‘Sing Me Home’: Creating space ‘for a community to experience a deep, spiritual sense of home’

A release from co-coordinators Chris Good and Seth Hendricks

“Sing Me Home” welcomes regional musicians and artists to North Manchester, Ind., for a Fall Festival on Saturday, Oct. 8. The free outdoor event is hosted on the grounds of Manchester Church of the Brethren from 4-10 p.m., featuring educational workshops, intergenerational activities and games, a local artisans marketplace, original music, a community sing-along, local food trucks, and more.

Ann Arbor, Mich., based musician and North Manchester native Chris Good is Sing Me Home’s founder and co-coordinator. Good says, “We are thrilled with how the programing for this inaugural Fall Festival has come together. Part of Sing Me Home’s mission is to create a cultural celebration that serves to restore and inspire the heart, mind, and soul. I have no doubt that the musicians, artists, educators, and community members collaborating on this event will create an engaging and dynamic experience for the community that accomplishes just that.”

Four workshops will be offered including “Embodied Singing” with award-winning singer-songwriter Sadie Gustafson-Zook; “Poetic Storytelling” with local pastor and poet Audri Svay; “Make your own Lagerphone” with local musician Brian Kruschwitz; and an interactive bilingual family concert/workshop with Fort Wayne-based Musical Conexion.

Manchester Church of the Brethren associate pastor of Youth and Congregational Life, Seth Hendricks, serves as Sing Me Home’s co-coordinator. Hendricks shares, “We want to create spaces where a gathered community can experience a deep, spiritual sense of home. Sometimes just being in a specific physical place can do that or in the company of certain people. Music, art, and poetry can do that as well. Neighbors, friends, family, whether to reconnect or meet for the first time, I am excited to share in this together!”

The musical portion of the Fall Festival will feature some homegrown local talent including Derek Self, Brian Kruschwitz and LuAnne Harley, as well as some well-respected regional acts such as Sadie Gustafson-Zook and KelsiCote. Good and Hendricks’ band Friends with the Weather also will be featured throughout the evening’s concert and community sing-along.

Sing Me Home is a collaboration between Manchester Church of the Brethren and Friends with the Weather. This is Sing Me Home’s first year of in-person programing after initially launching with an online festival in Spring 2020. Plans for a first festival in October 2020 were drastically adapted as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. The 2022 schedule has featured a Spring concert with nationally touring singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer, the upcoming Fall Festival on Oct. 8, and a Winter Benefit concert on Dec. 3.

Learn more at https://singmehome.org/fall-festival.

Please pray… For the host congregation at Manchester Church of the Brethren, the co-coordinators, the performers, presenters, and artists, and all who attend the “Sing Me Home” fall festival.