Overview
The People’s Echo is a healing and liberation-centered song collective based on Coast Salish Lands (in and around Seattle, WA).
We host inclusive spaces that bring people together around our shared birthright of singing in community. We see song as a healing practice that settles our nervous systems, reconnects us to the power of our voices, and brings us into deeper resonance with each other.
With the dominant culture thriving off of our disempowerment and disconnection, we believe that reclaiming our voices through song is not just a healing practice, but a liberatory one.
All our voices are needed.
Check out our linktree for up-to-date information about our upcoming events, community singing resources, and to access our Soundcloud and Songbook.
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Practices
What is community singing?
Community singing is a non-performative and participatory space for singing with other people. Unlike many choirs, there is no audition and no hierarchy of “good or bad” singers; all voices are welcomed. There is generally no paper or sheet music; people are teaching and learning short, accessible songs through oral tradition. It’s most often unaccompanied by other instruments (aside from the occasional drum), which helps us remember the profound strength that our shared voices have!
What is song-catching?
Song-catching (similar to song-writing) is the process of cultivating unique musical moments through song. Song-catching is rooted in the idea that creativity is flowing abundantly around us at all times and those who pay attention may catch a piece of inspiration. Like someone who drops a line and hooks into the water to catch a fish, a song-catcher consciously opens themselves up to the flowing river of creativity to receive a song – to have a song “come through” them or to “catch” a song. Anyone can drop their “line and hook” into the flowing river of creativity – and just as sometimes one catches a fish and sometimes one does not – so it is with song-catching.
What is song-guiding?
Song-guiding (also referred to as song-leading) is the practice of sharing songs with others. Song guides teach songs caught by themselves or others. Song carrier is another term used for a person who carries, holds, and shares songs with the community.
What is song-tending?
Song-tending is the practice of holding songs in integrity, with reverence for their medicine and their origins. When singing and guiding songs, we honor the song’s stories by sharing the people and places from which they originate.
Community Agreements
- We welcome every voice and we listen to each other.
- We invite everyone to come as you are, practice self-care, and voice your accessibility needs.
- We make space for community building and relationships, as well as song.
- We only sing songs we have permission to share, and we honor and pass along their origin stories.
- We honor the intersectionality of our community and take responsibility for the energy we bring into our shared space.
- We practice gratitude, authenticity, and curiosity to create a space of collective liberation.
Our Story
The People’s Echo (TPE) was birthed from a desire to weave the healing power of music into activist movements. TPE began in the summer of 2019, spearheaded by Alexandra “Ahlay” Blakely, part of the Artful Activism team at 350 Seattle working towards climate justice. Ahlay called in a group of activists who shared a love of singing, inviting in several people from a Women’s Circle that had been meeting for years, building intimacy and trust with one another. And thus, The People’s Echo was formed!
TPE collectively caught their first song for a local campaign led by 350 Seattle advocating for a Green New Deal. The group began creating new songs and teaching them to groups of people to be sung at direct actions. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, singing became one of the most “dangerous” activities physically, despite still being a powerful emotional and spiritual healing practice. TPE started hosting monthly online and outdoor community song circles to keep folks connected to their voices and each other.
Today, TPE focuses on cultivating spaces for folks to reclaim the power of their voices by organizing seasonal community song circles, and teaching songcatching and songtending skills to activists and community members, and bringing the vitality of song to the streets.
Mission
To heal ourselves and our culture through the practice of community singing and to reclaim our voices as instruments for personal and collective liberation.
Vision
We envision a liberated world full of song and magic. A world free of prisons and the police state, where all people are valued and cared for. A world where everyone has access to nourishing food and community, safe housing, education, and clean water. A world where creativity, vulnerability, and expression are celebrated and a culture of support is flourishing. By singing songs together that uplift our visions of personal and collective liberation, we re-enchant ourselves to the world and anchor these visions deeper into reality.
Core Values
Collective Liberation
- We believe that all of our liberation is interconnected and holistic, bridging our bodies, minds, and hearts.
- Liberation is beyond just “overcoming oppression” – liberation looks like access to creativity, song, expression, rest, deep relationship with nature, nourishing traditional foods, resources for learning, embodiment, authenticity, supportive relationships, nurturing homes, and community spaces where we are held in our wholeness and feel safe to be our full selves.
Reparations
- We acknowledge the brutal history of colonization on Turtle Island and participate in actions to repair the harms incurred by forced free labor, land theft, and cultural erasure and appropriation.
- We gather on the stolen lands of the Duwamish and other Coast Salish Peoples. We encourage folks in the Seattle area to also pay Real Rent to the Duwamish, who are still fighting for federal recognition. To learn the names of the Native Peoples whose land you are on, check out the WA tribal land map or this global tribal land mapping project.
- We support local Land Back actions and Food Sovereignty projects.
Anti-racism
- We are committed to anti-racism with acknowledgement and awareness that our society is embedded in White Supremacy Culture.
- We center the voices of People of the Global Majority (PGM) and actively cultivate cross-racial relationships.
- Our white-identifying organizers participate in anti-racist affinity spaces for white folks, and we encourage other white folks to do so too. Here are some resources: Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites, Education for Racial Equity, and White Awake.
Gender Inclusivity
- We work to create safe(r) spaces for people of all gender identities and expressions, particularly trans and non-binary people.
- We divest from all patriarchal structures, and encourage everyone (especially cis-men and others who benefit from patriarchy) to actively dismantle the patriarchy within themselves. Here are some resources: Our Strong Fathers, Mensgroup, Sacred Sons, and Kinhood.
Accessibility
- We work to create accessible spaces for all people, with particular awareness of the needs of our neurodivergent, disabled, and low-income community members.
- When we gather, we invite everyone to share their access needs so we can support their presence in the space.
- If there are ever any questions about the accessibility of one of our events or specific access requests, we encourage folks to reach out to us at thepeoplesecho@gmail.com.
Solidarity
- We are in solidarity with all movements for justice and liberation – MMIW, BLM, Every Child Matters, Free Palestine, Uprisings in Iran, the Climate Justice Movement, Anti-Pipeline Actions, Housing & Healthcare for All, and many more.
Contact
Have any questions or ideas for collaborations? Contact us at thepeoplesecho@gmail.com