Inclusivity and fairies

(Nimue)

Here we are in Gloucester with a small fairy parade to promote an event at the end of the month. There was a lot of singing in the street and some productive testing of songs for future parading. I’m pleased with how that’s going and with what I’m putting together on the music side at the moment.

My new project – Carnival of Cryptids – is a flexible thing. I’ve got a core of very capable and experienced singers, not all of whom will be able to make it to every event we might do. I also have a wider community of people who, for all kinds of reasons cannot make a substantial commitment. Part of the point of this project is to create opportunities for people whose care roles, health issues and other factors might otherwise make it hard for them to participate in a musical group. It’s also a safe space in which less experienced singers can develop, take modest risks and become more confident and capable performers. I’m really pleased with how it’s going.

Inclusion matters a lot to me. One of the reasons I’m keen to support the fairy events in Gloucester is because of how inclusive they are. You can see in the photo that we have people with disability aides in the mix. There are other kinds of diversity here too that are not so immediately self-announcing. Safe space matters, and the invitation to participate matters.

There was a little team from Carnival of Cryptids out for this, and we’ll be singing again at the end of the month (event info below, visit https://www.facebook.com/JMKordas for more details). We’re going to hold some space where anyone who wants to sing with us can just turn up. Anyone who wants a song sheet ahead of time please get in touch, or just rock up on the day, we have plenty of songs that are easy to pick up as you go along if you’re comfortable with that sort of thing. Or just come along and listen – we’ve got some great singers in the mix and some interesting songs – including some overtly fairy content. 

I shall have some fairy song videos to share at some point. I’ll also be doing fairy songs in Borth on the 9th of March as Jessica Law and the Outlaws – we should be on at 4pm, More details over here – https://goblincircus.carrd.co/