MYTHSINGER MARCH 2025 STORYNIGHT - AFTERNOON SESSION - Register here
On Wednesday, March 26, 2025 at Noon and again on Saturday, March 29, 2025 at 6pm PDT, the Mythsinger Legacy Project invites you to dive in with us to one of the most timeless yet relevant stories ever told: The Firebird is an ancient tale with Ukrainian and Russian roots. An online gathering like none other, we'll turn Zoom into a virtual hearth- space and huddle in to hear as master mythsinger/mythteller Daniel Deardorff (1952-2019) beams in from the archives, calls fire, sings about calling fire, and brings us into the heart of myth.
Judith-Kate Friedman, Mythsinger Legacy Project's steward and Deardorff’s life-partner, will bring her songs and poems about fire and provide live drumming in support of the story. Afterward everyone will be invited to "feed the story that has so generously fed us" in community conversation and reflection.
This international event takes place on Zoom. Tickets are available here on Eventbrite, advance registration encouraged. The event will be closed captioned. Visual descriptions will be provided. All ages are welcome. This event is offered on a "pay-as-you-can, pay-as-you-wish" basis with a suggested donation of $18-$180 to support the work of the Mythsinger Legacy Project. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
ABOUT MYTHSINGER DANIEL DEARDORFF
Daniel Deardorff was a master storyteller, author, singer, beloved teacher, and carrier of ancient oral tradition stories. The Mythsinger Legacy Project keeps his work alive with a series of interactive mythtelling and music events and study opportunities based on his teachings and book, The Other Within: The Genius of Deformity in Myth, Culture and Psyche (3rd edition, Inner Traditions, 2022).
A lifelong performing musician whose five-decade career included songwriting, national touring, and producing, Deardorff was a survivor of paralytic polio and resulting paraplegia. He believed that one of the greatest oppressions is the suffering of meaningless wounds. When post-polio required him to retire from the music business, he became an independent scholar of myth, collaborating internationally with Robert Bly, Martin Shaw, Miguel Rivera, and others. He understood that myths hold medicine crucial for culture and essential for current times. Although he "flew out of this story and into the next" in 2019, his live hearthside mythtelling recordings bring him fully into the "room" with us, as we join him in the StoryHut where he called fire and taught myth and ritual for over a decade
Learn more about Daniel at mythsingerlegacy.org
ABOUT JUDITH-KATE FRIEDMAN
Judith-Kate Friedman inhabits flinty places where art, activism, ritual, and Oral Tradition dance. She sings, composes, writes, performs, curates spaces, produces events, tends hearth-fires, tells stories, and celebrates aliveness. An award-winning vocalist, performing songwriter, and producer, she is a three-time National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient for her projects with Songwriting Works™ Educational Foundation, the non-profit she founded.
As steward of the Mythsinger Legacy Project, Judith-Kate continues in the lineage of her beloved Daniel “3D” Deardorff (1952-2019) with whom she shared 14 years of life partnership and frequent creative collaborations. The online and in-person Mythsinger events she creates weave Deardorff's mythwork and her own music into tapestries of mythic arts. She also coaches creatives and emerging artists. Judith-Kate holds an M.A. in Poetics of Imagination from Dartington Arts School (UK) where she studied extensively with Dr. Martin Shaw. Her creative lineage follows Deardorff, Shaw, their mentor poet Robert Bly, Tamalpa Life/Arts process founder Anna Halprin (somatics), jazz improvisational vocalist Rhiannon, and Dr. Claire Zammit and Dr. Jean Houston (leadership).Learn more at: alivenessthrougharts.net
ABOUT THE STORY--THE FIREBIRD
The Firebird is an ancient presence in Slavic mythology, mainly encountered in old Russian and Ukrainian fairy tales. Especially well-suited to the present moment, the story reminds us that the cultures and ecosystems of Eastern Europe share a long history. The story illuminates symbiotic relationships and tensions between the Living World and civilization as we experience fierce beauty, the unquenchable yearning for freedom, and the hypocrisy of leaders who become obsessed with greed, envy, and power, echoeing the motives of tyranny.
The Firebird offers timeless wisdom as it addresses themes of hubris, respect for diverse species, and the layered realities of choice, complicity, and consequence.
In Deardorff’s tradition, after the story is shared, everyone will be invited to "feed the story," to explore where the story has taken them and where they do, or do not, find themselves in it. In this way, story and storyteller are "fed" in reciprocity for the medicine they have given us, and the Oral Tradition of Living Myth is kept alive.
ABOUT the Mythsinger Legacy Project
The Mythsinger Legacy Project, a fiscally-sponsored project of Songwriting Works Educational Foundation (501c3), is dedicated to restoring the power of myth to culture and community. Learn more at mythsingerlegacy.org
This event is made possible with the generous support of all who attend, individual donors, ArtsFund, a project of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and Songwriting Works Educational Foundation which serves as Mythsinger Legacy Project's fiscal sponsor.
ACCESSIBILITY
We value and try to make all our events as accessible as possible. Closed captioning (via Zoom) and visual descriptions will be provided. We strongly recommend updating your Zoom and any other software you usually use for enhancing your online experience. Other needs or questions? Contact us!
BENEFIT:
DONATIONS to this event benefit the Mythsinger Legacy Project. Founded in 2020, the Mythsinger Legacy Project, a non-profit organization, keeps alive the mythtelling, music, and teachings of Daniel Deardorff and continues his vision of restoring the wisdom of myth to culture and community through online and in person story, concert and book-related events.