Spirit Garden Productions

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A Celebration Of Art, Culture and Spirit
The Big Sur spirit garden is an international arts and cultural center located
in the Big Sur valley between the Santa Lucia Mountains and the Pacific Ocean .
The Spirit Garden provides world-class
production and multi-cultural educational programs, truly a unique performance space where art, culture and nature integrate into a single Vision.


April 4th Saturday  8:00-10:00pm

"Desert Roots" : Dror Sinai Ensem
Itapua capoeirable $15  "Dror Sinia Ensemble weaves together the stories and musical spices of the Middle East. His music and spirit represents the power of music to mediate and overcome differences, uniting under the same sky, desert wind and heart".

 
Dror Sinai is an international performer, educator, and guest artist, as well as the founder of Rhythm Fusion Inc. in Santa Cruz CA. In 2002, he received the Gail Rich award for supporting the Arts, and is a founding member of the World Music Committee for the Percussive Arts Society. Dror has performed as a solo artist and has appeared in ensembles of many different musical styles, with other talented artists, luding Yair Dalal, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Yuval Ron, Alessandra Belloni.
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April 11th Saturday  1:00-3:00pm  $15-20
The Art of hand drumming : Marla leigh

In this special percussive intensive, you will learn:
Itapua capoeira* Traditional drumming styles from around the world (Middle    East, North and West Africa, India)
* Traditional Middle Eastern Rhythms
* The art of improvising
* Techniques to play in solid time
* Basic music theory and hand drum notation
* How to play various polyrhythms based off of Ghanaian and Moroccan music
* Solkattu, (traditional South Indian rhythmic vocalizations and exercise
* Gentle yoga stretches to prepare the body for drumming.
Frame Drums and some African drums provided, please bring a drum if you have one, no yoga mats needed.  All levels welcome
Please reserve your space today as there are limited spaces available.
Handouts included in fees.


April 11th Saturday  8:00pm  James Henry $15
Itapua capoeira       World beat, Reggae, Jazz
join us for a wonderful celebration of music and dance under the stars in the magical Spirit Garden......
                         www.jameshenrymusic.com
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April 15th Wednesday  6:00-8:00pm  $20
Malidome Some  PhD, Author, Diviner
  African Wisdom celebration
  and cleansing ceremony

Malidoma, as representative of his village in Burkina Faso, West Africa, and an initiated elder. He has come to the west to share the ancient wisdom and practices which have supported his people for thousands of years.

At this critical time in history, the earth's people are awakening to a deep need for global healing. African wisdom, so long held secret, is being called on to provide tools to enable us to move into a more peaceful and empowered way of being, both within ourselves, and within our communities. The indigenous spirit in each of us is calling for cleansing and reconciliation. The ancestors are responding.

malidoma someAny westerner who has ever wanted to know how an African thinks should read this book by Malidome Some. Because he was kidnapped out of his own culture and brought up in a Catholic seminary (where the priests wanted to turn out Black Christians prepared to go out and convert their fellows), Some was given the tools he needed to make an African sensibility understandable to a westerner. When he ran away from the Catholics and returned to his tribal home, he found that his family and fellow villagers saw him as so contaminated by his exposure to white ideology, learning that he was a danger to them. They gave him the option of undergoing the rite of initiation which boys usually go through in their 13th year. Some was 20 and he had to overcome his foreign-implanted mindset in order to survive the ordeal and become an initiate in his own tribe. The story begins with his close relationship with his grandfather, a tribal elder, when Some was only four years old. His earlier exposure to his grandfather's wisdom helped him survive the initiation. Some now straddles the two very different worlds and is living and teaching in California.
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April 17th Friday  7:30-11:00pm  $5-10 
       Big Sur Songbird Series
 Gerald Constantine Chaviaras, Nico Georis, Levi Strom

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April 18th  Saturday  4:00-6:00pm  $20
Lama Migmar Tseten : Presenting a talk & meditation:
Overcoming destructive emotions
through meditation practice.


Lama Migmar, a Buddhist Chaplain at Harvard University, received both  a traditional and a contemporary education in India. He graduated with an Acharya degree in 1979, first in his class out of all the students from four schools. He was awarded a medal for academic excellence by His Holiness The Dalai Lama. He was also recognized as Khenpo for his scholarship and service to the Dharma by His Holiness Sakya Trizin.
Lama Migmar then served as the head of Sakya Center in Rajpur, India, and the Sakya Monastery in Puruwalla, India, from 1981 to 1989, taking care of the well being of several hundred monastic residents. During this time he reintroduced the original form of the geshe educational system of Tibet, with degrees from kazhipa up to the rabjampa degree, with a curriculum that included all of the eighteen major texts, which are known as the Dragchen Chogyed. Additionally, Lama Migmar supervised the editing and publication of over 50 rare volumes of Sakya literature including the 31 volumes of Sakya Lamdre and the rare Golden Manuscripts of the Five Founding Masters of Sakya.
He leads retreats at Buddhist centers throughout North America. He founded Sakya Institute in Cambridge, MA in 1989.
http://Lamamigmar.com

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      April 18th Saturday  8:00-10:00pm  $15

                                     In Performance

     CLIMBING POE TREE
         climbing poe tree
ART is our WEAPON,  our MEDICINE , our VOICE, our VISION

"Creativity is the antidote for violence and destruction. Art is our most human expression, our voice to communicate our stories, to challenge injustice and the misrepresentations of mainstream media, to expose harsh realities and engender even more powerful hope, a force to bring diverse people together, a tool to rebuild our communities, and a weapon to win this struggle for universal liberation".
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April 19th Farmers Market 11:00-2.00pm
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April 24th - Friday  8:00 -10:00pm  $15
Brooklyn Mumbles and  Fist & The Whirling Nymphs
 
The Mumbles are a Brooklyn, NY-based three piece: vintage keyboards, drums, and female voice. They blend singer-songwriter soul with jazzy grit and old time music. Asses will shake as life-affirming mantras are repeated.

 
with...
Fist & The Whirling Nymphs
an eccentrically playful performance
of live music and fire dance.
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April 26th Farmers Market 11:00-2:00pm
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April 26th  1:00-3:00pm  $15
Native herb walk with Anna Sardina
Anna is a Monterey County Native who has  been studying indigenous Big Sur plants for over 20 years. She holds a Batchelors Degree in Ethno-botany and has been leading walks in Big Sur for 11 years. In this class participants will study Taxonomical Plant Identification,the history of Latin Nominculture, the Ethno-Botanical uses and Medicinal Prepartion of herbs.


photos complimentary of Sacred Celebration Photography and  Patrice Ward photography www.sacredcelebrationsphotography.com

For more information contact [email protected] or 831-667-1300 cell 831-2381056.

The Spirit Garden is located 26 miles south of Carmel at Loma Vista along Highway 1 next to the Big Sur Bakery.