Facilitated by Krista Nelson
Pay-What-You-Wish
Laurel Hill East
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Join Lenape language teacher (Lënapei lixsëwakàn wintemakwi) Krista Nelson in learning the Lenape Mourning Song, an ancient expression of grief and reverence sung in the original language of this land.
This song offers a rare window into a cosmology in which the spirits of the departed journey along the River of Stars—known today as the Milky Way—on their passage from this world to the next. As we learn the melody, Lenape words, and their pronunciation, we honor not only those we’ve lost, but also the language and worldview of the Lenape people.
This offering is part of the ongoing effort by the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania to revitalize the Lenape language and restore connection to the land through ancestral knowledge. Singing this song in the Lenape homeland is a sacred act of remembrance and renewal. Shavon Norris will be offering movement as part of the workshop.
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Krista Nelson bridges the gap between people and the natural world through ritual, language, and deep listening. As founder of Nature as Lover, she invites participants to speak with trees, listen to water, and enter in relationship with the living earth. Krista is a kikehwèt hitkwike, a healer among the trees or ecotherapist with the Philadelphia Ecotherapy project and the Fairmount Park Commission. She honors her Lenape ancestry through weekly Lenape language study under the guidance of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania and has recently become an official luwensu wintemakwi, a Lenape language teacher. Krista enjoys playing Native American-style flutes and creating sacred talismans on a canvas of Native American finger weaving. She says both flute and weaving tell the untold stories of her ancestors. She lives in Philadelphia with her five children and six grandchildren.
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Shavon Norris is an Artist. Educator. Facilitator. She grew up in a Black Sci-Fi Christian home in the Bronx that sparked her curiosity about the magic, medicine, and meaning living within us. Shavon uses movement along with text, sound, and imagery to reveal the stories living in our bodies. Her work explores our relationship to our identities, our experiences, and to each other. An examination and celebration of what we feel, think, and believe. As an artist her work has been presented at venues in NYC and Philadelphia. As a performer, she has performed for Silvana Cardell, Leah Stein, Merian Soto, makini poe, and toured with Pig Iron Theatre Company. As a facilitator, she works with artistic, educational, and corporate institutions, offering learning on Creativity, Movement, Inclusivity, and Healing Centered/Trauma Informed Practices. Shavon’s artistic and educational philosophies are rooted in the desire to offer herself, learners, performers, and audiences, opportunities to deepen the understanding of self and the collective. She loves the living and working she gets to do in the world.