The Story of SongHomes

It is hard to remember a time when building wasn't a part of my life. From being a muddy little girl in the driveway, playing with trucks, and hauling around sticks and sand...  My father was in the construction trades, and I was his firstborn, so my brothers and I always pretended to be building something. But it was really from my Mother that I learned to use tools.  I was her right-hand woman, whether remodeling the bathroom, tearing down walls, building bookshelves... We were always 'up to something.'
Using our own hands to make things more beautiful. I gained a lot from these early experiences.

In my early 20's I apprenticed in a cabinet shop and learned to build custom furniture and cabinetry. Later, while at University, I worked construction jobs in the summers, and when I graduated, I went to work full-time as a carpenter for an All-Women's Construction Co, Calamity J.; where we remodeled kitchens, bathrooms, built decks and porches. And had a generally rollicking good time!

I transitioned to community theatre, radio, arts and activism, organizing, community gardens, teaching, and performing in the Orisha tradition.  But always, I felt the pull of my Homelands in the Driftless Region, where i grew up.

The idea for a SongHome crystallized in me about 20 years ago, as I was building my first straw-bale adobe cottage, a home for Hope's Kitchen,  with students from the Environmental Studies Dept at UW - LaCrosse, Wisconsin. 
I found myself at war with the 'squareness' of straw bales and with the imposition of industrial capitalism on the materials I wanted to build with. I longed for the rounded forms of women building in Senufo-land, West Africa; for the Matrimandir of Auroville, and people's hand-built homes.

For years I looked for a farmer willing to 'hack' their equipment to produce straw in round form, like giant snakes which could be coiled up and mudded. 
I went to the Bioneers conference that year in San Rafael, Ca.  I sang to Alice Walker and Paula Gun-Allen and talked about my vision for building a SongHome.

Years passed, 10 years, and I was once again in the Bay Area. This time to attend a year-long program in Sound, Voice, and Music Healing at CIIS/San Francisco where I hoped to meet other people like myself, Praise Singers from traditional cultures; I had become interested in the juxtaposition of Quantum Physics and Afro-Indigenous Wisdom traditions. 

One day, while walking from my boarding house to the bus stop, I passed by a construction site, and there, behold! Straw wattles!!

I went to Portland, Oregon, to meet up with Scott Howard of Earthen Hand.  I worked with him for a week explaining my design concept, and one afternoon, we sketched it out together, priced out the components, and I had a set of drawings.

I presented the idea and plan to my temple sisters of Ile Orunmila Oshun/Oakland.  A "house of love and learning of Ifa" started by Luisah Tiesh, Yeye Tiesh, Allways my GodMother.

Next, I presented this to Pandora Thomas of Earthseed Consulting.  And later, the Black Permaculture Alliance. But, I lacked the funds to engage a business consultant. Around the same time, I presented to Bread for the Journey, Oakland, to obtain a grant for building materials. This was granted, but they wanted me to build within the Oakland School Garden Program. I was excited at the opportunity but out of money.

And, I had a farm and horses to attend to. So, i returned to my beloved homeland, The Driftless region of northeast Iowa. But i did not give up on my dream.

In 2012 I attended the African and Diasporic Religious Studies Conference at Harvard, where I met Adimu Madyun, WolfHawkJaguar, a musician and hip-hop artist melding Orisa tradition with modern-day rhyming. I shared my designs and concept for the SongHomes with him.
My big breakthrough came with meeting James Weeks (Across the Kings River), who actually said YES!  I want a SongHome built in my backyard.

So, five years ago, I journeyed to Oakland to begin the process of launching SongHomes for the Orisha. First stopping in Standing Rock Rez, to meet up with Miguel Elliot (Living Earth Structures) and the building crew at the encampment.

The first SongHome was to be built for Luisah Teish and the Mothers of the Orisha tradition, that they have a comfortable home from which to live and teach our traditions, so similar to the Native American teachings of Living in Right Relationship with Earth Community. But Big Oil Bulldozed the community at Standing Rock.

I continued on to Oakland and began clearing a site for building a SongHome in James' back yard.

To Be Continued...