And So We Sing

Womansong with Debbie Nordeen directing.  Photos by Tamara Gregg.

Our lives go on in endless song
as the wailing laments of Earth grow louder.
We sing and remember the great gifts of women,
obliterating the war shouts of the ones in power.
We sing for our interwoven abilities
which birth a brilliant future,
pulling together in harmony
for each other’s sake.
We sing for the generations
and insist on providing for their rights
to live, to love, to thrive.
Our lives go on in endless song,
in endless trust of each other,
in the divine plan unfolding petal by petal,
deep below the surface, where all music begins,
in the lotus bloom of our energies working together-
and so we sing.

Annelinde Metzner
September 20, 2017

In 1987 I founded the Asheville women's choral group Womansong, and nurtured it for seven years, choosing and arranging music, performing benefits, and creating a nonprofit, the New Start Fund, so that our earnings would help boost local women who were starting life over and needed help.  Our focus has always been women's empowerment, equality, world peace and understanding.
     Now Womansong is 75 singers, and we had a 30th anniversary concert a few weeks ago!   Thanks to Debbie Nordeen and all the many women who have developed Womansong and carried it forward.  The New Start Program has now earned and given away over $160,000.  
     As Debbie retires, her very able assistant director, Althea Gonzalez, will be carrying on as artistic director.
    Thanks to all the many women for our shared creativity!
    I read this poem to introduce the song "How Can I Keep from Singing," at the anniversary concert.

Myself reading at the performance

At rehearsal-  Introducing a song with "And So We Sing"

Althea Gonzalez directing "Coffee"

Dancing and singing to "Well, All Right"