Hosted by the Social Prophet Choir
Monday, June 17th
Location: Sebastopol Grange Hall
Doors at 6:30, Program 7pm-9pm
Tea and Dessert
On this night, The Social Prophet Choir of Sebastopol, CA, welcomes Women’s Earth Alliance Founders, Melinda Kramer and Amira Diamond, to share the work of WEA.
What happens in the world when you equip grassroots women leaders with the skills and tools they need to transform their communities from the inside out? We will hear stories shared from WEA co-founders about what is happening across the globe through the Women’s Earth Alliance.
WEA believes that when women thrive, the Earth thrives. Since 2006, WEA has equipped grassroots women leaders with the skills and tools they need to protect our earth and strengthen communities from the inside out. In some of the most environmentally threatened regions, WEA leaders are saving indigenous seeds, selling clean cookstoves, launching sustainable farms, providing safe water, protecting land rights, and more. With local leadership guiding each project, WEA designs capacity-building trainings where women access skills and tools in appropriate technology, entrepreneurship, and leadership. They gain seed funding, mentorship, and a global alliance. With these resources in hand, participants go on to launch and grow their own environmental projects and teach others to do the same.
To date, more than 5,000 women have accessed WEA trainings, training an additional 1M+ people in 20 countries with their environmental and social innovations. Regardless of the unique conditions in each region, the efforts of WEA participants lead to a consistent set of cascading benefits that we call the “WEA Effect”: women are empowered, children are safer, communities are healthier, natural resources regenerate, local economies prosper, regions stabilize, and lasting transformation takes root.
It is internationally recognized that women’s empowerment is an essential precursor to sustainable, democratic, and peaceful societies yet only .3% of philanthropic dollars are invested in women’s environmental solutions. WEA lights the grid of women’s environmental leadership. WEA identifies grassroots women working on the frontlines of climate change and they catalyze their environmental solutions, bridge their best practices, and energize their movements for change.
Amira Diamond is also the Social Prophet Choir’s Founder and Director and she will take us through a journey of voice and song throughout the evening’s presentation.
Be prepared to be inspired, to join in song, and to feel a call to action in your own life for this planet we share. Each time the Social Prophet Choir gathers, singers make a contribution of any amount towards a pool of funds that we contribute towards life-giving causes. On June 17th, we are celebrating the work made possible for WEA by Social Prophet Choir contributions. The Social prophet Choir will provide tea/coffee and dessert for your enjoyment. Please RSVP through the Sebastopol Grange Facebook Event or by email to GrangeEvent@gmail.com so that we can provide enough treats and seats for all.
Information about the Social Prophet Choir:
Social Prophet Choir
Meets on the 1st & 3rd Mondays of the month 7:30-9
Gather, Remember, Listen, Offer, and Give
We gather in circle to remember the stories through song that came before us. We offer our voice to the song while we listen for the place to settle in alongside our fellow singers, to weave within. We listen for the place that is undeniably holy, for it is both ancient and new, it is sacred. The vibration of voice welcomes the stillness of mind and ripe opportunity of creation. There in that circle of sound it is potent, it is cleansing of all things good and bad that have happened.
We give all the work that is held in that circle of space back out into the world with high hopes that the power of song will ripple out in positive ways across the globe.
The Social Prophet Choir has been meeting now for 3 1/2 years on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of each month at the Sebastopol Grange Hall. The choir is led by Amira Diamond, a Sebastopol resident who moved here from the Bay area, and grew up on the East Coast. Amira grew up learning from her Mom that music belongs to the commons, everyone is welcome, and everyone has a voice. Her choir encourages you to get in touch with your own unique voice in your own body and then to blend that with others. Using your voice while listening to how it weaves in with others.
The structure of the Social Prophet Choir begins with warm ups, a creative song circle, and is followed by learning a song taught by ear rather than sheet music. Songs are stories and we pass them on through time, one of the fun challenges in the Social Prophet Choir is to stretch your ancient story telling skills, to remember.
At the end of the night, we each put a money donation of our choice into the center of our circle which is then given to different non-profits locally and around the world doing the great work of keeping the best education, love, and community available to all in our future.
About Melinda Kramer and Amira Diamond:
Melinda Kramer, Founder, Executive Director
Melinda Kramer is a passionate advocate for social justice, the environment and women’s rights. An environmentalist by training, with a cultural anthropology background, Melinda has lived and worked around the world learning from grassroots leaders on the frontlines of environmental crises. Whether it was the Midwest United States where toxic lead smelters poisoned children, or rural Kenya where girls walked 4 hours to access water instead of an education, or the Arctic where indigenous lands, traditions, and rights were threatened daily by climate change, Melinda encountered the same phenomenon: Women were at the center– uniquely impacted, consistently marginalized, and leading the charge.
In 2005, she set out to bridge the resource gap for grassroots women tackling our world’s most critical environmental efforts. What began as a small convening of 30 women leaders rapidly grew into a thriving global organization of 12 years. WEA’s global team has developed and iterated a unique training framework, equipping 5,000 women with technical, entrepreneurial, and leadership skills, and they in turn have reached over a million people with safe water, energy access, regenerative farming, land rights, and climate protection initiatives.
Amira Diamond, Co-Founder
Amira joined Melinda as WEA’s Co-Director in 2007 to expand WEA’s programs, build the WEA team and create a community of support for its work. Active within the NGO community for over 20 years, she has worked for community health, environmental and food justice, LGBTQ, and women’s rights, directing organizations like Julia Butterfly Hill’s Circle of Life and Democracy Matters. She graduated from Colgate University with a degree in Women’s Studies, studied Women and Development at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, and attended Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley. She holds certification as a Holistic Health Counselor and brings a holistic approach to all aspects of WEA’s organizational design. Amira’s deepest inspiration comes from her two young sons, and her family of musicians, artists and dedicated community organizers. In her spare time she plays the violin and directs the Social Prophet Choir.