Just when it seems like the world has gone completely to the bad, along comes a new form of community activism to reignite one’s faith. The spring session of the inCourage Community Chorus has been gathering on Monday evenings at Yoga Soup since February, and now this non-audition, nondenominational, all-ages group led by song carriers Ben Gould and Britta Gudmunson is ready to invite the world in to hear what they have been creating together.
On Saturday, May 12, the group will present The Other Side: Songs of Transformation at Yoga Soup (28 Parker Wy.) at 7 p.m. in a benefit concert for nonprofit People Assisting the Homeless S.B. The inCourage Community Chorus belongs to a larger international movement called the Ubuntu Choirs Network, in which trained leaders facilitate choral experiences designed to reach people who don’t know how to sing or who have been told they can’t sing.
In this group, all are welcome, and the philosophy is that “music is medicine” and is “part of every human’s birthright.” One of the songs that inCourage will perform on Saturday was written by area rock star Glen Phillips, who also leads an Ubuntu-style choir of his own. For Gudmunson, the goal is to achieve a human connection among the members and “to make music that is both expression and activism.”