Dear Friends, Welcome! Thanks for coming to visit!
Greetings from Holden Village!
Signs of Spring are emerging. There’s still two or three feet of snow on the ground, but we’re seeing bare ground here and there. And last week the birds returned, and black butterflies and the occasional squirrel. Resurrection all around!
We love our life here in this beautiful Valley. My days are filled with challenges: I performed in my first musical (“Working”), played a part in the “Vagina Monologues”, became Mrs. Santa Claus at Christmas, and continue to be in awe every time I walk out of our door. I’ve just hosted our first “Compassionate Voices” Retreat, and it was such a joy to have so many people and resources here in the Village to help create such an amazing gathering, with healing art, conversations, dancing, and so much singing! Just because we’re talking about death and dying doesn’t mean we can’t have fun!
Lisa Maren Thompson, here in the Village, helped create the 8-minute video we’ve nested below with original photos from Lisa and my dear Bellingham friend Colleen O’Rell, and three of my songs. Please feel free to share this video link with anyone who might need the healing comfort of beauty and song.
My new address is:
Linda Allen
C/O Holden Village
HCO Box 2
Chelan, WA 98816-9769
My email address remains the same.
There's no phone access.
To learn more about Holden, here's a link: Holden Village
May your days, too, be filled with good work to do, good companions on the journey, and a guiding spirit.
Carry Us Through the Night Songs to Heal the Heart and Lift the Spirit; Dedicated to my singing sisters of Women with Wings and Threshold Singers, and the the community of Holden Village.
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.
NEW CD: Here's To
The Women! Linda Allen's latest CD release features songs celebrating the passage of Women's Suffrage.
FOR MORE INFO: Click here to go to the ordering page.
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 founded the Bellingham Threshold Singers, whose purpose is to sing at the bedside of those who are seriously ill or dying. She is now the Director of Women with Wings, bringing women’s song circles to those who may be isolated, ill or suffering. She is a Certified Clinical Musician, and presents a workshop, “Voices of Compassion: An Introduction to Therapeutic Singing at the Bedside.” Linda was recently inducted into the Northwest Women’s Hall of Fame for her work.
Linda Allensings 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
From all of us here at October Rose Productions . . . Thanks for checking us out.
OCTOBER ROSE PRODUCTIONS • C/O Holden Village,
HCO Box 2, Chelan, WA 98816-9769 • E-mail Linda
Signs of Spring are emerging. There’s still two or three feet of snow on the ground, but we’re seeing bare ground here and there. And last week the birds returned, and black butterflies and the occasional squirrel. Resurrection all around!
PRESENTATION:
