I had a chance to interview Skot ‘Skewb’ Person, and Leslie Ravenhair of the Kansas City Drum Tribe (Katumba) while at Heartland Spirit Festival this year. There was some challenging weather, but it was proved again that a day at festival is a better day than anywhere else! It was a festival with one of the best drum and dance grooves ever, and I’d give a lot of credit to the Kansas City Drum Tribe.
Skewb is considered one of the main forces behind the tribe’s development. The Kansas City drum circle started as a meet-up group started by Kim Ousler in Overland Park, at Wild Oats, an organic food store. For Skewb it felt weird because the location was in an upscale suburban location. As Kim became busier, she passed the organization on to Skewb who energized it and changed the name to Kansas City Drum Tribe.
Skewb:
I started posting that drummers would be in Loose Park on Monday nights, an inner city park in KC. (Kansas City). I started going with a couple of friends that I met through the KC witches meet up. I got more people interested through using the internet, and people started showing up. It evolved from maybe 4-5 people regularly a week, to 150 plus people over four years!
Celia: In Concert
Sacred Paths Center
Saturday, May 21
7:00pm – 9:00pm Tickets – $12
Celia Farran is perhaps best known and beloved in the Pagan community for her song The Symbol, which helped galvanize the grass roots movement that forced the Veterans Administration to act justly and allow for the Pentagram to be engraved on the burial markers of veterans.
Celia Farran, photo from the video shoot for "Walking the Labyrinth"
Celia has been touring the upper Midwest while filming a video for her song The Labyrinth and stopping in the studios of Simply Folk on Wisconsin Public Radio. To judge by facebook comments, she has been blowing away audiences with her mix of powerful lyrics and smooth vocals – especially on her remix of Everyday Goddess. Celia also throws in a bit of improv comedy, which shouldn’t work during the same performance as the serious and many times sacred nature of her lyrics, but somehow does. Perhaps it is for this, her ability to manifest “mirth and reverence” on stage, that cause some of her fans to call her a Goddess.
Beltane 2011: Earth’s Passion: A Rite of Spring A Journey to the Otherworld
The Procession from Indian Mounds
Earth
LUNA tantalizes EARTH
“Welcome everyone to the Northern Dawn chapter of the Covenant of the Goddess’s celebration of Beltane for this 5th day of Hare Moon, in the year 34,255 Skystone Wiccan Reckon Calendar, that’s May 7th in the Christian year 2011. We all know that Samhain, Halloween is when the ancestors leave the Spirit World and join the living. In symmetry today we will journey to the Otherworld and visit them. We will hear the stories of their lives. We will journey into the woods and meadows of dreams. But first we honor the Ancient Chiefs.”
Last week I took part in a live interview on the Pagan Centered Podcast with Pagan-friendly musician Kellee Maize. She doesn’t play folk, there is no Celtic vibe, and she isn’t going to be asked to perform at a Ren Fair anytime soon. Kellee is a rapper and hip hop artist out of Pittsburgh and she is one of the hottest female rappers on the East coast, ready to break into the big time. Her youtube videos have over two million views and her latest album, Aligned Archetypes, has over 400,000 downloads. As the Pagan Centered Podcast is a partner of PNC, I am able to share some clips from that interview with you.
Kellee Maize
Although rapper Kellee Maize doesn’t claim the label Pagan, she describes her spirituality as earthy and alternative. It’s not that she rejects Paganism, she feels labels are too restrictive and she dislikes being placed in neat little boxes. I hate to let her in on the secret, but that’s a sure sign you are talking to a Pagan. Listening to her lyrics, it’s hard to see how she can avoid the ‘P’ word for much longer.
The lyrics in Something Sacred delve into protective spirits, pushing back against patriarchy and valuing strong feminine leadership, and caring for Mother Earth. This song, with it’s eco-feminism Goddess spirituality themes, reads as if it was written by Starhawk.
Earth Mother she is fiendin’
For a break in the season
Discontent no one pleasin’
Called a cunt that is bleedin’ – Something Sacred from the Album Aligned Archetypes
To hear and read the full lyrics for the song and Kellee’s explanation of them, you can check them out on her website. Something Sacred veers more towards hip hop than straight rap and is probably why it’s one of my favorite cuts from the album. Big Plans, another favorite, is infectious, fun, and full of chakras.
I say this in spite of the fact that I’m no fan of rap music, but after talking with her for just under two hours, I am a big fan of Kellee. She is an accomplished business woman (in addition to performing she owns an all female owned and operated marketing and events organization firm, Naktrunal), socially conscious, and seeking after an ethical spirituality that she is not shy about expressing. In talking with her about spirituality, music, and community involvement, she was so open and raw and caring that it would be hard not to like her.
In this clip Kellee talks about family and fan reaction to her spirituality, her desire to perform at a Pagan festival, and she holds her own with the Pagan Centered Podcast folks when they take issue with her portrayal of Isis in the song Third Eye.
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You can get a sneak peek at her new CD Integration by downloading two free singles from it here.
The Pagan Centered Podcast, where the interview took place, has been broadcasting for six years and between 1000 and 1700 people download their podcast each week. The regular hosts are Dave, Amber, and Scurvy Dog (Joe) with Sam, Saturn, Barrett, Amanda, Miles Batty, Star Foster, and Peter Dybing as frequent guest hosts. The full unedited interview is available now, here, and the edited podcast will be available for download in about 4 weeks. PCP can be heard live each Wednesday night at 8pm Eastern, tonight’s topic is “What happens when your kids become Christian.”
“I’m Pregnant And…” features expectant mothers facing medical challenges or part of unique lifestyles.
Sirens Media is producing a new season of the TV docu-reality series, “I’m Pregnant And…” which airs on the Discovery Fit & Health network. Topics covered in the series vary from medical conditions to alternative lifestyles or unique circumstances. The reality show, in its second season, is a six-part series, and each 30-minute episode follows an expectant mom through her day-to-day routine while dealing with the ups and downs of pregnancy. For an upcoming episode, Sirens Media is looking for Pagan women who are currently 6-8 months pregnant.
Pagan Newswire Collective - Minnesota Bureau 