16 Practice: Leading Movement Songs with Intention with IfNotNow (Ilana Lerman & Helen Bennett)

Published February 15, 2018

In this practice, you’ll learn techniques to hone your skill in leading group song - including honoring lineage, guarding against appropriation, skilled coordination of group teaching and singing, and WHY songs are critical for movement building. 

Note: This episode was published under Irresistible’s previous name, Healing Justice Podcast.

About our guests

IfNotNow is a movement founded and led by young Jews working to transform the American Jewish Community’s support for the Occupation in Israel/Palestine into a call for freedom and dignity for all Palestinians and Israelis.

Ilana Lerman’s ashkenazi family flooded her life with song and tradition, as well as a commitment to facing injustice with a fierceness. She is blessed to have been one of the early mischief-makers in IfNotNow and is currently the Spiritual & Cultural Life Organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace and co-leads a Jewish liberatory singing retreat called Let My People Sing!

Helen Bennett is a community organizer, trainer, and spiritual director committed to helping people remember how much it’s worth it to trust and depend on each other. As a volunteer organizer for IfNotNow, Helen leads on culture as strategy, which means experimenting with intuitive ways to keep rooted and also grow, while prioritizing both personal and collective healing, support, and transformation. 

Resources

Conversation: “Building Liberatory Movement Cultures” 

Check out the corresponding conversation to learn more with IfNotNow leaders Michal David, Helen Bennett, and Ilana Lerman. We talk culture design as a key component of movement building, including dealing with internalized oppression as a community, guarding against appropriation as people search for belonging, the role of song and ritual, celebrating and supporting leadership, and more.

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