Speakers & Artists

This page will be updated with information about festival speakers and artists as they are confirmed. Please check back from time-to-time to see new additions.

Thomas Hübl, founder of The Celebrate Life Festival, is a modern mystic, a spiritual teacher whose work integrates the core insights of the great wisdom traditions with the discoveries of contemporary science, illuminating both with his profound understanding.

Thomas Hübl is a visionary teacher, innovator, and founder of the Academy of Inner Science, which promotes the study of the principles of mysticism and human inner development. Originally a student of medicine and the physical sciences, Thomas took a radical departure into the exploration of mysticism, including a four-year deep meditation retreat. For the past 15 years Thomas has dedicated himself to the systematic exploration of mysticism, gaining insights into how mystical knowledge can help fill in the gaps in science. These explorations form the foundation of his pioneering Academy of Inner Science, a unique institution utilizing a distinctive approach to exploring consciousness, evolution, and the junctures between mysticism and science. Having worked with tens of thousands of people worldwide in his workshops, retreats, and multi-year study programs, Thomas’s methods include meditative practices, the development of somatic and subtle awareness, and conscious cultural engagement for societal healing. A charismatic and compassionate teacher, Thomas draws students from wide-ranging backgrounds including the physical sciences, social sciences, medicine, law, anthropology, and art, as well as those with backgrounds in mysticism and self-development. Thomas has also collaborated with luminaries in related fields, including philosopher Ken Wilber, three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Scilla Elworthy, psychosomatic medicine specialist Edda Gottschaldt, alternative medicine practitioner Stephan Hausner, systemic constellations therapist Tiiu Boltzmann, law professor Stephan Breidenbach, and top mediator William Ury. Since 2004, Thomas has maintained an active schedule of speaking, teaching, and training both students and professionals. He lives in Tel Aviv and Berlin with his wife, the Israeli artist Yehudit Sasportas, and their daughter.

Daily.

Author, activist and master trainer angel Kyodo williams’ Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love & Liberation is igniting long overdue conversations on what hinders liberation of self and society. Rev. angel notes, “Love and Justice are not two. Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters.” She was made for these times.

Called “the most intriguing African-American Buddhist” by Library Journal, angel Kyodo williams is an author, activist, master trainer and founder of Transformative Change. She has been bridging the worlds of transformation and justice since her critically acclaimed book, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living With Fearlessness and Grace was hailed as “an act of love” by Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker, and “a classic” by Buddhist pioneer Jack Kornfield. Her newest work, Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love & Liberation, is igniting communities to have the long overdue conversations necessary to become more awake and aware of what hinders liberation of self and society. Rev. angel was the second black women to become a Zen “Sensei” or teacher, and applies wisdom teachings and embodied practice to intractable social issues. She is a leading voice for Transformative Social Change, and in recognition of her work, she received the first Creating Enlightened Society Award from Shambhala International. Her work has been widely covered, including in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Ms., and Essence. angel notes, “Love and Justice are not two. Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters.” She was made for these times.

In Conversation with Thomas Hübl & Konda Mason
Thursday, August 16
11:30am
Main Hall

“There is something dying in our society, in our culture, and there’s something dying in us individually. And what is dying, I think, is the willingness to be in denial. And that is extraordinary. It’s always been happening, and when it happens in enough of us, in a short enough period of time at the same time, then you have a tipping point, and the culture begins to shift. And then, what I feel like people are at now is, No, no, bring it on. I have to face it- we have to face it.” –Rev. angel Kyodo williams

Rev. angel Kyodo williams joins Thomas and Konda Mason in deepening our exploration of racism in America. We, as a culture, are being called to renegotiate belonging for all as we examine our ancestral roots and the patterns that have been passed through generations. What is the cost of privilege? What role does individualism play in maintaining a system of supremacy? It is essential to include our feelings in this intimate conversation.

William Ury, co-founder of Harvard’s Program on Negotiation, is one of the world’s leading experts on negotiation and mediation. William is co-author of Getting to Yes, a fifteen-million-copy bestseller translated into over thirty-five languages, and the author most recently of Getting to Yes with Yourself. Over the past four decades, William has served as a negotiation adviser and mediator in conflicts ranging from the Cold War to Venezuela to the Middle East. Recently, William has served as a senior advisor to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in helping to bring an end to the last and longest-running war in the Americas. William is also founder of the Abraham Path Initiative, which seeks to bring people together across cultures by opening a long-distance walking route across the Middle East that retraces the footsteps of Abraham and his family. He has a TED talk about the Abraham Path, entitled “The Walk from No to Yes.” He is currently a Distinguished Fellow of the Harvard Negotiation Project where he directs the Korea Negotiation Initiative (KNI), a collaborative inquiry into the obstacles to a negotiated resolution of the Korea nuclear crisis and how to overcome them.

Meditate and Mediate: In Video Conversation with Thomas Hübl
Thursday, August 16
2:30pm
Main Hall

Konda Mason is a social entrepreneur, earth and social justice activist and spiritual teacher. Her current work speaks to the intersection of the next economy, social justice and spirituality. She is the Co-Founder and founding CEO of Impact Hub Oakland, a beautiful co-working space that supports socially engaged entrepreneurs and changemakers. She is the Project Director of the Runway Project Oakland, a micro-lending fund for African American entrepreneurs intended to close the “Friends & Family” gap funding that is often unavailable to them. Additionally, Konda is the co-founder of the annual COCAP (Community Capital) conference in Oakland, with a focus on “Building The We Economy”. Konda currently is a co-founder of Jubilee, LLC an investment platform and transformational community for investors who want to create a 100% impact “Beautiful Portfolio” and protect what is sacred. An avid Earth activist, Konda leads annual eco-tourism trips to the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador in order to wake people up to become active stewards of this vital earth ecosystem that is being threatened by the extractive oil industry. In her social justice work, Konda sits on the Diversity Working Committee at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and helped craft a comprehensive Diversity Equity and Inclusion plan (DEI) that is being adopted by many other organizations. Additionally, she teaches workshops to non-profit organizations that are ready to do the deep work of transforming racial fear into curiosity, engagement and personal commitment to facing injustice. Ms. Mason is an accomplished filmmaker and artists manager and the recipient of an Academy Award nomination and a Grammy Award winner. Konda holds a Permaculture Design Certificate, is a certified Kripalu yoga teacher and a Vipassana meditation teacher. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Good Work Institute, The On Being Project, United Roots and Spirit Rock Meditation Center, where she is in a four-year Dharma Teacher Training with Jack Kornfield as her personal mentor. Konda’s work is fueled by a passion to witness in her lifetime a world that is environmentally regenerative, spiritually fulfilling, and socially & economically just.

In Conversation with Thomas Hübl
Wednesday, August 15
11:00am
Main Hall

“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up in mine, then lets work together.”

Lilla Watson

Many of us are feeling the fragmentation in the world right now. The extreme polarization in our country is bringing into question who we are as Americans. In this conversation, Thomas and Konda Mason will examine the shadow of racism and how it lives in all of us as a collective wound. They will unpack the construct of ‘whiteness’ as it informs our society and our personal lives. In our longing for wholeness, we can no longer look away. How did we get here? Why is it so difficult to engage in this conversation? We are invited to join this exploration allowing discomfort to arise as an essential path to transformation.

Workshop
Wednesday, August 15, 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Main Hall

Racially homogeneous spaces are becoming less and less appealing and counter-productive to personal and collective transformation. The rich mosaic of multicultural voices is critical to creating the world we all hope for. In this workshop you will open your curiosity, free your heart and learn some important practical steps toward building multicultural communities and spaces. You will learn: Some important points on multicultural interactions How to face the fear of saying the wrong thing in multicultural settings What “privilege” really is and how to use it positively The joy of leaving your comfort zone to find personal liberation

Terry Real is a nationally recognized family therapist, author, and teacher. He is particularly known for his groundbreaking work on men and male psychology as well as his work on gender and couples; he has been in private practice for over twenty-five years. Terry has appeared often as the relationship expert for Good Morning America and ABC News. His work has been featured in numerous academic articles as well as media venues such as Oprah, 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today and many others. In 1997 he published the national bestseller: I Don’t Want To Talk About It, the first book ever written on the topic of male depression. That was followed by How Can I Get Through To You? an exploration of the role of patriarchy in relationships and most recently, The New Rules of Marriage: What You Need to Know to Make Love Work, a practical guide for couples and couples therapists. Terry founded The Relational Life Institute, in Arlington, Massachusetts, dedicated to working with the general population to help women reclaim their voices and men open their hearts. The Institute offers a training program for therapists as well as workshops and trainings throughout the US and Canada.

In Conversation with Thomas Hübl: Relationship as a Spiritual Practice
Tuesday, August 14
11:00am
Main Hall

We’ve never wanted more from relationships. We want a life-long lover relationship grafted onto the stability of marriage. We ask in one person what a village used to provide. But we do not have the skills to realize our new romantic ambitions. I will introduce specific attention practices such as speaking up for yourself with love, listening with a generous heart, cherishing your partner. I will introduce the model of a tri-part psyche: the functional adult, wounded child, adaptive child. Relational mindfulness is the practice of shifting from your adaptive child (limbic system) to your functional adult (prefrontal cortex,) in the heat of the moment. It is listening to one’s better angels. In order to be adult with your partner you must be intimate with yourself, able to tolerate a host of feelings, some quite uncomfortable. You redirect your thinking so that your partner appears to you less as an enemy. You remember love, recalling that this person is someone you care for and that the goal of speaking is repair. All relationships are a dance of harmony, disharmony, and repair. Our culture freezes relationships in the harmony phase, not acknowledging disharmony let alone telling us how to manage it. I speak of normal marital hatred. It gets dark. Yet, from the work of Ed Tronick, infant observational researcher, the bond of real intimacy grows not primarily through harmony but from repair. We all long for the divine. A god or goddess. Yet the stuff of intimacy comes from collision of your imperfections and mine – and how they are handled.

Sweet Honey In The Rock® is a performance ensemble rooted in African American history and culture. The ensemble educates, entertains and empowers its audience and community through the dynamic vehicles of a cappella singing and American Sign Language interpretation for the Deaf and hearing impaired.

Sweet Honey In The Rock^® remains among the most vibrant, versatile and ever relevant musical collectives in music today; both as a performance ensemble and as an ambassadorial African American organization founded on the triumvirate missions of empowerment, education and entertainment. Currently consisting of members Carol Maillard, Louise Robinson, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Aisha Kahlil, and featured musician Romeir Mendez on upright acoustic bass and electric bass. Sweet Honey In The Rock is a powerful and unique concert entity that fuses the elastic 360 degree possibilities of the human voice with a theatrical flair that keeps avid audiences returning for more year after year. Kinetic, cultured and connected, this internationally renowned Grammy Award^® nominated female a cappella vocal quartet has a history of over four decades of distinguished service. They have created positive, loving, and socially conscious message music that matters as it pertains to spiritual fortification, and consistently taken an activist stance toward making this planet a better place for all in which to live. Thus, the theme of the group’s 24th recording, #LoveInEvolution, Sweet Honey In The Rock’s first studio album in nine years and most contemporary project to date. Since its 1973 inception in Washington, DC (founded by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon as part of the D.C. Black Repertory Theater Company with Carol Maillard, Louise Robinson and Mie), Sweet Honey In The Rock has continuously evolved into international ambassadors of a cappella vocal and lyrical excellence and musical missionaries of equality, empowerment and education, peace, love, solidarity and nondenominational spirituality. Revered most for their live performances, the ladies have recorded 24 albums, several specifically for children. Their most recent double CD, SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK: A Tribute…Live! Jazz at Lincoln Center (2012), paid homage to their kindred sisters: vocalists and activists Abbey Lincoln, Odetta, Miriam Makeba and Nina Simone, and found the group singing with a jazz trio of “Honey Men” (Musical Director and pianist, Stacey Wade; acoustic and electric bassist, Parker McAllister; and drummer and percussionist, Jovol Bell). Sweet Honey In The Rock has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious venues on almost every continent for royal command concerts and festivals. The group had the honor of performing at the National Memorial Service for Nelson Mandela at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Not surprisingly, they are a favorite group of Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, having performed by request at the White House. “We are very forward thinking as an organization, constantly reevaluating how we can express concepts to uplift and create change through our music and concerts,” says Maillard. “#LoveInEvolutionhas a more contemporary sound and feel because as people in the group grow and change, we want to hear different things, feel different things, and bring fresh elements to our presentation.”

Wednesday, August 15
8:00pm
Main Hall

Here is a short video with clips of three recent performances. We are really excited to have Sweet Honey in the Rock perform at Celebrate Life Festival! You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/JpBuicJ6214

Terry Patten is a philosopher, activist, social entrepreneur, and author of A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos for Revolutionaries. Over the last fifteen years he has devoted his efforts to the evolution of consciousness by facing, examining, and healing our global crisis through the marriage of spirit and activism. He co-wrote the book Integral Life Practice with Ken Wilber and a core team at the Integral Institute. He’s the founder of the “Beyond Awakening” teleseminar series and Bay Area Integral, as well as Tools For Exploration, a consciousness technologies company. He is involved in restorative redwood forestry and fossil-fuel alternatives. Patten holds degrees from the University of Michigan and John F. Kennedy University (MA in consciousness studies) and has taught at the University of Notre Dame, Columbia University, and San Francisco State University. His website is terrypatten.com. Download a free audio and pdf excerpt of Terry’s latest book here: http://newrepublicoftheheart.com

The Higher Octave of Joy, Power & Purpose on the Other Side of Darkness
Monday, August 13
2:30pm
Main Hall

We avoid speaking about “the elephant in the living room” because it seems too big. But it is actually the direct path to where we belong. Most of us at least occasionally feel overwhelmed by the vast numbers of urgent global and societal crises. They ask too many seemingly “impossible” questions. But nonetheless, they are exerting pressure on us: How can we “be the change we want to see” in a world that in some ways seems to be rapidlly unraveling? How can we rest in trust and well-being without slipping into avoidance and denial? How can we heed this call without falling into anxiety and stress? How can we relate to what’s really happening in a way that’s clear-eyed and sober, and also joyous, playful and passionate? Terry Patten will also guide us in bringing these questions into personal focus: What’s your unique role and gift? How do you need to grow to fulfill it? What are the ways you’re holding yourself back? And how can you find the allies and partners with whom you can do the work?

Yehudit Sasportas is one of the most prominent and prolific Israeli artists working in the local and international art arenas today. Her work is focused on site-specific installations, which include sculptures, drawings, video and sound works, and call for an intense and overwhelming sensory experience. Her installations have gone through a process of adapting and responding to the architecture of various museum spaces while forming into artworks that present a new way of reading architecture itself, as well as the wider cultural context it was created in. Her sculptural arrangements deal with a fascinating correspondence taking place between subconscious materials, unspoken and unseen, and the way these layers of information activate conscious areas across the surface. Sasportas’ Active Consciousness films, which were made over a course of more than seven years, present relatively simple actions, yet such that provoke a deep and condense discussion about the manner in which we experience, understand and project our own personal stories on reality. This series as well as others have brought Sasportas’ works to receive meaningful recognition as an artist with clear political relevance. Sasportas represented Israel in the 2007 Venice Biennial, and has presented more than ten international solo exhibitions during the last decade, in venues such as The Kunsthalle Basel, The Berkley Museum of Art, San Francisco, The Kunstverein Braunschweig, DA2 Domus Atrium, Salamanca, and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Sasportas is a senior professor at the Bezalel Academy for Art and Design in Jerusalem. She works in Tel Aviv and Berlin and is also a lecturer in the International Academy of Consciousness (Germany and the US).

Artist Talk
Monday, August 13
2:30pm
Main Hall

Gary Joplin is a professional choreographer, dancer and stage director, as well as instructor for dance, yoga, and Gyrokinesis®. The body is the central focus of his work. Gary leads workshops in Europe, Israel and the USA in body – mind awareness and development.

For Gary Joplin—professional choreographer, dancer and stage director, as well as instructor for dance, yoga, and Gyrokinesis®, the body is the central focus of his work. Aside from supporting Thomas’ work at various workshops in Europe, China and Israel, and as a member of the team for the European Timeless Wisdom Trainings, Gary leads workshops in Europe, Israel and the USA in body – mind awareness and development. His work cultivates the synchronization of the physical body with the subtle and emotional bodies in a deeply embodied and creative way. His creative work as a stage director and choreographer has been presented in the Karlsruhe State Theater, Heidelberg Theater, The Bern Symphony Orchestra, Theater im Marienbad and Theater Freiburg, where he has directed and choreographed numerous productions from youth projects to musicals for the opera over the past 12 years. Gary combines his work as a healer and a theater artist in a profound way, bringing greater awareness and self-reflection for both the performers and the viewing audience, inviting them into a ritualistic space where emotional expansion is possible. This expresses itself in theater productions with youth as well as working with senior citizens, the hearing impaired and youth with and without physical and mental disability. His most recent piece deals with the emotional epigenetic inheritance from our ancestors, and is short-listed for the German national youth dance festival in Berlin.

TransLucent: A Movement Workshop
Tuesday, August 14 & Thursday, August 16
2:30pm – 4:30pm
Stillwater

We as individuals are not merely products of our own experiences and conditioning. We are the melting together of many visible and invisible influences, both conscious and unconscious, as well as the carriers of genetic and epigenetic material, passed on from generation to generation.

As the living, breathing ends of our ancestral lines, we have the gift of agency and the possibility to bring about change…the ability to feel what could not be felt, and to see what could not be seen.

By connecting to deeper and deeper levels of our ancestral lines and allowing this energy to breathe and move through us, we will explore the possibility of bringing frozen pockets of energy within our family system back into motion, allowing these energies to complete their course.

Body-Mind Awakening: Movement in the Morning with Gary Joplin
Monday through Friday
6:00am
Main Hall

The Body-Mind Awakening Training from Gary Joplin is a daily invitation to deepen the connection between the physical, mental and energetic bodies, and an opportunity to more deeply ground and then open the body, both physically and energetically. Flowing, harmonious movement sequences supported by conscious breathing patterns are combined in a playful, organic way, allowing the body to simultaneously become more deeply grounded and to expand. This work is based primarily on the principles of Gyrokinesis®, but also utilizes wisdom from yoga, Feldenkreis, and various dance forms. It is a great preparation for the morning meditation, as it not only fine-tunes the physical body, but also brings a heightened awareness to the subtle energy body while focusing and quieting the mind. Participants will leave the class feeling more grounded and alive with a new-found lightness and sense of bodily expansion.

Internationally renowned electric cellist and vocalist, Jami Sieber, reaches inside the soul with compositions that are contemporary, timeless, lush, and powerfully evocative. Her creative life reflects a deep dedication to the arts as a medium of exploration and awareness of the interconnectedness of all beings.

Jami’s music transforms from the deepest stillness to moving melodies and rhythms. She transforms her solo instrument into an orchestra of sound that opens the heart, defies the mind, and sets the body dancing. Her life-long musical path moved from classical to folk, to rock/pop, to world and improvisation. Since launching her solo career, Sieber has entered into dynamic collaborations with an extraordinary spectrum of dancers, actors, poets, visual artists, improvisers, vocalists, and instrumentalists that span the globe. Her compositions have been used for film, (PBS American Masters – Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning, Queen of the Sun, Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton) and the popular video game – Braid. She has seven independently released recordings on her own label. More about Jami: www.jamisieber.com

In Concert
Monday, August 13
8:00pm
Main Hall

Amani Will / Wa Ama & the Lion Truth Born/Raised: Berkeley/Oakland, Ca Preferred gender pronoun: he/him/they/them/we Race/Ethnicity: Black/African American/African Decent, White/US Born of Scottish, Welsh, English, French and German descent, Tsalagi (Cherokee). Website: www.IAMMANY.us A Singing Poet, BeatMan, Meditator, Educator, smooth talking, spirit walking, psychic somatic Tarot in the town talkin’ Irreverent Reverend. We Consult, curriculum write, and program manage. Facilitate, collaborate, and liberate. Raise the creative, nurture the awareness, and live the practice. Amani Will is a long time student of the heart, a practitioner of the sacred smile, and an engineer of the opening eye. An interracial child, of grassroots organizers, while marinating in the tumultuous Grief filled Bay Area 1980’s. Amani has been active in community, organizing and consciousness shifting for over 20 years. What began as a creative response to Bay Area violence, sadness, madness, tragic-ness, has continued as a life full of creativity, compassion, vulnerability. Wa Ama & The Lion Truth, Amani, I Am Many has helped to develop and implement widely used and internationally shared curriculum, even with so many names can never forget its them. Amani brings innovative ensembles of social justice empowerment, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, somatic wisdom, ceremony, music, theatre, and the overall return to presence, wonder, and creativity; and invites us to continue to learn from our shared humanity and explorations into freedom. james-amutabi haines Born/Raised: Baltimore,MD/Oakland,CA Preferred gender pronoun: he/him/they/we Race/Ethnicity: Black/Cameroonian/Congolese/BeninTogo/WesternEuropean/Native American Website: www.clnnow.us A misfit mystic, a makeshift shaman, an irreverent reverend, from queer parentage Oakland Grown Baltimore Born. amutabi says they remember meditating on the creation of planets with Norteños and Sureños in Juvenile Detention Facilities around the Bay. They would ask, “what type of planet would you create?” One young vulnerageous warrior said, “one for the Norteños and one for the Sureños, they will be next to each other and we will war for eternity…even our enemies deserve a planet.” They speak in tongues with an indigenous syncopated rhythm, in rooms full of people and spirits, prayer, humility, rage and dignity –namaste mothafathas. Calling all misfits! james amutabi is a multimedia artist and wordsmith, with collages and paintings and prayer and poetry; 20 years of facilitation practice, every year in dignity, talking about issues of oppression, mindfulness, addiction, indigenous technology, decolonized consciousness, basic goodness, Theatre of the Oppressed, and what it means to live in a “playground for spiritual misfits”, you “altar of free being”. amutabi asks each of us to invite in dignity and CreativeLiberationNow (CLN).

In Concert
Thursday, August 16
9:30pm
Main Hall

Founded by Bay Area Locals james-amutabi connie haines and Amani Will / Wa Ama & the Lion Truth, offered up as an artist collective and an experiment in the merging of edge zones, the de-centralizing of power, and the Banding Together in Creative Liberation. This is a band that takes many forms, with many friends and genius collaborators. So far we make Ascen-Dance Music; Bay Area Hip-Hop; Experimental Freak Folk; Psychedelic Prayer Poetry; Chants, Rounds, and the songs of our Ancestors remixed through Freestyle Listening. We are a Band of story tellers, educators, artivists, healers, and earth workers, amplifying the frequencies that set us free and show us how free we already are.

Brian Haas is an award-winning pianist, composer, producer, and arranger. He founded Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, which has released 27 albums, toured Europe and the Americas on a constant loop, played many of the world’s biggest music festivals, received the Guinness Cork Award in Ireland and sold out prestigious U.S. clubs like Yoshi’s and The Blue Note.

Brian Haas is an award-winning pianist, composer, producer, and arranger. He graduated from the University of Tulsa in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in Music. While at TU, he founded Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. In the last 24 years, JFJO has released 27 albums, toured Europe and the Americas on a constant loop, played many of the world’s biggest music festivals, received the Guinness Cork Award in Ireland and sold out prestigious U.S. clubs like Yoshi’s and The Blue Note. The last 3 years have seen Haas touring, composing and recording with Matt Chamberlain (drummer for Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam) and The Nolatet, a band comprised of New Orleans legends. Nolatet’s new album comes out April 27 on Sony Red/MRI with an American Tour to follow.

In Concert
Tuesday, August 14
9:30pm
Main Hall

“Brian Haas paints with his fingers. In a flurry, his joyful digits add color to 88 black and white keys. He plays with the assured abandon of an artist in complete control of his craft.” — Keyboard Magazine “Piano giant Brian Haas is taking the instrument deep into an explosive, exploratory future where genres blur and stylistic lines are not so much redrawn but re-imagined. Haas’ matchless originality and soul are as much a product of his unique upbringing as they are his process of self-discovery, and his vibrant energy and musical vitality are testament to his determination to remain true to his ideals.” — Keyboard Magazine “His embrace of the Music’s History is undeniable: strains of Ellington, Earl Hines and the post-modernists share space. He is a celebrated composer and fearless musical warrior, pulling together the sound sources of Nolatet with brash clusters, stinging high-register accents and thick, alluring harmonies.” — New York City Jazz Record

Michaela Harrison is an international vocalist whose career is rooted in relaying the healing, transformational power of music through song. Joy Clark is a New Orleans born and bred singer/songwriter and guitarist of immense talent and versatility.

Michaela Harrison is an international vocalist whose career is rooted in relaying the healing, transformational power of music through song. Whether she’s singing at an intimate gathering or on a festival stage before thousands Michaela invites her diverse audiences to come inside her musical healing room. Fluent in French and Portuguese, and familiar with Spanish and Swahili, Michaela has an expanded repertoire of world music and renders songs in their original language. Michaela is based in New Orleans, LA yet spends extensive time in Brazil where she has headlined music festivals, performed at various venues and events and has regular appearances at the Ace Hotel and Café Istanbul. She has toured in Jamaica, France, Germany, Italy, England, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and has recorded with members of Sweet Honey and the Rock, Bill Summers, Kermit Ruffins, and Mother Tongue. Michaela is as comfortable with a full band, a choir or an orchestra as she is with a guitar or piano as her only accompaniment. Michaela brings the same passion, intensity and sincerity to every setting, offering her music as love medicine for the body, heart and mind. Joy Clark is a New Orleans born and bred singer/songwriter and guitarist of immense talent and versatility. She was the 2017 winner of the Delgado University Songwriting Competition, and has toured internationally as the guitarist for famed New Orleans musician Cyrille Neville.

Michaela Harrison & Joy Clark in Concert
Thursday, August 16
8:00pm
Main Hall

CHEN Zhipeng is the initiator of music, a natural artist. He has been engaged in the study, creation and education of natural music and art, and founded the “natural music center 自然音樂中心” and “music and music natural cultural communication 樂音自然文化傳播”, which promotes the education of natural art and natural cultivation in China.

CHEN Zhipeng is the initiator of music, a natural artist. Born in a family of art and education, he grew up in a literary environment and studied the art of the East and the Western from childhood. He has been engaged in the study, creation and education of natural music and art, and founded the “natural music center自然音樂中心” and “music and music natural cultural communication樂音自然文化傳播”, which promotes the education of natural art and natural cultivation in China. Over the years, it has advocated and practiced the inheritance, creation, exchange and cooperation of “natural images”, ancient and natural instruments. He has starred in art films at home and abroad and produced music. He has been invited to exchange music art and culture the people of the world, music and art cooperation. Here is a short video clip of one of Mr. Chen’s performances: https://www.sohu.com/a/132063261_157906

In Concert
Monday, August 13
8:00pm
Main Hall

Since 2000, Rob Noble has been one of Seattle’s most diverse tastemakers. He has two nationally released CD’s, ‘Kamakaze’ (2003) & ‘Bi-Polar’ (2004), and has performed alongside a wide spectrum of artists. Holding true to the craft of DJ’ing without defining himself by a genre or trend lets him connect with dance floors in every environment and co-create the story together.

Since 2000, Rob Noble has been a dedicated force in the Pacific Northwest and one of Seattle’s most diverse tastemakers. After the success of two nationally released CD’s, ‘Kamakaze’ (2003) & ‘Bi-Polar’ (2004), Rob quickly started receiving bookings throughout North America which now includes festivals such as Shambhala, Symbiosis, Lightning in a Bottle, Decibel Festival, Burning Man and has performed alongside a wide spectrum of artists such as Max Cooper, Machinedrum, Ed Rush & Optical, Kalya Scintilla, Photek, Dub FX, Desert Dwellers, Dirtwire and many others. Holding true to the craft of DJ’ing without defining himself by a genre or trend lets him connect with dance floors in every environment and co-create the story together. After leading his first Ecstatic Dance he found a big demand for his skillsets within Edance communities including multiple sets at the legendary Kalani and Garden Temple on the Big Island (Pahoa) and has been the staple DJ for DreamDance (Seattle). With a deep appreciation for community building, Rob’s been a successful event producer and host one of Seattle’s well respected monthly club nights, ‘DEEP N BASS’ at the Monkey Loft, showcasing the forward-thinking and deeper sounds of Electronica. He also produces large multi-media dance parties under the brand ‘Manifest’ at warehouses and underground venues. Hear some of Rob’s sounds here: http://mixcloud.com/Robnoble https://soundcloud.com/rob-noble

Silent Disco
Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, Aug 14 – Aug 16
11:00pm
Main Hall

One of the beautiful things about a “silent disco” is that everyone’s ears are fully dedicated to the music with headphones. This eliminates many distractions that can happen on a dance floor and allows you to fully express yourself through dance and movement. We invite you to join us as we combine the philosophies of Ecstatic Dance within the space of a silent disco and take a journey through many different types of music that will be selected specifically for that particular moment in time.

Sasha is one of the most sought after dj’s for Ecstatic Dance and Ecstatic Dance styled events throughout California and beyond. Her popularity with spiritually focused dance crowds comes from her unique hybridization of original production featuring her live vocals and flute playing with carefully selected inspirational dance tracks from various artists from around the world.

Sasha’s background of lifelong musicianship created a strong foundation for her unique style of electronic production and live dj performances. She combines many elements, learned from her vast variety of musical experience, to offer a truly innovative type of artistic expression. Her popularity with spiritually focused dance crowds comes from her unique hybridization of original production featuring her live vocals and flute playing with carefully selected inspirational dance tracks from various artists from around the world. Her performances flow from celestial grooves to tribal world rhythms to down tempo dance dub to collective ascensions to higher realms. Sasha is one of the most sought after dj’s for Ecstatic Dance and Ecstatic Dance styled events throughout California and beyond. She has performed at over 40 such dances including multiple appearances at Ecstatic Dance Oakland, Dance Journey, and many others. Over the last 10 years Sasha has taken her live solo electronic show to festivals throughout the US including Symbiosis, Beloved Festival, Earthdance, Sonic Bloom, Enchanted Forest, Raindance Campout, Photosynthesis, and many more. She has guested with several electronic artists including Random Rab, Vibesquad, Mimosa, Anasia, Zilla, Eoto, J.Boogie, Lafa Taylor, Jamie Janover, Lynx and many others. In her musical production, Sasha creates luscious soundscapes and thick bass lines bridged by her soulful, angelic voice and a variety of live instrumentation. Her original lyrics bring awareness and create a deep earth connection to her listeners. More about Sasha: www.sasharosemusic.com

Monday, August 13
9:30pm
Main Hall

Thursday, August 16
9:30pm
Main Hall

Drawing on her work with Thomas Hübl, Peter Levine, Nancy Napier and Diane Poole Heller, Karen Gold Sherman engages the body’s innate intelligence in her practice as a Somatic Experience Practitioner. She has over 30 years of experience in sensory integration, neuro-developmental treatment, and body-centered psychotherapy with children, adults and families.

Karen Gold Sherman’s work engages the body’s innate intelligence, helping to gently renegotiate emotional and physical trauma patterns to move toward restoration and resiliency. This process brings forth grounding in one’s body and being, restores connection, creativity and executive thinking capacities. In Thomas’ teachings, he speaks of the divine intelligence of the movements of the Nervous System. This work honors those movements. Karen has had over 30 years of experience in sensory integration; neuro-developmental treatment; and body-centered psychotherapy with children, adults and families. She currently works with adults, and has an emphasis on early attachment and developmental trauma. She is trained in the work of Somatic Experience, and was also on the faculty at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing for ten years. Karen has trained in Bio-dynamic Cranial Sacral work with Franklyn Sills. She has coordinated and has been a senior assistant in DARE trainings; somatic attachment work developed by Diane Poole Heller. She has Advanced trainings and assisted with Dr. Peter Levine and in the New York area Somatic Experience trainings. Karen had a Tibetan Buddhist practice for 14 years before she began studying with Thomas Hübl six years ago. She is currently assisting Thomas’s Timeless Wisdom Training US.

What is the language of the Nervous System?
Monday, August 13
2:30pm – 4:30pm
Cabin by the Field

Thomas introduced many of us to our nervous system and the role it plays with our overall regulation. Now that we are becoming more aware of this system, what do we listen for? Subtle sensations like tingling, pulsing, and movements of energy are giving us important information. How does bringing presence to our sensations and emotions support the “enzoing” of our trauma and reorganization of the nervous system so there is more space and ground? Drawing on her work with Thomas Hübl, Peter Levine, Nancy Napier and Diane Poole Heller, her practice as a Somatic Experience Practitioner and over 30 years working as an Occupational Therapist with children, Karen will give us an experiential understanding of the mechanics of these sensations and the Nervous System to support our climb up the mountain.

Come by Here: Mining the Power of Spirituals for Personal and Community Healing
Thurs, Aug 16
2:30 – 4:30pm
Cabin by the Field

Come by Here: Mining the Power of Spirituals for Personal and Community Healing Out of depravity, exquisiteness; out of devastation, inspiration. Spirituals (traditionally referred to as Negro Spirituals) represent the creative resistance of a traumatized people. They are a cannon of living and lived oral history that serve as the foundation of much of the popular music indigenous to the United States, and offer blueprints for individual and collective healing that carry profound resonance and relevance to the conditions faced by humanity as a whole in this moment. Born of the experiences of people who navigated one of the most brutal institutions on record, Spirituals speak to the brilliance of the artists (all of them anonymous) who created the songs, as well as to the unifying, sustaining, liberating force inherent in the melodies, harmonies, lyrics, rhythms and hidden messages they contain. This force has been integral to countless African American sacred spaces since the time of enslavement, and was tapped during the Civil Rights Movement as one of the central elements of non-violent organizing for social change. The applicability of this force extends well beyond churches and demonstrations, however, and is available to anyone willing to raise his/her/their voice in song in the quest to heal the effects of trauma, abuse, depression, injustice and myriad forms of pain, or simply to celebrate the energy of communal vocalizing. Come by Here is a workshop experience designed to plug participants in to the power source of Spirituals, providing them access to information, inspiration and vibrational shifting that will be theirs to mine and shape to their own needs thereafter. This workshop addresses the lingering impact of slavery via a process of engaging with Spirituals through the lens of the creators of the music and the context of their experiences, while simultaneously offering the songs as remedies for modern societal and personal ills and as inspiration for the creation of new music by participants. Despite the specificity of its content, Come by Here is intended to be accessible to people from all backgrounds. While many of the songs are steeped in references rooted in Judeo-Christian beliefs, the workshop seeks to illuminate the ways in which their value extends beyond the confines of any particular faith, in the same way that yoga, for example, has benefits to offer its millions of practitioners who do not ascribe to Hinduism. Ultimately, the emphasis will be on the music itself, and how singing with others who share an intention of healing and upliftment can offer liberation and transformation on various levels.

This interactive workshop will focus on the fundamental principles of Transparent Communication, a set of practices developed by Thomas Hübl and his students, designed to bring higher awareness into everyday interactions and transform ordinary moments into vehicles of awakening. Michael and Amanda are longtime spiritual practitioners who have been studying with Thomas Hübl since 2012.

Michael Thayer is on a lifelong spiritual journey and has been involved in transformational work for the past 10 years, including Somatic Experiencing, Core Energetics, and Solsara, where he served on the assistant team for 4 years. Michael also brings extensive experience as a Permaculture teacher and holds a degree in Cultural Anthropology.Having been deeply inspired by both relational and embodiment practices as well as non-dual teachings, he yearned for a teacher and community that would integrate both. In 2012 he found Thomas and has been studying intensively with him ever since. In 2017 he completed the first Timeless Wisdom Training in America and is now a part of the US Core Group. Michael lives in Portland, OR and is the owner of a growing landscape design/build business which he started in 2015. Amanda Price is a transformational coach, registered nurse, artist, and writer. She has had a lifelong interest in mysticism and spiritual practice and has been studying intensively with Thomas Hübl since 2012. Incorporating intuition, embodied attunement and extensive training in somatic psychology, nursing, and subtle energy awareness, Amanda’s passion is working towards greater coherence and healing in individuals and groups by aligning with their innate intelligence. Working with those struggling with chronic health issues that often stem from prenatal, abuse, medical, or war trauma is one of her main interests. She is currently working on her first book.

Transparent Communication Workshop
Tuesday, August 14
2:30 – 4:30pm
Cabin by the Field

Transparent Communication is actually about a higher awareness of the whole relational field and an opportunity to include each other in our communication. — Thomas Hübl This interactive workshop will focus on the fundamental principles of Transparent Communication, a set of practices developed by Thomas Hübl and his students, designed to bring higher awareness into everyday interactions and transform Come participate in experiential practices to increase your inner awareness, deep listening, attunement to others, and subtle body/mind competencies. We welcome new and seasoned practitioners alike.

Dancing with the Shadows is a meditative dance journey into the depths of the body. Together we create a space for the inclusion and expression of our “hidden characters,” through movement and creativity. We will be working within the practices of Butoh Dance, Somatic Awareness, and Shadow Integration.

As an artist and facilitator, Odile serves by creating incubators for alchemical transformation and sacred nourishment. The intention moves as a moment to moment presencing of blocks in the system, a bowing to the experience of our divine nature, and ultimately a dropping into deeper embodiment, as that Essence. A student of Thomas Hübl for seven years, she has completed his long-term Timeless Wisdom Training, the Pocket Project training on Collective Trauma, and currently as a senior student in the Core Group U.S. She is honored to be here in service to the “Restoration of a Fragmented World” and to our responsibility in the United States towards this healing. More about Odile: ignitingpresence.com

Dancing with the Shadows
Monday, August 13
2:30 – 4:30pm
Stillwater

Dancing with the Shadows is a meditative dance journey into the depths of the body. Together we create a space for the inclusion and expression of our ‘hidden characters’, through movement and creativity. We will be working within the practices of Butoh Dance, Somatic Awareness, and Shadow Integration. What is Butoh? Butoh began in 1959 Japan through the work of Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno. Although rooted in performance art, it evades definition. “Butoh, dance step, is a sway between Life and Death. It is creation, rising out of the darkness with each breath. A raw expression of Spirit in flesh, transcending traditional ideas of beauty. “ -Odile Nicole

The Mandala Breath session led by Dr. Rae Riedel offers participants a deep dive into embodied awareness and interpersonal “WE” space contact. It is an experiential journey incorporating music, conscious breath and a divinely delicious guided movement meditation.

Dr. Rae has twenty years experience in natural medicine. She is a Doctor of Chiropractic and Functional Medicine Practitioner. She has a Masters in Spiritual Psychology, is a Certifed Breath Facilitator, and is currently finishing her certification in Hakomi (Body Centered Psychotherapy). She has intensively studied nature-based wisdom and Shamanic traditions, and has been a student of Thomas’ for 6 years and an assistant in his US based programs. She blends her diverse experience, offering a body-mind-heart-spirit approach engaging patients and clients alike in the deepest level of transformation.

Mandala Breath: An Integrative, Experiential Breakout Session
Monday, August 13
2:30 – 4:30pm
Juniper

The Mandala Breath session led by Dr. Rae Riedel offers participants a deep dive into embodied awareness and interpersonal “WE” space contact. It is an experiential journey incorporating music, conscious breath and a divinely delicious guided movement meditation.

PLEASE NOTE: To maintain the container of this session, we request that participants remain for the entirety of the session once it begins, and remain until it is completed. Immersion in the process will build participants’ capacity to hold an expansive and healthy felt awareness while also being aware of other and the space of connection in between. You will leave the session infused with heart-mind and body coherence, and a deepening of your inner “felt sense”.

A Way of Sound: A Proposed Global Program of Learning Laozi (Tao Te Ching)

With 1,557 translated versions in 72 languages, Laozi (Tao Te Ching or Daodejing) has established itself as the second most globalized classic text only next to the Bible. This program holds as tenet what Laozi stated in the very beginning of his text that the Constant Way cannot be expressed by words.

Way WON PhD is an Associate Research Professor at the Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the Executive Director, Academic Steering Committee, of the Laozi Library.

A Way of Sound: A Proposed Global Program of Learning Laozi (Tao Te Ching)
Tuesday, August 14
2:30 – 4:30pm
Juniper

With 1,557 translated versions in 72 languages, Laozi (Daodejing, or Tao Te Ching) has established itself as the second most globalized classic text only next to the Bible. To fully inquire into the intellectual potentials of this text in a postmodern world, Way Won has established a series of learning groups on WeChat, China’s top messaging and calling application for smart phones, to try a method of learning Laozi by reading and recitation. Currently the program is in Chinese (Putonghua and dialects), English and French. Way Won has proposed a global program of learning Laozi in the most widely spoken languages throughout the world. This program holds as tenet what Laozi stated in the very beginning of his text that the Constant Way cannot be expressed by words. It proposes a methodology based on the universal view of vibration, frequency and energy that a certain spiritual resonance could be achieved by adopting a ‘right’ way of reading and reciting. After 2-3 months of practice,intriguing results have already been witnessed from the current trilingual program. Way Won will share these results with the audience and receive feedback on how to better proceed with this proposed program.

Justin Peake is a musician, composer, and interdisciplinary artist. His current work investigates improvisation, cognition, and meaning by engaging audiences through sound, light, and words.

Justin Peake is a musician, composer, and interdisciplinary artist. He is the founder and creative director of Articulated Works: a New Orleans based outlet for music, art, and technology. His current work investigates improvisation, cognition, and meaning by engaging audiences through sound, light, and words. In 2016 he was awarded a research fellowship at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) to research and develop tools for variably structured improvisation in performance and education during which he explored political aesthetics, democratic performance, ecological media, and new music composition.

Sunday, August 12
9:30pm
Main Room

The Discovery Circle is a safe space for exploring our inner experience, gently observing ourselves in relation with our families. In this collective space, we may discover new insights and reflections, and begin to digest our experiences in a new light.

Jacoba Willaboordse is a mother, grandmother and senior student of Thomas Hubl for many years. Jacoba has been participating in Celebrate Life Festival in Germany for many years in the childcare and the TransParents programs. Jacoba assisted the TransParents first year-long training in Berlin, and will continue this work in the coming year. Jacoba has a medical backround as a nurse, anesthesiologist, and energetic therapist in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Her daughter Kirsten Timmer is a founder of the TransParents programs in Europe. We are fortunate and grateful to have Jacoba sharing her presence with us here at the Celebrate Life Festival US 2018!

Dara Knerr has been working with babies, children, adults and families for many years. She is curious and passionate about structures and spaces where parents may experience support, insight, and transformative healing on the path of parenting. Dara is a somatic Biodynamic Craniosacral therapist, an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and a Prenatal and Birth therapy practitioner. Her nurturing work is informed by the people she serves, by her own journey of motherhood, and by many years of training with and assisting, Dr Ray Castellino, Anna and John Chitty, Frankyn Sills, Gordon Neufeld, and Thomas Hubl. Dara met and begun study with Thomas in 2012, she is currently a trainee assistant to TWTUS, and a senior student in US Core Group. She co-facilatates a Hubl Practice Group in Sonoma County California, and enjoy’s co-creating silent retreats and local sangha events.

Monday, August 13
2:30pm – 4:30pm
Cedar Family Room

The Discovery Circle is a safe space for exploring our inner experience, gently observing ourselves in relation with our families. We come together using simple tools of Transparent Communication; listening, exploring subtle perceptions, expanding subtle awareness in the relational field. In this collective space, we may discover new insights and reflections, and begin to digest our experiences in a new light. Bring your curiousity and join us for a nurturing journey of discovery. Parents, parents-to-be, grandparents, and caregivers are all welcome!

Please Note: This Circle on Monday is primarily geared for adults. Please contact Dara or Jacoba beforehand if you are considering coming with a baby or child.

This early morning yoga offering will cover a spectrum of pace from Vinyasa (to invigorate & cleanse the system) to slow, restorative movement & breath (to ground the nervous system), a sweet way for beginners & seasoned practitioners to calibrate and revivify together.

Therése has been teaching yoga for two decades, a practice that draws inspiration & experience from Kashmir Shaivism, Vipassana, & yoga asana. She teaches yoga & somatic meditation through the Kinesiology Dept at Humboldt State University in Northern California and leads retreats in Canada and the US.

Monday through Friday, August 13-17
6:00am – 7:00am
Stillwater

Please Note: This Circle on Monday is primarily geared for adults. Please contact Dara or Jacoba beforehand if you are considering coming with a baby or child.