Missing Witches - WF Michaela A. Harrison： We Are One

00:00:00.000 Just a reminder that the Missing Witches fundraiser for Native Women's Shelters is happening now, throughout the month of May.

00:00:09.520 Check out our website at www.missingwitches.com for all the details, and join us on Patreon at patreon.com slash missingwitches. 1.00

00:00:20.080 You aren't being a proper woman, therefore you must be a witch. 1.00

00:00:26.160 You must be a witch. 1.00

00:00:27.680 Hello to the Missing Witches Coven. Let's raise our voices in song together to welcome today's 0.65

00:00:37.780 guest, Michaela Harrison, also known in some circles in our circle as the Whale Whisperer.

00:00:46.100 Thank you so much for sitting down with us today to talk about your projects, plural.

00:00:53.980 I can't wait to talk about singing and I'm so excited to hear your particular bend on what

00:01:02.560 singing means to us. So again, welcome Michaela Harrison. Michaela, can you tell our listeners a

00:01:09.620 little bit about who you are? Yes, thank you so much for having me, Amy. It's a blessing to be

00:01:17.700 here I am a manifestation of divine source embodied as a black woman on the

00:01:34.080 prismatic spectrum that's my substitution for the word queer which I

00:01:39.700 don't identify with. I'm prismatic. I am right now enjoying the settling into middle age

00:01:53.260 and the reflections and the wisdom and clarity of perspective that are coming

00:02:02.540 with that transition. I am a singer. I am a writer. I am a layer on of hands, a healer,

00:02:15.800 a lover, a dreamer, a Pisces, and most definitely a witch.

00:02:25.460 That was possibly one of my favorite introductions, self-introductions.

00:02:30.620 I've heard there's I mean I have my list of questions that I want to ask you but now I have

00:02:37.040 a whole separate list um so like I guess before we get off of that tell me about queer versus

00:02:44.660 prismatic can you expand on that idea yeah I just don't like the word queer I I I would never use

00:02:57.520 that word to describe myself because it's not a word that's ever been a part of my vocabulary.

00:03:06.660 And honestly, when I talked about this before, but when I began to hear it, you know, be used

00:03:15.000 as sort of a catch all phrase for LGBTQIA, et cetera, folks, I was like, yeah, no, I don't,

00:03:27.520 So I wouldn't ever use that word. I mean, it's a word that feels very specific to not only like a white sort of vocabulary, but even like more like British in my mind is something that feels very detached from me just as a vocabulary choice, you know.

00:03:54.520 and I understand and identify with the idea of it. And I like the idea of a word that encompasses

00:04:04.620 all the letters, you know, um, and for me, it's a prism, it's a spectrum, right? It's,

00:04:13.620 it's the rainbow. Um, I'm also a big Judy Garland fan quiet as it's kept these days.

00:04:21.020 and I have a whole nother rabbit hole that we probably should not go down right now.

00:04:28.900 Oh no, please. To rainbows and how that really kicked in when I was 10 years old and I was

00:04:38.640 watching the Wizard of Oz and I just connected with Judy Garland's spirit and she was singing

00:04:45.160 over the rainbow and something happened. Like her spirit came and touched me. And then I like,

00:04:55.200 I went in, you know, and she's always been present with me since then, um, as a singer

00:05:02.240 and particularly around connecting with this, uh, sense of, of journeying and seeking home

00:05:13.580 and finding home wherever you find yourself and also this this connection with the rainbow and

00:05:23.340 that spectrum and that appearance you know of of the scope of possibilities of realities of

00:05:36.140 of manifestations of, of colors and, and possibilities. So the prism has resonance

00:05:45.960 for me on many different levels. And I was like, okay, well, if we're talking about the whole range

00:05:51.460 of expressions that are not, you know, white, cis, heteropatriarchy, then let's just call it

00:05:57.580 what it is, which is a prism. So I'm prismatic. I, I'm listeners, we have our cameras turned

00:06:03.580 off right now so Michaela can't see me just sitting here bouncing with a crazy smile on my

00:06:08.980 face I just want to articulate to you Michaela that I am sitting here bouncing with a crazy

00:06:15.100 smile on my face I love the notion of a prism too because how we view it depends on how it's

00:06:22.980 refracting the light it changes yes yes and of course I mean Wizard of Oz is like for for a lot 0.97

00:06:32.180 of us was this like first entryway into the possibility of going from a world that's black

00:06:38.200 and white into a world that's full of colors maybe i'll be prismatic listeners let's think about

00:06:47.300 so i i'm gonna go to uh your website there's something here i i read this little bit

00:06:57.220 I sent it to Marisa my podcasting partner and I was like doesn't this sound like something we

00:07:03.560 would have written like it just it resonated so much with me and with us and to you know our

00:07:11.320 coven so I'm going to read it now and then maybe we can again cut it up and talk about it word by

00:07:17.320 word. Okay. Let me take a sip of water. We are one. That is the central message pulsing through

00:07:28.700 this web that's spinning forth from me and that I'm being woven into. This confluence of sound

00:07:37.160 and image through and across waves of various types, marine, sound, brain, that for now

00:07:47.460 is called whale whispering. So again, I want to talk about every word of that individually,

00:07:55.760 but I guess maybe if you could introduce the whale whispering project to our listeners who

00:08:00.860 are unaware. Okay. Well, Whispering is a project that I've been working on for almost four years

00:08:10.960 now, since 2018. That is based in Bahia, Brazil, where I spend a lot of time. And the gist of the

00:08:22.200 project is that I am listening to singing with composing songs inspired by and with humpback

00:08:32.320 whales to tap into the messages that they have for me for us around water our relationship to water

00:08:43.620 nature in general and more specifically the memories that they hold in their ancestral

00:08:51.720 storage of accompanying ships journeying through the Middle Passage, making the crossing,

00:09:02.920 the Middle Passage during enslavement, and having heard the sounds coming from the ships

00:09:11.060 and holding that record in their songs, and also the exchange that happened between those Africans

00:09:18.800 on the ships who heard the whales. And so tapping into that memory for lineage healing,

00:09:29.440 for collective healing, and bringing forth songs that express the vibration of that power

00:09:39.760 and that healing and that connection um and then on a on a deeper more personal level

00:09:50.080 um tapping into the healing energy of the vibration of whale songs for my personal womb

00:09:59.040 healing um which is also related to the lineage healing as there's so much ancestral womb trauma

00:10:07.440 in this history of capture and enslavement that people of African descent in the Americas have

00:10:17.100 lived for many, many generations. So it's multi-layered. And while it's very specific

00:10:27.520 in some ways, it's also very much for everyone and anyone who feels like they can

00:10:35.380 um access it and resonate with it you know and as you read my my understanding of the central

00:10:47.440 message that the whales want to bring is one of of union one of really um

00:10:57.340 um tapping us into the fact that that we're one and it's it's so simple

00:11:06.280 yet here we are seven plus billion just human beings so-called human beings you know and

00:11:14.420 countless other living beings just on this planet and so we can easily get um away from living the

00:11:26.760 awareness of the oneness. And I've been experiencing how the whale songs and the

00:11:33.760 vibration and the energy and the presence, the spirit of the whales can help us tap back into

00:11:40.460 that. Yes. So many questions. Did you find that this message of oneness was something that

00:11:51.540 built up over the four years of your project or was there a day when it was just like

00:11:57.660 we are one and the message was very strong at a very particular time or was it more of like a

00:12:04.220 slow build to that realization um well you know that knowing sort of always in my consciousness

00:12:14.320 somewhere, not necessarily at the very forefront. When I began this project,

00:12:21.080 in 2019, I had my first opportunity to use the equipment that has allowed me to

00:12:32.140 project my voice underwater to the whales and then listen back. So sort of have a live

00:12:43.480 live conversation with the whales underwater, you know, and the recording of that first

00:12:52.460 session. So up until then, I had been just singing into the air from the boat and interacting with

00:12:59.300 them, you know, without equipment, sometimes listening to their songs from underwater through

00:13:05.780 a hydrophone, play through a speaker or headphones onto the boat, but mostly just,

00:13:11.420 you know without equipment and so the recording of that first experiment with the equipment

00:13:18.140 when I listened back to it I listened to it over and over and there was one particular phrase

00:13:24.620 that I kept hearing repeated it's a three note phrase that was those are the notes and that's

00:13:34.720 the rhythm and I kept hearing it and I was like what is that that is something that that is like

00:13:46.240 a key they're saying something with that you know and I listened and I listened and I listened and

00:13:53.620 I left it alone and I came back and I listened some more and then I heard it I heard we are one

00:14:01.600 i feel like we are one well i didn't hear the words at that time but i received that message

00:14:10.440 that that's what was being communicated you know and so i was like all right and that's when i

00:14:19.040 wrote the piece that you read the excerpt from that's on my website and

00:14:26.700 And I sort of held that as, you know, as I said, so the central message that they want to lay and operating from that as a foundation.

00:14:37.340 And then I was blessed to be able to purchase this equipment last year for the project, thanks to a grant from V-Day, yay V-Day, and V, formerly known as E. Vensler.

00:14:57.740 Shout her out.

00:14:59.200 We're talking about the witches. 0.99

00:15:00.780 Yeah, shout out E. Vensler.

00:15:02.420 And so I had multiple opportunities on the last whale whispering mission, which was August through October of 2021 to do this recording underwater with the whales to have these conversations.

00:15:24.040 And there was one in particular where I was exchanging with a whale that was very clearly articulating the words, we are one.

00:15:40.240 like i actually in the moment this whale was directly underneath the boat positioned right

00:15:48.740 next to the hydrophone and saying the words we are one to those notes and that rhythm um

00:15:58.540 and you know that just changed my whole universe like uh did you weep

00:16:09.340 I think I would have wept.

00:16:10.660 I did, I did, I did, I did, I did, I did, and I have that recording, and nothing is

00:16:23.860 the same since then, you know, I, yeah.

00:16:29.480 And do you found that this has echoed into your whole life now?

00:16:34.420 I mean, obviously, this is a project.

00:16:35.820 It's not, it's not you, but sometimes our projects sort of just like a gas sort of fill the entire space that we give it.

00:16:45.620 Oh, definitely. Yeah, this is, this is my life. I mean, the whales are somehow present with me all the time and with whatever I'm doing, it spills over into everything.

00:16:58.820 everything. And as far as the we are one piece, yeah, definitely. I'm in this continuous process

00:17:09.800 of seeking and gleaning understanding of how to hold simultaneously, you know, this knowing

00:17:22.280 And this attunement to an enjoyment of the oneness, you know, while functioning inside of responding to living as wholly as I can within and contributing as much healing as I'm able to to this context of.

00:17:49.280 of, you know, white supremacists, cis hetero and violence that we, that we find ourselves

00:18:00.860 situated inside of. So seeking balance, you know, has become very much a focus with this work,

00:18:12.240 Like how to occupy all the realities simultaneously and be in that knowing and in the peace of that knowing while being present in the world that's defined by things other than that oneness on the surface anyway.

00:18:38.240 Yes, I think this must have been such an emotional navigation for you because, you know, we think about the whales and your work with the whales and the beautiful oneness and song.

00:18:51.240 But like you said, your project is also heavily attached to the slave trade that passed through these waters. 0.98

00:18:58.900 How do you navigate like the most beautiful with the ugliest in your same project? 0.61

00:19:06.720 And if I may also add to ask, which part of it came first? 0.97

00:19:11.120 Were you looking to talk about the slave trade from like a marine perspective or were you thinking about Wales and then the sort of Middle Passage connection came to you?

00:19:23.060 Does that question even make sense?

00:19:27.320 That's not such an easy question to answer because I was always thinking about both.

00:19:34.880 You know, I mean, I, I, I have my master's degrees in Africana Studies. And so in, in that work, even in undergrad, some, you know, definitely a focus on diaspora studies and this connection to Africa and African spiritual traditions in particular, it's been a part of my journey for the past 30 years.

00:20:00.020 so ancestral work is always present and always on my mind you know in terms of the whales I

00:20:11.580 have felt a connection with the whales animals in general my whole life

00:20:18.380 and the whales in particular since I first heard their songs as a teenager

00:20:24.540 um and so stored away in my consciousness was was since first hearing them this idea

00:20:33.100 that at some point I would do something with with whale song you know and it came together

00:20:39.600 as I said in 2018 when I was in Brazil actually 2017 I first went to

00:20:47.720 on whale, a whale watching trip and was able to meet whales for the first time, humpback whales.

00:20:58.380 And through that personal, direct, physical connection, I began to basically, you know,

00:21:07.540 receive the downloads about what the work was to be. And it's been evolving from there really

00:21:13.820 ever since. It's been a very organic, not so much thought out intellectual process as one of

00:21:22.000 really receiving guidance about what this work is and is supposed to be. And as I said,

00:21:28.640 it's continuously evolving. Yeah. And I think based on what I've read about you,

00:21:36.200 that like a lot of us, you know, singing was a spiritual birthright, a birthright of joy. I think

00:21:45.580 you started singing in the church, like a lot of us do. So how has your spiritual journey of song

00:21:57.440 changed throughout your life?

00:22:06.200 How has it changed?

00:22:12.140 Well, I've definitely grown to place it in a more central position in terms of my work.

00:22:34.760 you know um it's so central it's always been so central to who i am as a person

00:22:44.500 singing you know um and in the past i guess 20 years or so it's been my career you know um

00:22:56.540 Um, and so I guess that would be the most significant shift, um, is that I've been doing

00:23:06.980 it as a career.

00:23:10.760 Um, whereas before that shift, I had done many, many performances, some of which I received

00:23:20.680 money in exchange for some of which i didn't you know but i i wasn't identifying as a as a career

00:23:27.880 vocalist um and through songwriting which i've deepened into i've always been a songwriter but

00:23:37.880 that's definitely sharing the songs that i create has been more of a focus over the past

00:23:46.440 I would say six to seven years, really. I was one of those people who was writing songs and

00:23:59.020 very few people would hear them or sporadically I would share a song or two that I had written and

00:24:05.540 eventually came to understand that this was a central part of the work that I'm supposed to

00:24:13.120 be doing with sharing music is sharing the songs that I create. So that's definitely something

00:24:18.380 that's changed and become more focal as well. Can you maybe do like an emotional compare

00:24:25.240 contrast to us? Like, what's the same about singing from the pulpit as singing to and

00:24:31.440 with Wales versus how is it, how does it feel different?

00:24:37.440 Oh, well, I always, you know, as a child singing in church, singing with gospel choir, I was

00:24:50.520 very aware of the power of the music to bring me personally and you know based on what i was

00:25:01.960 observing everybody into the space of feeling spirit present you know like that was what the

00:25:12.840 music did the music took us there the music was the vehicle the container inside of which everything

00:25:20.440 else that happened in that building on sunday existed you know the music was the way into

00:25:28.040 and through that that ritual that space you know and it's the same with the whales it's it's sacred

00:25:36.280 it's it's it's and i'm i'm you know at the sea in in the sea at sea when singing to them so that is

00:25:45.640 you know holy water for me for sure um and so it's that connection

00:25:53.880 to spirit it's that connection to divinity that is very much

00:26:04.600 the same in terms of how i feel it moving through me with them now what i'll say is different is

00:26:10.360 that the whales have a very particular vibration and of course you know they're individual whales

00:26:19.560 each whale has their own vibration their own personality their own characteristics you know

00:26:26.520 and there is a collective um whale spirit that i feel connected to that is this generosity is this

00:26:38.440 is compassion, is this wisdom,

00:26:41.040 this profound and expansive awareness

00:26:47.700 and knowing and love that is universal.

00:26:52.220 It is so expansive.

00:26:54.420 It's so far beyond what gets identified

00:27:01.840 as human consciousness in modern Western society.

00:27:08.440 is generally defined by and touching that, connecting to that is an embrace that

00:27:26.440 is very comforting, particularly given, you know, the madness that is just so

00:27:36.200 rampant on the planet right now having that as wildly an anchor you know is um is very comforting

00:27:47.120 and very reassuring that this is always happening you know while all this other foolishness is going

00:27:54.860 on the whales are continuously under the water singing these vibrations out around you know

00:28:04.880 around the globe around the planet um and to my understanding connecting um inter intergalactically

00:28:15.560 um with those songs as well because it's not just us you know earthlings um and so

00:28:24.980 I feel I feel that comfort I feel that embrace I feel a safety inside of this connection with

00:28:35.580 the whales and and having their support and having their their guidance and their tutelage

00:28:42.920 with me I love this image that I have in my mind of you putting your songs into the water and them

00:28:51.760 being then reflected back up into outer space for the whole universe to hear you said something

00:28:59.100 you were talking about comfort and you said something that I immediately got this sense of

00:29:03.360 like exhilaration but also that deep kind of sacred comfort that you talk about you said

00:29:10.100 the sea is holy water I just kind of want to repeat it again the sea is holy water yes

00:29:20.500 yeah can you tell us a little bit about your project um the healing room speaking of being

00:29:27.980 sacredly embraced and comforted yes so the healing room it's not so much a project as it is a

00:29:39.720 um i don't know orientation approach philosophy so i have a song called the healing room

00:29:52.600 and over the years that i've been sharing this song it's kind of become

00:29:59.520 sort of my signature composition, you know, and I lived in New Orleans for many years

00:30:11.320 and in creating music sharing spaces there, you know, some regular gigs that I had there,

00:30:21.980 I began calling the regular performances the healing room so that the sharing of music

00:30:34.000 was an invitation, is an invitation to not just come and listen, but to come and be a part of

00:30:43.580 an environment that is designed with the intention of healing um that invites everyone

00:30:52.380 present to participate um through singing um so there's a lot of call and response there's a lot

00:31:03.180 of you know audience engagement with regard to this the singing itself because that's how

00:31:09.040 I grew up, you know, and tapping into the healing that music is, that music offers us

00:31:19.140 in a very intentional way. So something beyond the idea of performance or the idea of

00:31:28.100 being on a stage, transmitting something, there is a container that is very intentional that's

00:31:37.020 created each time I sing, each time I occupy a space with my voice that has a purpose of

00:31:49.040 relaying and exchanging healing that's offered in a way that's safe and that's held and that

00:32:02.260 is loving and um that prayerfully extends you know well beyond that physical space when people

00:32:12.260 leave it so that's the healing room it's a song it's it's whatever space i find myself in making

00:32:20.500 music and it is what I offer to people um when they enter my home when they when they eat my food

00:32:32.800 it's the healing room yes I mean I like I said before you know I'm a big believer that music

00:32:40.720 is like a divine gift that has been bestowed upon us and whales and birds and so many other

00:32:48.720 creatures. So you'll, you'll be preaching to the choir when you answer this question, but

00:32:53.920 how does music heal? How does singing heal?

00:33:02.760 Well, from your perspective.

00:33:06.300 So I'll, I'll answer that in two ways, one from sort of a broader universal perspective. And then

00:33:12.240 from my specific perspective as a Black woman, coming from the tradition that I come from.

00:33:20.260 So sound is vibration. Everything is vibration, right? And so music is vibration that is sent out

00:33:31.420 and received with particular frequencies. And when intention, I mean, we're talking about

00:33:42.860 magic. So you understand, we understand, all the witches listening understand that when intention

00:33:50.820 is combined with vibration, that frequency is magnified. That intention is carried on those

00:33:58.880 vibrations and music because it is something that exists as an energetic force and also as

00:34:10.220 a force that can be tangibly received through the senses, through hearing, through feeling

00:34:20.440 vibration. It is something that actually has a physical effect on the body. Those

00:34:28.420 vibrations impact the body. They're absorbed by the body. They're received by the body.

00:34:32.980 So music that is created with healing intention is received

00:34:37.500 by those who are receptive to it as healing vibration. And I know personally

00:34:50.600 that from the beginning, you know, singing in gospel choir, I started when I was four,

00:34:58.420 was something that I could perceive how, as soon as the choir started to sing,

00:35:06.140 as soon as the organ started to play, the energy in the room shifted.

00:35:10.900 And it was always clear to me that it was the music that was making the change.

00:35:17.340 It was the music that was putting everybody into a space of being on one accord,

00:35:24.180 that was making people get happy and get the spirit and jump up and down and shout.

00:35:28.420 And as I grew and learned more of my history, I came to understand that it was singing that was one of the main ways that Black folks had used to survive, you know, these experiences of oppression from Jim Crow through enslavement, through capture and colonization in Africa.

00:35:58.420 that singing had been, had always been a means of survival and not just survival, but transcendence

00:36:08.380 of, you know, finding oneself entrapped in a reality that is so wretched in so many ways

00:36:22.800 and being able to tap into beauty and being able to tap into spiritual power through the voice,

00:36:31.660 through singing and through collective singing, claiming freedom, claiming liberation in the

00:36:38.480 moment. And also using that force, the power that is music, that is collective singing in particular

00:36:45.740 to generate energy and generate power and generate a manifestation through movement work,

00:36:55.600 the civil rights movement, labor movements, et cetera, et cetera, but the civil rights movement

00:37:01.940 specifically. And so in my time working with and being mentored by Dr. Bernice Johnson-Regan,

00:37:09.180 who's the founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock and one of the original SNCC Freedom Singers and

00:37:14.660 amazing scholar and activist, I came to understand just how profoundly singing had

00:37:24.780 brought us through so many trials and tribulations as Black folks. And I then saw myself situated

00:37:33.980 inside of a lineage of of healers um and survivors who had sung their way through

00:37:43.380 and that is um very central to how i understand my place in the world now at this point

00:37:52.020 yeah and you brought me perfectly to the next thing i wanted to bring up which is that i know

00:37:57.820 you do community sings for mlk day lift every voice and sing so for you we we talked about

00:38:06.060 healing and we and we definitely touched on this but how how is singing political how is

00:38:11.020 i'm sorry my dog is having a hello no don't be sorry hello

00:38:16.220 what's your dog's name her name is bijou and i think maybe she's going to leave the room now

00:38:24.120 she's digging in she's digging yeah it's me and the animals

00:38:31.380 she says we are one that's right

00:38:42.740 so um again my question is like how is singing political how is singing activism in addition to

00:38:52.080 being healing and communicative and spiritual well first of all it's claiming space right

00:38:58.280 making your voice be heard is definitely a political act you know for people who have

00:39:06.620 experienced oppression and the suppression of their voices and realities and identities and

00:39:14.440 perspectives. So taking the space, taking the audible space that singing is, is inherently

00:39:24.340 And then expressing truths, perspectives, realities that have not necessarily been encouraged or supported by the mainstream media focus.

00:39:54.340 is certainly an act of resistance and deviance and affirmation and assertion of self-worth

00:40:07.320 and value. And for me personally, it's about where I place myself when I'm singing.

00:40:16.540 You know, what kinds of environments do I sing in? What do I sing, you know, in terms of what

00:40:23.100 I'm singing about, the lyrics that I'll sing or won't sing, where I lend my voice in terms

00:40:30.300 of movement work, singing at demonstrations, singing in healing environments and retreat

00:40:39.440 spaces, singing with other people who are involved in progressive work to dismantle

00:40:52.340 white supremacy and the prison industrial complex

00:40:56.220 and the old slavery and LGBTQ phobia,

00:41:01.300 et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

00:41:02.580 So there's many different ways that singing can be political,

00:41:09.420 not the least of which is the words

00:41:11.820 that are actually being sung.

00:41:13.260 And I call in Nina Simone.

00:41:16.100 She's very present in my mind as I speak about this

00:41:19.780 someone who dared in her time to sing the truth you know and audience discomfort be damned you

00:41:30.740 know just really brought it wherever she was and suffered for that you know and is now very much

00:41:41.140 celebrated for the record and the records that she left of of having done that yeah but she

00:41:49.960 certainly um it wasn't made easy for her yeah that's for sure um you you made me think too about

00:41:56.560 um strange fruit by billy holiday i know a lot of people like sort of i don't want to say give

00:42:04.600 credit to that song for the civil rights movement because that's like an insane statement but a lot

00:42:10.900 of people talk about how, you know, tightly woven that song is with their notion of civil

00:42:19.400 rights and what was happening with Black people in the United States, and like you say, Jim

00:42:23.200 Crow.

00:42:25.860 Well, I think, you know, there were so many things happening in that moment, not the least

00:42:34.460 of which is this technology right that is allowing voices to be recorded and projected

00:42:49.180 around the world right and so yes so strange fruit this recording by billy holiday

00:43:02.300 which is you know in the late 30s comes out really is the first thing you know that gets

00:43:13.560 this level of of play of circulation you know that is speaking directly to

00:43:21.140 the terrorization of black people 0.90

00:43:23.320 and it's this technology that allows this idea this sound this song these words to circulate 0.97

00:43:37.200 around the globe and at the same time world war ii is happening black folks are going off to fight

00:43:45.440 in this war against fascism in europe and really thinking hard about you know the

00:43:58.400 the racism that they experience at home and so they come back with

00:44:06.880 with this kind of like

00:44:08.480 no we're not doing this anymore you know that whole time frame sort of busted open the foundation

00:44:19.240 that jim crow rested upon and so strange fruit is is like this this herald really because it comes

00:44:27.800 right at the beginning of world war ii right and so it's like this this herald of of this crumbling 0.97

00:44:36.160 this dismantling that was to begin with the experience of Black folks going off to fight in a 0.72

00:44:42.560 war to liberate folks who were experiencing things that were very similar to what they were 0.54

00:44:53.000 experiencing at home, or in some cases, you know, parallel to what they were experiencing at home.

00:45:01.340 I just thought too about the some say that one of the sort of inciting moments before Stonewall

00:45:13.740 the Stonewall riots and prismatic liberation was the death of Judy Garland yes and that is always

00:45:26.200 I mean people say it's not true and it's you know it's a coincidence but you know maybe there was

00:45:30.380 this moment where like our rainbow singer died and we're just not going to take it anymore

00:45:36.400 you know it's like this the amazing power that a little girl singing about a rainbow can have

00:45:44.440 that like echoes through the universe in ways that I'm sure Judy Garland even even Billie Holiday

00:45:50.560 would could never understand the way that they're they're singing just singing you know so we take

00:45:59.520 it so for granted singing we can all do it again it's our it's our divine birthright but it can

00:46:05.420 start a revolution your song Michaela can start a revolution and our listeners too

00:46:12.720 it's it's amazing and humbling to think about for me well I'm so convinced that what

00:46:22.360 what we need to be doing right now is singing to change the state of things. I'm so convinced

00:46:33.640 that singing together is the answer. I'm so convinced that

00:46:38.520 wailing together is the answer. I'm so convinced that setting our intentions to shift this

00:46:48.160 vibration and jettisoning our voices out into the air, into the waters, into the ethers as a

00:46:58.620 collective of folks who are joined in the intention of stopping this cycle of violence and harm

00:47:13.280 that you know all these systems we find ourselves inside of um are reeking on the planet as a whole

00:47:23.900 on women on prismatic folks on people of color on all the ecosystems on the animals that

00:47:34.340 that we can change this with our voices i'm convinced of it i'm convinced i'm convinced

00:47:42.600 you've convinced me

00:47:44.780 if I had any doubts

00:47:46.700 I got to recruit

00:47:48.940 and I think

00:47:50.880 everybody who is listening

00:47:52.980 is if they weren't before they are

00:47:55.040 now convinced

00:47:55.860 would you consider

00:47:58.060 closing this circle

00:48:00.860 with a couple lines of singing

00:48:02.640 from you

00:48:04.140 sure

00:48:06.140 yeah

00:48:09.100 yeah

00:48:09.540 Okay, let's see what wants to come through.

00:48:20.580 I think it's this one.

00:48:21.880 This was in my head when I was in the shower before we got on.

00:48:31.240 And it's just a little four-line ditty.

00:48:35.100 i think it's four lines but it's something that um the lyrics actually come from and it's a well

00:48:42.780 whispering event that i did back in october for the imagining america conference and i was being

00:48:50.620 interviewed by joyisha dutta of uh another gulf is possible and joyisha asked me something i can't

00:48:59.500 remember specifically something about my approach to the work. And I went back to listen to this

00:49:11.420 interview because I was writing a piece for the journal for Imagining America, which will be out

00:49:17.580 sometime this year, I think. And so I went back to listen to the interview and these words

00:49:23.020 that I responded with stood out for me.

00:49:26.900 And I said, just say yes and listen and go with the flow.

00:49:32.260 That was the answer that I gave her.

00:49:33.640 And so that sort of echoed in my mind

00:49:36.860 and became this song.

00:49:43.140 Just say yes and listen, then go with the flow.

00:49:53.020 When you stop resisting, your true self will show, you're the way through this circumstance.

00:50:14.020 When you pray

00:50:17.200 Have confidence

00:50:22.980 That your prayers have been heard and answered 0.99

00:50:29.020 That was so fucking beautiful 0.98

00:50:35.700 Oh my goodness, that was so beautiful 0.82

00:50:40.920 Thank you so much, Michaela

00:50:43.140 before um we let you out um can you tell our listeners how they can support you where they

00:50:52.100 can find you where to send you their money oh thank you thank you um yes my website is

00:51:00.500 mikaela and mikaela's uh m-i-c-h-a-e-l-a like michael with an a mikaela harrison.org

00:51:08.220 um there is a page specifically for web whale whispering on there um and there's um on every

00:51:18.640 page on the website i think a button to be able to to donate to make an offering to the work so

00:51:25.140 you can do it directly through my website there's also music available for purchase um i had two

00:51:32.220 cds that are cds of cover music i'm working on getting the funds together to record all

00:51:38.120 my original music so um and there's also available for purchase right now and really like within

00:51:46.500 days i'm so behind on this but it's coming through in the next few days the we are one

00:51:52.940 track of me and that whale um having the conversation the song conversation about we are one

00:52:00.940 underwater is available for download for purchase on my website and very soon will be available just

00:52:07.760 to listen to for free so there's many ways to to support and engage and you know for folks who

00:52:15.500 don't have money to offer um just engaging and listening and and sharing and being a part of

00:52:26.120 the intention of the work is is also a way of contributing just say yes and listen

00:52:33.760 yes thank you again listeners we encourage you to go out and have your own songversations 0.92

00:52:42.720 keep singing carry on and blessed fucking be thank you so much michaela harrison 0.58

00:52:49.580 thank you amy and i want to just you know before we close i want to say i use that word songversation 0.85

00:52:54.860 because it really is what i experience in my exchange with the whales and the wonderful the

00:53:02.660 marvelous the fabulous india re another amazing singer has a song called songversation and so i

00:53:10.220 want to give her that credit um as we use that term yes music video uh her song music video

00:53:19.700 video video that's it video has been huge throughout my life yes i sing that song a lot

00:53:26.580 sometimes i do and sometimes i don't

00:53:32.660 thank you again so much Michaela I love that word songversation and I will look for the India

00:53:39.620 re song listeners please support Michaela's multiple projects I really need that album

00:53:47.700 of original music so help me help her help me thank you so much Amy thank you for having me 0.97

00:53:56.420 Thank you again, and for one last time, bless the fucking bee. 0.99

00:54:01.580 Bless the bee. 1.00

00:54:06.520 You must be a witch. 0.99

00:54:10.640 Just a reminder that the Missing Witches fundraiser for Native Women's Shelters 0.94

00:54:15.500 is happening now throughout the month of May.

00:54:19.600 Check out our website at www.missingwitches.com for all the details,

00:54:25.820 and join us on Patreon at patreon.com slash missingwitches.

Missing Witches - May 19, 2022

WF Michaela A. Harrison： We Are One

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