Schedule
Sunday, May 12:
4-5 p.m. — Check in
6-6:45 p.m. — Welcome Dinner
7-9 p.m. — Opening Session
Monday, May 13:
8 a.m. – Breakfast
9-11:30 a.m. – Making Your House of Writing: Let’s talk about our imaginations as a specific space, in fact, a house that welcomes and encourages our writing practice at every turn and in every room. We’ll explore ways to enhance our writing practice in real time, according to what works best for each of us, and in tune with what’s on tap to write. We’ll look at how envisioning our experiences as rooms in our imaginal house — the family room for stories about families of origin or choosing, the bedroom for writing about desire and dreams, the kitchen for sources of nourishment, etc. — give us a lifetime for individualized writing prompts. We’ll also chat about how to make this house a true home for our creative spirit.
11:30 a.m. — Gentle Movement: A Little Dancing with Kelley
12 – Lunch
1-1:45 p.m. – Care and Feeding Of the Artist — Stories, strategies, and notions to tend your creative soul, plus time for your questions and ideas.
2-6 p.m. – Coming Home to Yourself: Take a walk, explore the camp, collaborate with a new friend, create, or relax.
6 p.m. – Dinner
7:30-8:15 – An Intimate Concert with Kelley Hunt
8:30-9:15 – Open Mic
Tuesday, May 14:
8 a.m. – Breakfast
9-11 a.m. – Soulful Songwriting & Singing, Part 1: Each workshop with Kelley will combine both songwriting and singing, giving us more opportunities to dive into both mediums the very first session and will include: reviewing the basic building blocks of writing a song, getting started on our own, safe & easy vocal warm-ups and group singing. Whether you’re already an accomplished songwriter & singer or just getting started, we’ll focus on easing our way to what our own soul has to say and sing. As songwriter Alexander Smith says “I would rather be remembered by a song than by a victory”
11-11:30 –Finding the Melody of Your Soul with Kathryn Lorenzen: With or without an instrument, you can create a melody! We don’t have to be musical sophisticates to compose – we have only to open ourselves to listen to our own voices and play out loud. Let’s share some common ground with melodies we know, and how we can invent our own, with lyrics or without.
11:30 — Gentle yoga with Caryn
12 –Lunch
1 — Canoeing and kayaking (weather permitting, extra fee)
1-6 p.m. – Coming Home to Yourself: Take a walk, explore the camp, collaborate with a new friend, create, or relax.
6 p.m. – Dinner
7:30-8:15 p.m. — An Intimate Reading with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
8:30-9 p.m. – Singing and telling stories around the fire
Wednesday, May 15:
8 a.m. – Breakfast
9-11:30 a.m. – Writing as Divination: Writing can be a tool and practice of bringing to the surface what we need most to know, grapple with, and learn from now. Figuring out what to write and how to write it can also be a practice of wandering into a field with divining rods, looking for water. In this workshop, we’ll play (through innovative writing prompts) with how writing can bring us closer to the answers we most seek in our lives, or at least, allow us to cozy up much more with our most pressing questions and quandaries so that we can glimpse a wider perspective.
11:30 — Aimless Movement with Erin
12 – Lunch
1-1:45 p.m. – Care and Feeding Of the Artist — Stories, strategies, and notions to tend your creative soul, plus time for your questions and ideas.
2-6 p.m. – Coming Home to Yourself: Take a walk, explore the camp, collaborate with a new friend, create, or relax.
6 p.m. – Dinner
7:30 p.m. – Collaborative Performance with Kelley Hunt & Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Thursday, May 16:
8 a.m. – Breakfast
9-11:30 a.m. – Soulful Songwriting & Singing, Part 2: During this session we’ll explore new ways to take both our songs and singing up a notch, including even more advanced singing techniques, singing new songs, and fun ways to hone in on starting, editing, and finishing our song(s). We’ll find the tools we need to inspire us to keep creating, singing, and writing throughout the year to come. There will also be opportunities to collaborate with each other and, as always, we’ll sing together! As legendary songwriter and singer Carole King says, “When you sing, you open up a part of your soul.”
11:30 — Micro Walk with Susan
12 – Lunch
1-6 p.m. – Coming Home to Yourself: Take a walk, explore the camp, collaborate with a new friend, create, or relax.
6 p.m. – Group Dinner & Surprises
7:30 p.m. – A Celebration of Ourselves — Readings and Performances Solo and Choral with all participants ready to share their work.
Friday, May 17:
8 a.m. — Breakfast
9:30 – 10:30 a.m. — Closing Circle
Staff & Activities — Brave Voice May 12-17, 2024
Staff: Here are our staff (to be updated if there are any changes). Susan Hancock and Erin McGrane are on board to welcome participants and help them find balance and homecoming throughout the week.
Susan Hancock warms audiences with her fresh, vocal interpretations of American Songbook standards, blues, pop and Latin love songs. She is recently moved to Lawrence, KS where she holds a monthly First Thursday gig at Crystal’s Spot in the downtown. She studies voice with Kelley Hunt, and jazz improvisation with Dr. Wayne Goins, the Director of Jazz Studies at Kansas State University. Her many performances include such locales as The Manhattan Arts Center, The Junction City Opera House, The Wamego Columbian Theater, and the Kansas State University Library system. She is grateful to be part of the Brave Voice staff and looks forward to welcoming new and returning participants to this life-changing event.
Erin McGrane is an actress; musician; author; and professional development mentor. Notably, Erin appears in the Oscar-nominated film, UP IN THE AIR alongside George Clooney. She is known for her unforgettable cabaret stage performances and toured extensively for a decade with her early-jazz musical group, Victor & Penny. Committed to mentorship and community building for artists, she co-founded an annual immersive educational event focused on performance skills, creativity, and songwriting and serves as a director on the boards of two arts-based non-profits. Currently, Erin is authoring a spoken-word project set to original music exploring anxiety, isolation, and growing up in rural Iowa. Erin was honored in KC Magazine’s “The 100: People who make Life Better in KC” and is proud to say she misspent her youth singing in a rock band.
Kathryn Lorenzen is a lifelong singer and songwriter and a native Kansan who attended church camp as a teen here at White Memorial Camp. Between then and now, she has played and recorded with many artists, won local and national songwriting awards, taught songwriting to young adults, and had songs placed in TV and film. Following a career in marketing, advertising, and talent recruiting, Kathryn now serves as a career coach to leaders, entrepreneurs, and creatives. Brave Voice is an essential part of her life, and she’s written songs each year on this sacred land, several in collaboration with other BVDs. She is delighted to move from camper to staff and support the magic of this community.
Afternoon Arts & Activities: Each afternoon features a stretch of open space and time for you to write, sing, create and more.
Consultations: Kelley or Caryn are available for 20-minute consultations (late afternoon) throughout the week to discuss a song, poem, story, marketing or career or performing idea or opportunity, or anything else related to writing, singing, songwriting, performing, publishing, making a living through the arts, etc.
In-Depth Consultation: Kelley and Caryn offer a limited number of in-depth consultations (50 minutes long) at Brave Voice for an additional fee. See registration for details.
What Participants Say
“As a professional psychotherapist, the last thing I want to do is go to another workshop. This is not that! This is a retreat to rediscover creativity. The schedule pace is relaxing and invigorating. It’s personal and communal, fun and quiet. More than anything, I come here to listen to my own voice without having to shout above my regular din.” — Teresa Hernandez, psychotherapist and cellist, Salina, KS
“Where else can you plod in, carrying the baggage of your daily life and expectations, and after five days, joyously float away light as a blue jay feather on a gentle spring wind?” — Nancy Hubble, seller of rare books and art, poet and artist, Lawrence, KS
“Where the earth meets the sky and you wonder why you never walked here before. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll soar, you’ll fly, and you’ll want more, more, more!” — Sherry Brooks, musician, writer, sage, counselor, Lake Hamilton, FL
“One of the things we find at Brave Voice is a mirror. Whether it reflects creative process process, music, movement, or soul or even pain, looking into it enables us to remember who we truly are and then to go home and be that person.” — Olive L. Sullivan, writer, writing coach, editor, poet, and now songwriter! Pittsburg, KS
“Attending Brave Voice provides poets, creative writers, lyricists, and musicians experience in how to develop their crafts.” — Allena Ross, Singer, composer, and teacher, Topeka, KS