Portals, Mycelial Entanglements essay in Dark Matter magazine. This sentence in particular caught my attention and stuck with me:

… we fear experiences of disintegration, breakdown, and collapse. But what if the collapse is also a part of the medicine? There are openings and cracks in these times of breakdown, windows into other worlds.

Her writing made sense to me, but I did not really understand how to relate he work to the climate emergency, so I asked her and was enriched by our conversation. It’s the kind of recording that is worth listening to twice to further retain nuance. 

As I did with all episodes this season, I have integrated excerpts from previous episodes in this case, from e19 reality in this episode. 

I would like to thank Shante’ for taking the time to speak with me, for sharing her world view, her practices, including the idea that ‘art is the medicine that actually allows us to metabolize charge’.

For more information on Shante’s work, see www.earthpoetedgeweaver.com.

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L’art est le médicament qui nous permet de métaboliser la charge. Il nous permet de métaboliser les traumatismes. Il prend l’intensité qui reste dans le système, et cela remonte jusqu’au rituel. L’art, pour moi, est une sorte d’affluent provenant du rituel qui est encore autorisé de manière consensuelle dans cette réalité lorsque la communication directe avec la nature par le biais du rituel a été réduite au silence. 

shante’ sojourn zenith, balado conscient, 4 mai 2021, Minnesota

Shante’ Sojourn Zenith est une praticienne somatique animiste qui crée des Rituels de Bordure pour soigner les blessures des traumatismes ancestraux non métabolisés de ses proches et la dissociation développementale de l’incarnation en ravivant la relation avec la conscience élémentaire de la terre et le processus initiatique. Elle travaille à la fois individuellement et en groupe pour créer des explorations émergentes informées par le changement d’état du système nerveux, la modélisation symbolique basée sur des métaphores, les constellations, la voix et le mouvement intuitifs, le traitement du chagrin et les rituels enracinés dans la terre. Shante’ est en train de faire germer un projet artistique appelé Long Body Prayers, un balado, un jeu d’oracle et un processus pédagogique pour se souvenir du système relationnel de soutien dans lequel chaque être est intégré.

Shante’ a demandé de nommer le fait que, dans ce balado, elle parle à partir d’un système de racines enchevêtrées de somatique animiste, et que certains aspects de la voix de ses enseignants et de ses collaborateurs seront intégrés dans ses propres mots. Ce qu’elle dit est une transmutation de nombreuses voix, dont celles de Kris Nourse, Azul Valerie Thome, Francis Weller, Annemiek van Helsdingen, Susan Raffo, Liz Koch, Tada Hozumi, Dare Sohei, Larissa Kaul, Deb Dana et Sarah Peyton. Plus précisément dans ce podcast, sa compréhension de la manière dont le Peak Valley Recovery Pattern se rapporte aux corps culturels est attribuée à l’essai de Tada Hozumi intitulé What comes next ? L’aube d’une nouvelle ère d’activisme somatique culturel (https://tadahozumi.com/what-comes-next-the-dawn-of-a-new-era-of-cultural-somatic-activism/ ).  D’autres êtres influents dans le déroulement de Shante’ ont été la lune, un bouleau dans le Vermont, un chêne en Californie et les tortues du marais de Bass Lake sur la terre des Dakota à Mni Sota Makoce.

J’ai entendu parler du travail de Shante’ pour la première fois par le biais de son article Fruiting Bodies: Collapse as Medicine, Liminal Portals, Mycelial Entanglements dans le magazine Dark Matter. Cette phrase, en particulier, a attiré mon attention et m’a marquée :

… nous craignons les expériences de désintégration, de rupture et d’effondrement. Mais que faire si l’effondrement fait aussi partie de la médecine ? Il y a des ouvertures et des fissures dans ces moments de rupture, des fenêtres vers d’autres mondes.

Son écriture avait du sens pour moi mais je ne comprenais pas vraiment comment relier son travail à l’urgence climatique, alors je lui ai demandé et notre conversation m’a beaucoup enrichi. C’est le genre d’enregistrement qui vaut la peine d’être écouté deux fois pour mieux saisir les nuances. 

Comme je l’ai fait pour tous les épisodes de cette saison, j’ai intégré des extraits d’épisodes précédents – dans ce cas, de la e19 reality â€“ dans cet épisode. 

Je tiens à remercier Shante’ d’avoir pris le temps de me parler, de partager sa vision du monde, ses pratiques, et notamment l’idée que “L’art est le médicament qui nous permet de métaboliser la charge”.

Pour plus d’informations sur le travail de Shante’, voir www.earthpoetedgeweaver.com

The post e38 zenith appeared first on conscient podcast / balado conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

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About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term ‘conscient’ is defined as ‘being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations’. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016–2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie’s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

Season 2 (March 2021 – ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that ‘I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, ‘the state of things as they actually exist’, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way’. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

my professional services

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I’m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias

While recording episode 19 ‘reality’, I heard elements of ‘privilege’ in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like ‘ecological mansplaining’. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

Go to conscient.ca

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