Inspiration

August 15, 2013 By

Amy Jackson performing with Ten Blocks Away circa 2007Have you ever been so inspired and so moved by someone or something that you just had to share it with others?
This is how and why The Southeast Women’s Rhythm Retreat came to be.

Back in the summer of 2007, I had the most wonderful opportunity to join my friend Rebekah Carder on a magical weekend journey to the Catskill Mountains of NY and attend the 10th Happen’n Womyn’s World Drum and Percussion Retreat. The producers of the Happen’n, Ubaka Hill, Fre Atlast, Leaf Miller , all the women who taught the various percussion classes in Taiko, Shakere, Afro-Brazilian rhythms, native American, and African , just to name a few, and all the participants inspired and energized me so deeply that I knew that the Southeast needed to have something like this too! So why was I inspired and why was I so moved by the retreat and what was it that I wanted the women of the south to experience too? Women from all over the world, of different cultures, different lifestyles, were connecting and sharing of each others lives; their talents, their spirits, their passions, their struggles, their inspirations, their voice, their dance, their ups, their downs, and all done in a peaceful, loving, nonjudgmental environment.  There was such a feeling of peace and serenity, camaraderie, a feeling of being safe to be yourself and to be as creative as you wanted to be, to reflect, and to rediscover self. I truly believed that with help from my biz partner Colleen Caffrey we could make it a reality in Georgia! After leaving NY, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Visions of sugarplums danced in my head and I was pumped!

Ann VanSlyke of Mingei Arts was the first person I encountered on my return back to Atlanta at a swim meet our children were participating in. Ann had an amazing open ear and listened with enthusiasm and excitement about my experience in the mountains and the vision I had to bring an event similar to the one in NY to Atlanta. I need and want so much to thank Ann for her attentiveness, availability, ideas, inspiration, and beautiful energy. That in –the- moment time spent with her gave me more vision, strength, and courage to move forward than she will ever know.My next move was to share this dream with my dearest friend, my angel in this life, and biz partner Colleen Caffrey. At that time we were Rhythm Synergy and soon to be DrumRise. We were brand new at our business and had so many other things that were priority at the time. And even though it wasn’t something to bring to Atlanta right then, somehow, there was this feeling, unspoken word, that we knew we could and would bring a rhythm retreat to the south. A future vision was put into motion full knowing full well that it would eventually come to fruition in the near but distant future. It was just a matter of time.
Photos from The Happen’n 2007
And so it is. NOW. 2013… With the help of our buds in North Carolina, co-producers of the Southeast Women’s Rhythm Retreat, Robin “Bounto” Leftwich, Rachel Juren, and Beth Woodruff of Happy Beat, and not to mention big help from the women of ConunDrums, the dream IS Happening along with the most fabulous rhythm makers in the Southeast! DrumRise and Happy Beat are bringing to Bo Clark’s Hawk’s Above in Cloudland, Ga a rhythm retreat that is going to knock your socks off!! What a line upof beautiful people! What a gorgeous schedule we have planned that you can design yourself whether it be relaxing, drumming, singing, hiking, shaking, dancing, reflecting, journaling, swimming!We’re so excited! And we just can’t hide it! We’re about to loose control and we KNOW we LOVE it!!!Come Ride the Rhythm Wave with us, September 27-29th! Register for the Southeast Women’s Rhythm Retreat

Love….

Amy J. of DrumRise