#staven grant

[shewolfofficial]

doing the lords service once more.

HE LOOKS SO GOODDDDDDDDDDD

babe wake up i just found new pixels of blue

trust i will be searching for the full image 🫡

[the1northlanderprincess]

Haven and Stolas Playlist

So, there may not be a big fandom for the Kingdom of Runes series, but when I get passionate over a coupling, I have to share it through a playlist inspired by different stages of the relationship. Because the series isn’t complete yet, the bonus songs are representative of my hunches on how I think Dark Bringer could play out per the story formula I’m seeing.

So, without further ado, I present “Staven’s” playlist. @kayak34 this one is for you!

Seven Devils-Florence + the Machines: Seven devils all around you/Seven devils in my house/See they were there when I woke up this morning/I'll be dead before the day is done

Strange and Beautiful-Aqualung: I've been watching your world from afar/I've been trying to be where you are/And I've been secretly falling apart unseen

Kringeworthy-Tara Lynch: He tricks, he steals to make his trade/even though he’s on borrowed time/no one to share with what he’s made/all deals clandestine what he wants is what he needs/he’ll stop at nothing to serve his greed

Oblivion-Bastille:  Are you going to age with grace?/Are you going to age without mistakes/Are you going to age with grace?/Or only to wake and hide your face

Black Eyes Blue-Corey Taylor:  I know that there's no other way/I know that there is nothing more that I can say/Make my black eyes blue/I fall for you

Love to Hate it-Bloom:  Don't wanna let you know/I really love to hate it/I'll never let it show/But you make me go crazy, crazy

My Demons-Starset:  Take me high and I'll sing/Oh you make everything okay (okay, okay)/We are one in the same/Oh you take all of the pain away (away, away)/Save me if I become my demons

Control-Zoe Wees:  I don't wanna lose control/Nothing I can do anymore/Trying every day when I hold my breath/Spinning out in space pressing on my chest/I don't wanna lose control

Under Your Scars-Godsmack:  Under your scars I pray/You're like a shooting star in the rain/You're everything that feels like home to me, yeah/under your scars, I could live inside you time after time/if you'd only let me live inside of mine/Live inside of mine

You Can Be My Light-Trivecta and Nurko feat. Monika Santucci:  I'm stuck in the wave, of your endless crashing ocean/Just trying to stay afloat/Don't know what to say, when I sink into your deep ends/You take all the breathe from me 

Your Guardian Angel-The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus:  I will never let you fall/I'll stand up with you forever/I'll be there for you through it all/Even if saving you sends me to heaven

I See You-Leona Lewis:  Walking through a dream I see you/My light in darkness breathing hope of new life/Now I live through you and you through me, enchanting/I pray in my heart that this dream never ends

The Monster is Loose-Meatloaf:  The monster's loose and now you know the truth/Tell me can you feel it as you hit the wall/The monsters loose and now you have to choose/And prove you can take it to the top before you fall

Unconditionally-Katy Perry:  Come just as you are to me/Don't need apologies/Know that you are all worthy/I'll take your bad days with your good/Walk through this storm I would/I'd do it all because I love you, I love you

Awake-Josh Groban:  So keep me awake to memorize you/Give me more time to feel this way/We can't stay like this forever/But I can have you next to me today

Bonus:

Like I’m Gonna Lose You-Meghan Trainor feat. John Legend:  So I'm gonna love you like I'm gonna lose you/I'm gonna hold you like I'm saying goodbye/Wherever we're standing/I won't take you for granted/'Cause we'll never know when, when we'll run out of time

Ashes of Eden-Breaking Benjamin:  Are you with me after all/Why can't I hear you/Are you with me through it all/then why can't I feel you/Stay with me, don't let me go/Because there's nothing left at all/Stay with me, don't let me go/Until the Ashes of Eden fall

Ashes-Celine Dion: Can you use these tears to put out the fires in my soul/’Cause I need you here, woah/'Cause I've been shaking/I've been bending backwards till I'm broke/Watching all these dreams go up in smoke

[rogersip]

The Norse Goddess Volva

During the ancient Norse period, Volva was a shamanic woman who would serve the people. Volva was often called upon in times of turmoil, and would travel around to heal people. She was also known to prophecy, and sometimes would set up a shop at the local market to sell her services. Her services were highly valued, and she was paid well for her services. She was also considered to have great authority.

Volva was often accompanied by young people, and would travel through the countryside. She would also travel to farms to help people. She would travel through the land and would sometimes enter an animal to gain knowledge. She would travel to towns to provide healing to people, and would often conduct rituals to make a better harvest.

Volva would also practice the art of seidr. She would hold a seidstafr, which is a distaff made of copper. She would then strike someone three times with the seidstafr, and they would lose their memory. Besides using the seidstafr in rituals, Volva was also able to untie a warrior-hero's limbs. In addition to using the seidstafr, Volva would use her wand and staff to manipulate the weather and the fate of the people. She would also use Seidr to curse people. In addition, Volva could use Seidr to make people sick or to slow down warriors.

In the ancient Norse culture, Volva was often considered a high-ranking member of the community. She was respected, and was feared by the Church. She would often travel with a group of young men, and was charged a high fee for her services. Her services were well-paid, and she would often travel to towns to help people. She was often dressed in blue and red. She would also wear a jeweled cloak. She would sometimes have toe rings on her feet, and her feet would be filled with magic tools.

Volva was also buried in a svartebok, or wooden grave. She was buried in Hagebyhoga in Ostergotland, Sweden. The grave is filled with things that indicate her status. Some of these items include a wolf's skull, a cub's skull, and a pellet from an owl. There are also small bones from birds. In addition, there is a Gotlandic buckle at her head.

Volva's grave is filled with objects from Finland and Russia. She had a silver toe ring, a blue and red dress, and a gold threaded headscarf. She also had a necklace of glass beads. Her grave was located on top of a horse-drawn carriage.

The Volva concept has seen a resurgence in modern society, and many religious groups practice Heathenry. In many countries, Heathenry has been granted religious freedom. A popular song in Norwegian language camps is called "Kjaerringa med staven," or "Honored Lady with a Staff." These songs describe the prophecy and healing abilities of Volva.

While the Volva concept is ancient, the practice of Seidr and the use of Volva as a shaman has recently seen a resurgence in modern culture. Some Volvas now practice Seidr in modern Scandinavian markets.

[tsgwilliamsburgvirginia]

A Colonial Christmas Celebration at the Inn at Warner Hall

The Ware River Circle of the King’s Daughters and Sons will host their 30th annual Christmas Open House – A Colonial Christmas Celebration – at the Inn at Warner Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019.

The event benefits the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, local KDS charities and the Ronald McDonald House. Tickets are $30 each and guests can choose to visit the historic property during one of four sessions (noon to 1 p.m., 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., 3 to 4 p.m., or 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.).

Learn more about the property, and purchase tickets online, at warnerhall.com. For more information, please call 804-815-0961. Tickets are also available on Gloucester Main Street at Angelwing Stationers or The Silver Box, in Ware Neck at Nuttall’s Store, or at Gloucester Point at Little England Mercantile.

This historic colonial-themed home tour will include special visits from period costumed re-enactors welcoming guests throughout Warner Hall, Santa himself, colonial-style floral décor and colonial food offerings.

Warner Hall, an active bed and breakfast, is the home of Troy and Theresa Stavens.

Ideally situated at the head of the Severn River in Gloucester County, the manor house at Warner Hall stands on a neck of land that has been occupied and built upon continually from the mid-17th century.

Referred to as “Austin’s Desire” in the 1642-land patent, the original 600-acre plantation site was established by Augustine Warner as a “land grant” from the British Crown. Augustine Warner received the acreage in exchange for bringing 12 settlers across the Atlantic Ocean to the Jamestown Settlement, a colony desperately in need of manpower to survive in the New World.

The two families associated with the property from this early period until well into the 19th century, the Warners and the Lewises, were among the most prominent families in Colonial Virginia. Over the years, Warner Hall Plantation thrived, as did the descendants of Augustine Warner.

Some of the most recognized names in American history are direct descendants of Augustine Warner – George Washington, the first president of the United States, Robert E. Lee, the most famous Civil War General and Captain Meriwether Lewis, renowned American explorer of the Lewis & Clark expedition. George Washington was a frequent visitor to his grandparent’s plantation.

Queen Elizabeth II, the current monarch of England, is a direct descendent of Augustine Warner through the Bowes-Lyon family and the Earl of Strathmore. In England, Warner Hall is referred to as “the home of the Queen’s American ancestors.”

Warner Hall is also significant for the part it played in the drama of Bacon’s rebellion, one of the most important events in early Virginia history. After leading a 1676 rebellion against the British governor and burning Jamestown, Bacon retreated to Warner Hall Plantation. At the time, Augustine Warner II, who was Speaker of the House of Burgesses and a member of the King’s Council, was in residence and very likely agitated that his plantation was taken over by opponents of the Crown.

Today, Warner Hall consists of a Colonial Revival manor house (circa 1900) which was rebuilt on the earlier 17th and 18th century foundation. Like the previous structures at Warner Hall, all of which indicated the prominence of their owners, the Colonial Revival core is a grand architectural gesture. The original 17th century west wing dependency (the plantation schoolroom and tutor’s quarters) has been completely restored and offers a rare glimpse into the past. Historic outbuildings include 18th century brick stables, a dairy barn and smokehouse. The Warner-Lewis family graveyard offers a remarkable collection of 17th and 18th century tombstones.

The Stavens began the restoration of Warner Hall in 1999.

[larryland]

by Jenny Hansell

Sabrina Hamilton, founder and Artistic Director of the Ko Festival of Performance

Jenny Hansell, Berkshire on Stage Pioneer Valley correspondent.

Berkshire On Stage Pioneer Valley Correspondent Jenny Hansell spoke to Sabrina Hamilton, founder and artistic director of the Ko Festival running through August 5 on the Amherst College campus. This resulting interview throws the spotlight on an enduring, adventurous, and essential component of the summer theatre scene in Western Massachusetts.

BOS: Each year you program around a theme, and this year it is “Radical Acts.” How did you select it?

Sabrina Hamilton: I don’t program two years out the way a lot of presenters do. I’m still programming into February. I read local newspapers, which I firmly believe in, I read a lot of national news, I sit in coffee shops and listen to what people are concerned about. Artist let me know what they are working on and send me videotapes.

Ko is an “Ensemble theater” where the artists are in control of the whole process. Instead of artists employed by artistic and managing directors, it’s artist-centric. In most theaters, there’s a hierarchy at the top. Ensemble theaters have a flatter structure, where the artists are in control of what they do and how they do it. A lot of them do what’s called “devised work” and at Ko we do this exclusively.

At Ko it’s like a little think tank. I don’t pick scripts and hire people to work on them. Artists who come to Ko have created the works themselves, often as a group. There may or may not be a single playwright, but there is never a playwright in absentia. Pieces often take several years to create and are devised over a long period of time. Sometimes they are true first-person material, other times they emerge out of research or a question. The work is created in the rehearsal room, on the hoof.  This approach sets us apart from most other summer theater.

I pick a theme after talking to folks and look for two anchor shows and things that bridge them. I’m looking for a different lens to look at the theme.  Our post-show discussions are not the usual ‘what’s your next show’… they’re about the theme. The audience often talks to each other, the artists just listen.

I try to pick chewy topics. Recent ones were immigration, and illness and healing. This year’s “Radical Acts” is a bit of a leap from last year’s them [Tactics for Trying Times]. This year the topics are more individual and may or may not be political at all, maybe spiritual or another realm, but taking a personal leap.

We have a lot of smart people in the Five College area audience. Artists always say, ‘we love your audience, they are amazing.’ The post-show discussions can last longer than the show.

BOS: What shows did you choose this year?

Sabrina Hamilton: The first show was The Radicalization Process, from an ensemble theater in Detroit — 30-somethings looking back at the radicals of the 1960s. The piece asks: How far are you willing to go. Is it far enough? They are trying to get different generations of activists to talk to each other, to understand what went wrong, what went right, are you in it for the long haul.

The next show is The Oven by [Amherst professor] Ilan Stavens. He is a comp-lit kind of guy. His cultural identity and perspective is Mexican Jew, and he is a regional and national intellectual, author of many books, often heard on NEPR. He has created what he thinks of as an anti-lecture, about being on a State Department-sponsored lecture tour. A shaman came to the lecture in Colombia and invited him to join an ancient family ritual, which turns out to be an ayahuasca trip.

Next week we have a story slam, as a way of getting more local people involved in telling their stories of radical acts. Each story is 5 minutes, without notes, in the first person. Many of the stories have been developed in our personal narrative workshops. The slams are really fun, with 15 slots. We always save one wild-card slot which we give away on the night. If we have too many people who want to do it, the audience votes based on the first line of the story.

The following week is Like a Mother Bear, a one-woman show. The creator, Helen Stoltzfus, started working on it several decades ago and now has come back to it. It springs from a time when she was low-grade ill for quite a while. Traditional medicine was not working for her, and at the same time she was trying to get pregnant. In a workshop, an image of a mother bear comes to her. She goes to Alaska, has an encounter with an endangered grizzly bear. Ultimately she realized that her illness was endometriosis causes by environmental degradation, chemicals also killing bears. The play is a moving call to action, about women’s bodies. It’s not so much about herself, or herself and the bear, and more about the larger world and what do we need to do. She’s also teaching a workshop later this summer, Theater As If Your Life Depends On It.

Closing the festival is a piece I’m directing, Industrious Angels. It’s by Lori McCants, a founding member of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. A number of years ago she was teaching a workshop at Ko, then stayed to take one. They were asked to look at where they live for inspiration, and she chose to build a piece around the  Emily Dickinson Museum. She was reading a Dickinson poem to her mother as she was dying. The piece takes place in an attic workroom and uses shadow puppets and handwork. It’s a memory play, about the relationship between Laurie and her mother, about Dickinson and women’s work.

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BOS: There is an ongoing theme of “resistance” here.

Sabrina Hamilton: I need a sense of community and support, to see people who are not  paralyzed, who are energized, there is solace in being in a room together. The most positive, healing thing we can do is to learn to talk to each other.  So often, you already know what’s going to come out of each others’ mouth. Here, what people have in common is, they’ve seen a show. Interesting surprising things get said in the talk-backs. In a show that was about grandparents, one man said, “I have a terrible fear that I have no idea how to be a grandfather, I’m going to mess up royally.” It had never occurred to me that someone might have that concern.

What we’re going for is what I call the “huh” factor. Most summer theater, you clap at the end, it’s over. When we do well, there’s this “huh” – that night, the next morning, even months later. People in talkbacks will refer to something they saw at Ko last week or several years ago, it’s still resonating. We’re dropping a pebble in the pond. Sticky is what I’m going for. Sticky theater!

BOS: Who comes to the workshops? Is it mostly students? Or theater professionals?

Sabrina Hamilton:: Mostly theater professionals and people doing it for personal growth. We don’t separate professionals to make sure that nobody’s on autopilot. It’s a really intensive experience.

The third ring of our circle is our rehearsal residencies. Performers come from all over to work in the lab. They don’t always show the works-in-progress to the public but this time we are opening up a new musical, called Quantum Janis. The premise is that Janis Joplin didn’t die, and she is now a 57 year old black woman.

BOS: How have you kept the Festival going for 27 years?

Sabrina Hamilton: It really runs on willpower and stubbornness more than anyone else. We have been in the black every year but one. We pay our bills.  We started as an ensemble where we’d do our own work and invite our friends. I alone remain of the founders. People think we have a budget 3 times the size of what it really is or that we are funded by Amherst College -in fact, we pay them, though we do get access to their beautiful theatre and studios. We survive by being pioneers in ‘value-added presenting.’ We give the artists as much money as we can through grants, and box office revenue. What else do artists need? You need a video? A vacation for your family? A consultant for how to build your set to tour? We give people time in the theater to work things out. We help artists remember why they deeply love doing this. Artists want to come back to Ko. They are loyal.

BOS: where do you get your funding?

Sabrina Hamilton: We can get $3,800 from the state, $1,000 from the town of Amherst. The NEA would be interested if we’d program two years out.  Part of our ethos is to be responsive to the times. We did a season on age and aging right as it was becoming an area of activism.  The capacity to do an NEA grant–we don’t have that. We participate in Valley Gives, a local giving day. We’ve done well with that.

Ko fills a need in the community. A lot of people have gotten turned off by theater, theaters have lost audience. They come to Ko because it’s their issue, their people, their tribe, To come up with a name for the company, we threw the i ching. What came up is the hexagram, Ko. It means revolution or fire in the lake–the old stuff sloughing off, what’s vital and important emerges.

Our work is not weirdo abstract performance art. It’s usually formally accessible.  Our tagline is “where the only certainty is surprise.” If you don’t like this week, come next week. The only thing we can promise you is, it will be different. It’s not just summer light comedy and a little ten-minute talk-back.

BOS: What do you hope for the future?

Sabrina Hamilton: That people will step up and do more of what they’ve started to do. Audience members will say, look I’ve brought a friend. They know it’s their responsibility. We need ambassadors to vouch for us. We know that people first hear about us from a friend. People realize they have to help, they have to give. Our prices are reasonable. We offer discounts to people who are on SNAP. Culture is a necessity. It’s up to the arts org to provide it — there is no funding for discounted tickets for lower income people. We just said it’s the right thing to do. Our discussions are richer for it.  Some weeks the audience looks very much the same – like a Gathering. Other weeks it’s wildly diverse.

There are other companies in Western MA, like Double Edge [in Ashfield] doing serious plays. World class work is happening. It’s not amateurs – these artists are incredibly trained, working on it for several years. The work has authenticity. People like that realness – it doesn’t feel fake.

The Ko Festival runs through August 5 at Amherst College in Amherst, MA. For a complete preview of the 2018 season, click HERE. Tickets are available at Kofest.com.

SPOTLIGHT ON: Sabrina Hamilton and the 2018 Ko Festival by Jenny Hansell Berkshire On Stage Pioneer Valley Correspondent Jenny Hansell spoke to Sabrina Hamilton, founder and artistic director of the…