Brigit: Sun of Womanhood book launch & arts festival in Chicago

For Immediate Release
contact: Joan Forest Mage
www.LifeForceArts.org


Brigit: Sun of Womanhood
book launch & arts festival
Saturday, May 11, 2013
6 - 10 pm
Free admission
Info:
info@LifeForceArts.org

Please join us for a festival honoring the goddess Brigit as we celebrate the publication of Brigit: Sun of Womanhood, a new anthology of poetry and essays edited by Patricia Monaghan and Michael McDermott, Saturday, May 11 from 6 - 10 PM at Life Force Arts Center, 1609 W Belmont, Chicago. Admission is free. For more information please contact Joan at Joan@LifeForceArts.orf or 773-327-7224.

Poets, storytellers, singers, dancers, musicians and ritual artists, including some of the contributors to the anthology, will perform in this festival celebrating the creative spirit in honor of Brigit, the Celtic goddess of inspiration, poetry and the arts. As part of the evening, we will remember the late Patricia Monaghan for her many contributions writing and teaching about the Goddess and Divine Feminine.

Brigit: Sun of Womanhood offers a holistic picture of Brigit from her beginnings as a Celtic Goddess to her role as a Christian saint. Readers will be transformed by this inspiring collection. This newest anthology from Goddess Ink publishers is edited by Michael McDermott and Patricia Monaghan and features writers from Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the US including Carol Christ, Sr. Rita Minehan, M. Macha Nightmare, Dolores Whelan, Joan McBreen, Matthew Geden, Szmeralda Shanel and many others, reflecting the widespread influence of Brigit.

Presenters for this event include:
Janet Berres- A tribute to Patricia Monaghan
Amy Christensen- Songs for Brigit
Louise Cloutier- Song dedicated to Brighid
Shauna Aura Knight- Sung poem
Joan Forest Mage - Dance: Water of Life, excerpt from "Myo means revive"
Michael McDermott*- Brigit Prayers & Poems
Kiel Milner – Brigit galdr (name sung in runes)
Eileen Rosensteel*- Poems: Forging & The Bard of Black Earth
Szmeralda Shanel*- My Blood Song (essay)

* = contributing author, Brigit: Sun of Womanhood anthology

"This wonderful collection of essays, poems, reflections, meditations and scholarship brilliantly captures the complexity, richness, and fertility of Brigit’s traditions." ---  Mary Condren, author of The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion and Power in Celtic Ireland

"Brigit, Sun of Womanhood, is a comprehensive and compelling collection of fiction, poetry, essays and photographs that celebrate Brigit in all Her many manifestations as ancient Goddess, legendary Catholic abbess and saint, and modern-day archetype of the divine female. The stories shared in this anthology will delight and inform, whether or not one’s ethnicity is rooted in Celtic traditions. This book opens the reader’s eyes and heart to the magical, multi-faceted aspects of this Goddess’s legacy and the potent medicine She offers." ---Mary Saracino  co-editor of She Is Everywhere! Volume 3: An Anthology of Writings in Womanist/Feminist Spirituality (iUniverse 2012) and the author of the novel, The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press 2006). For more information visit:www.marysaracino.com.

 "This anthology is a deeply intelligent, wise, and alluring immersion into the living presence of Brigit, a creation of ritual space that is both ancient and immediate." ---Charlene Spretnak, author of Lost Goddesses of Early Greece

The mission of Life Force Arts Foundation (LFA) is to advance the field of spiritual art through artistically excellent exhibits, events and publications that explore the art-spirituality connection. We define spiritual art as visual, literary or performing art that flows from spiritual practice, strives to connect the audience with Spirit, and creates spiritual awakening, healing, or evolution. We focus on the arts as a common ground of human expression, where artists and audiences of diverse spiritual traditions can honor each other, and share their personal and collective experiences of the spiritual aspect of life through the arts. LFA's goals are to develop spiritual artists, the spiritual arts audience, and the spiritual arts community. The Foundation operates Life Force Arts Center (LFAC), Chicago's spiritual art gallery and performance space, which presents artistically excellent, spiritually based visual art exhibits, dance, theater and music performances, author book signings and workshops with artists who are experts in spiritual artmaking.