SOU’WESTER EVENTS!
See what’s happening during your next stay or plan a visit around our free live music, workshops, wellness offerings and more!
Winter/Spring 2020 Wellness Retreat Series
Steady & Clear:
Kundalini Yoga and Meditation for the Flow of
Your Life
with Laurel Clohessy
This retreat is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the joy, transformation, and rejuvenation of Kundalini Yoga, sacred chant, and creativity as you discover and return to the HOME that is your true self. Whether you are an experienced yogi, or this is your first time practicing Kundalini Yoga, you can benefit from this practice. Kundalini Yoga and meditation, as taught by Yogi Bhajan is for anyone and everyone. Just breathe, and lean in the right direction and you too will benefit! The best way to know it, is by doing it-so we will experience basic pranayam or breathwork, kriyas or yogic sets, meditations, and mantras that can become a part of your own daily toolbox. Tools to release stress, to unlock creativity, and be your best YOU. Kundalini yoga is often called “the yoga of awareness,” as it is a journey of self-mastery and one that activates all the systems of the body.
We will enjoy the blessings of community-in a few group meditations and exercises, as well as the natural world-taking time by the ocean to practice a walking meditation. There will be a couple of brief writing and art exercises explored post-yoga sets as a tool for self-reflection and awareness. In this weekend retreat, you will get to know the other participants as we share in community. This will also be a time to slow down and listen to yourself in the beauty of the setting on the Washington Penninsula. There will be free time to explore, soak, relax, and enjoy on your own. All parts of the retreat classes are by choice-if you need to rest or skip anything that is just fine. You will leave with handouts and a personal recipe for your own personal practice, as well as a group 40-day sadhana to continue after if you choose.
Kundalini Yoga is a tool to experience your birthright to happiness and greatness as the human being that you are. “Great challenges come to Great people.” -YB
I hope to see you there! Sat Nam
Laurel Clohessy (Deshpal Kaur) grew up with Kundalini Yoga sprinkled throughout her early childhood. She returned to the arms of this practice following the birth of her oldest son. In 2005 Laurel studied with Gurmukh to become a certified Khalsa Way Prenatal teacher. In 2007, she completed the Radiant Child teacher training with Shakta Kaur, and in 2014 Laurel completed her Level 1 KYTT with Sevak Singh Khalsa. She has loved bringing these healing teachings to humans of all ages through the years in Montessori schools, University, birth centers, detention centers, and studios. Laurel is a Cornerstone Childbirth Educator, mother to two boys, educator, and lover of all things ginger. Laurel often incorporates poetry and dance movement into her all-levels classes. It is her joy to share these teachings with others, and she sees the powerful practice of Kundalini Yoga as a compass that can always point us forward, as well as return us to the happiest, truest Self. Laurel teaches currently in Portland, Oregon and is a transplant from Flagstaff, AZ.
SCHEDULE: (subject to change)
FRIDAY
6-7pm
- Check-in, logistics, welcome circle
SATURDAY
9am-12pm
- Morning Kundalini Yoga and Meditation
- Discussion-Sadhana/Developing Personal Practice/Morning Self-Care
- Meditation & Mantra, Reflective Dialogue Practice
Lunch Break and Free to BE Time
2-5pm
- Tune-In, Yogi Bhajan Short video
- Yoga with Self-Awareness Art/Drawing exercise
- Dance Movement
Dinner Break and Free to BE Time
7-8:00pm
- Gong & Sound Relaxation. Goodnight
SUNDAY
4:45-6:45am
- Aquarian Sadhana
8:30-10am
- Walk to the beach
- Group meditation
- Closing circle/Farewell
BEGINS: Friday at 6pm
ENDS: Sunday at 10am
COST: $120 / Lodging separate
BRING: Comfortable clothing to move, Yoga mat (if do not have-there will be a few to loan) and cushion, walking shoes, towel or blanket to sit on at the beach, water bottle, journal or notebook and pen.
BOOK ONLINE by clicking BOOK NOW, enter the date range and the “promo code” STEADY
The Sou’wester Lodge at 3728 J Place, Seaview, WA 98644
SOU’WESTER ARTS WEEK: the Sou’wester will be given over to artists and art collectives for a week of residency work and a weekend of open houses and public performances.
The goal of this event is to highlight the creative process and the experiential nature of the Sou’wester Residency Program. Walking into an active creative process reveals valuable intersections among artists as well as with the public. Experience these living artifacts at the open studios and weekend performances. Visit HERE for more information.
Owen Ashworth’s albums have always been about the human condition, and his latest is no exception. That may sound strange, given that it’s called Animal Companionship, but it’s as human as anything he’s done before.
After hearing problems forced the end of his electronic pop project Casiotone for the Painfully Alone in 2010, Ashworth started making quieter music as Advance Base, releasing A Shut-In’s Prayer in 2012, Nephew In The Wild in 2015 and a slew of tapes and 7” EPs in between. After releasing a 2016 live album, In Bloomington, the prodigious songwriter shifted his focus to his label, Orindal Records, and put his efforts into helping other artists release their music.
This break from songwriting gave him time to explore not just how he makes music, but why he’s driven to do so. “I spent a lot of time thinking about why I write songs and what I get out of writing songs,” he said. “It took a while to get back to writing for myself, unselfconsciously.
“The reason I’ve always made music is because it’s therapeutic for me,” he said. “It’s a way of processing my feelings and understanding my subconscious. I love the ritual of writing a song and performing it over and over again until its meaning reveals itself. It’s the closest I get to meditation.”
The meditative nature of Ashworth’s new songwriting process can be heard in Animal Companionship’s spacious arrangements. Blissful drones and lush synthesizer textures envelop soft electric piano arpeggiations and spare drum programming, creating an almost hypnotic backdrop for Ashworth’s lyrical narratives. And the lyrics themselves have found a new focus: dogs.
“There was a while last year when a bunch of different friends of mine were having problems with their dogs,” said Ashworth, “and even though I don’t have a dog, suddenly I was giving all of this dog advice. I was just thinking and worrying about these friends and their dogs all of the time, and dogs just started showing up in my songs.
“When you explain the relationship you have with a pet, it can sound crazy. We all tend to anthropomorphize the animals we love, talking about them as if they’re children, siblings, even spouses,” said Ashworth. “I wrote these songs to help myself understand what pets mean to their owners, how those animal relationships affect our human relationships, and vice versa.”
Unlike the previous Advance Base albums, which were made at home on Ashworth’s trusty 4-track tape machine, Animal Companionship was mostly recorded at Palmetto Studios in Los Angeles with Ashworth’s old friend and former Casiotone for the Painfully Alone collaborator Jason Quever. Animal Companionship still sounds like Ashworth, but Quever’s production adds more depth and clarity than you’ve ever heard from an Advance Base or Casiotone album. The album opener, “True Love Death Dream,” is full of warm synthesizer textures and lush drum machine tones, the kind that sink deep into your soul and take root there. It shows how much time and consideration Ashworth put into Animal Companionship, and how Quever knew exactly how to capture it. From the pedal steel atmospherics of “Dolores & Kimberly” to the densely layered oscillations of “Rabbits,” every movement beautifully frames each song’s narrative. Animal Companionship’s production is expansive but always deliberate, allowing Ashworth to speak volumes through subtle, emotional gestures.
Taken as a whole, Animal Companionship is not just a step forward for Advance Base—it’s the culmination of everything Ashworth has been building for the past two decades. It’s a record that’s gentle in approach and endearing in practice, the kind of thing that only Ashworth could create.
Animal Companionship was co-released by Run For Cover Records & Orindal Records on September 21, 2018
Advance Base: http://www.advancebasemusic.com
Claire Cronin: http://www.overandthrough.com/
Ruth Garbus: https://ruthgarbus.bandcamp.com/
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
Winter 2020 Workshop Series
How the Light Gets In with instructor Suzie Kassouf
canceled – It can feel unbearable to carry the pain of our world in this unprecedented era of social upheaval and ecological destruction. Luckily, the task of tending to our broken world can infuse us with life-affirming purpose, connection and joy. Through vinyasa, meditation, group activities and time spent in nature, we will learn to honor our pain as a precious signifier of our compassion and care for our world. Most importantly, we will develop in ourselves a robust and muscular hope, rooted in the very unpredictability of these times. Leonard Cohen implores us, “ring the bells that still can ring/ forget your perfect offering/ there is a crack in everything/ that’s how the light gets in.” I look forward to sharing this with you.
Suzanna Kassouf is an educator, yoga instructor and climate justice activist. After 10 years of personal practice, she completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training at The People’s Yoga with Suniti Dernovsek in 2018. She is an organizer with the climate justice group Sunrise PDX and is student teaching Environmental Justice and Ethnic Studies at Lincoln High School in Portland. Suzie believes strongly that our world is desperate for healing on multiple levels, and that true liberation can be found in community and service to others. She is passionate about marrying activism and spirituality and strives to courageously live the path of nonviolence in her life and work.
COST: sliding scale $40, $30, or $20
BRING:Pen, paper, yoga mat and a reusable bag. Please wear clothes comfortable for practicing yoga, walking on the beach and in the woods, and sitting for meditation. *optional: meditation cushion, blanket, yoga props. Sharing food is a powerful tool for deepening connection and building community. Please bring a dish to share as you are willing and able as well as an individual plate/bowl and utensils. Coffee provided.
No age limit but this class deals with deep emotions. 16 students max.
RSVP: souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com or 360-642-2542 between 9am-9pm
The Sou’wester Lodge at 3728 J Place, Seaview, WA 98644
This class is part of the Winter 2020 Workshop Series. All classes are open to the public and all skill levels welcome. Visit www.souwesterlodge.com/art/workshops to see the full schedule of artist-led workshops.
“It’s not as if Tommy disrespects genre lines. It’s as if he doesn’t know (or care) that they exist. They’re not pertinent to his survival. He’s a cross between poet, arena rocker, and dive bar star. His voice plunges deeply, then rises high, and the band follows him faithfully through tempo changes, and wall of sound string movements, adding electric guitar and in-pocket backbeat to his work. The songs cruise through switchbacks from earnest folk to early new-age-rock histrionics.
– Sean Jewell at American Standard Time
Photo by by Boramie Sao
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!!
Tickets now available for this special show!!!
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4520384
Sonny & the Sunsets are a beautiful west coast thing. Birthed from the sand, the surf, and twilight campfires down in Ocean Beach, Sonny & the Sunsets busted beach-pop songs spark recollections of doo wop’s otherworldly despair, a dose of goofball humor from the Michael Hurley school, and positive possibilities exuded by Jonathan Richman.
https://sonnyandthesunsets.bandcamp.com/
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The Gonks is an indie rock band made up of Sami of The Shes and Sonny & Ava of Sonny & The Sunsets. As Smith says, In the shortest description it has a kind of Shangri Las meets Tronics thing. Voila, and were sold. Im A Lonely Night Driver is a sweet showcase of Lynchs vocals and track My Glamorous Mother has a solid Kinks feel were digging on pretty hard.
https://rockshead.bandcamp.com/album/five-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-gonks
Photo by Arvel Hernandez
This event is an all ages show!
Drinks are served in our Library Bar, open every Saturday night for shows.
J. Graves is Portland’s most passionate post-punk trio. For fans of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sleater-Kinney, and Joy Division, this highly charged and agonizing garage rock lures listeners towards angular guitar work, skittering disco beats, and thudding bass. Front woman Jessa Graves, who takes her cues from Karen O, Corin Tucker, and Kathleen Hanna, is joined by Aaron MacDonald on the drums and Kelly Clifton on the bass. Their debut LP, Marathon, is out in the world for all to hear as a new fall release fast approaches.
Photo by Sleeper Studios
https://www.jgraves.xyz/
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Jason McCue is an alternative folk musician based out of Seattle.
“He had filled up the entirety of the Sky Church with a banquet of characters and emotions and, I believe, the soft buzz that emanates from a group of people trying to hold onto a moment.” – Seattle Weekly
His intricate finger-picking and soaring hypnotizing vocals were undeniable, reverberating throughout the hushed room.” – KEXP Blog
https://jasonmccue1.bandcamp.com
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
Drinks are served in our Library Bar, open every Saturday night for shows.
Workshop Series Winter 2020
Green Woodworking Basics: A 2-day Woodcarving Immersion with instructor Leslie Andrew Wolf Walters
11am-4pm class each day: Mon, Tues March 30, 31
canceled – Green Woodworking (noun): the process of carving and shaping wood before it has cured. Greenwood is easy to carve and offers a wide range of possibilities that cured wood does not.
Green woodworking is an immensely satisfying and inexpensive hobby. This two days workshop will teach you how to get started in this popular craft. The class blends demo time and work time in order to maximize learning. We take regular breaks for snacks and show-and-tell. You’ll leave the class with a head full of knowledge and a unique wooden spoon. All materials and tools are included with the material fee, with the option to purchase tools to take home at the end of class.
Day 1: Carving basics. Students will learn the basics of the green woodworking process: from log to finished product, while learning how to safely use a saw, hook knife and straight knife. We will discuss technique, tools and history, and why spoon carving? We will start by making chopsticks (a deceptively challenging project) and as time allows small stirring spoons.
Day 2: Hatchet skills and finishing projects. We will finish projects from yesterday, axe demo and eating spoons, we will discuss finishing techniques and decoration. We will also cover important topics such as where to source tools and wood.
Leslie Andrew Wolf Walters lives in Portland, Oregon and is a hand tool woodworker specializing in greenwood spoon carving. “I am inspired by Scandinavian folk art and the tools and skills used by people who once and still live in northern forests around the world. I have been obsessively carving for 7+ years, traveling around the country studying, learning and teaching spoon carving and traditional hand tool skills. I am also a founding member of the Portland Spoon Club a monthly get together giving spoon carvers and green woodworkers access to community and resources.”
COST: $100 plus $20 materials fee (Please pay material fee directly to instructor)
BRING: notebook and writing utensil, water bottle and snacks, work gloves (optional), whatever tools that you have that you want to talk about (optional). Please bring a sack lunch. Coffee provided.
This class is for students age 14 and up. 16 students max.
RSVP via souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com or 360-642-2542 between 9am-9pm
The Sou’wester Lodge at 3728 J Place, Seaview, WA 98644
This class is part of the Winter 2020 Workshop Series at The Sou’wester. All classes are open to the public and all skill levels welcome. Visit www.souwesterlodge.com/art/workshops to see the full schedule of artist-led workshops.
Spring 2020 Wellness Retreat Series
CANCELLED
INNER SPACE:
Shamanic Hypnosis / Gathering Resources for Inner Healing
with Mali Drexelius
This retreat will explore tools that can help us to navigate the subconscious mind and our innate ability to self-heal. We will be learning practices from shamanic, hypnotherapy, and sound healing modalities to allow us to move into different states of consciousness. In these altered states, we can make beneficial changes, get in touch with our highest wisdom, and clear old belief systems and patterns that are no longer serving us. During the workshop, we will meet with some of your healing guides, as well as be learning practices for deepening our connection with spirit and our inner knowing. Breakfast will be provided Thursday and Friday, as well as dinner Thursday evening.
Mali Drexelius stumbled into the mysterious world of shamanism in 2010, when she was seeking help for anxiety and depression that had plagued her for years. She was surprised to find that it helped immensely, and so embarked on a long journey to train and study under many gifted healers, offering perspectives and techniques from many traditions. A later search led to a different, yet similarly framed processes found in Western culture — Clinical Hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Repatterning. The synthesis of these different schools of thought have allowed for a reconcile between the profound metaphysical experiences with her inclination towards science, reason, and the biology of brain and body.
At current, Mali has been blessed with the opportunity to teach and see clients both privately and in groups, with the understanding that she is always a student. It is her hope to pass along the knowledge and resources she’s collected along the way so others may also find access to their own innate healing and self-care. It is her intention to always have a beginners mind, to follow an inner guidance, and to honor and adapt these ancient techniques to deepen our understanding of consciousness for ourselves and our planet.
WEDNESDAY
4-6pm
- Check in/get settled
6-7pm
- Meet and Greet with snacks
7-9pm
- KAVA Ceremony and Calling in the Spirits & Introduction to working with allies and self-hypnosis
THURSDAY
9-10am
- Spirit Plate, Simple Breakfast provided
10:30am-1:30pm
- Learning to Journey
- Guided Meditations/ breath work
- Meeting your allies Ritual for Intention
1:30-5pm BREAK TIME
Feel free to grab lunch nearby, or bring something for yourself to snack on. Also free time to sauna, go to the beach, rest, or request private shamanic session, etc.
5:30 Prayer ties and flower mandala ceremony
7:00-8:30pm DINNER
- Dinner will be provided and will be created to ensure that everyone can partake! (Please send us a list of allergies and food preferences!)
- If you feel called to bring a dish, salad, or donation for food, it will be graciously accepted.
8:30pm
- Burning our prayer ties and calling in ceremony on the beach nearby!
FRIDAY
9-11am Simple Breakfast
- Including tea, closing ceremony and goodbyes
12:00pm Check out
COST: $165 / Lodging separate
BRING: A journal, comfortable clothes for the weekend, and any instruments, rattles, drums, chimes, etc that may call to you if you wish to make sound with. You may also choose to bring extra blankets for the beach and/or to be cozy during our sessions. Please bring anything else that may help you be more comfortable in the Pavilion space…pillows, meditation cushions, layers for clothing etc.
We will be outside on the last evening, so be sure to bring coastal weather gear. We will have some meals, but please bring some snacks if you feel called to satiate you during the weekend. Please let us know ahead of time any food allergies or food preferences so we can plan our meals accordingly.
BOOK ONLINE by clicking BOOK NOW, enter the date range and the access code
The Sou’wester Lodge at 3728 J Place, Seaview, WA 98644
Visit www.souwesterlodge.com/wellness/retreats to see the full schedule of retreats.
The Cowtown Serenaders create collage-like performances blending song, story, and performance art, using puppets, props, accordion, musical saw, and more. The current show, called “A Trip to Cowtown,” features their Incredible Collapsible Magical Marionette Music Box, and was first performed as part of the Eureka Fringe Festival in 2019. It tells the story of Peggy Pilgrim and Toe-Tapping Tommy, two wandering spirits who become friends in a world where all travel and spontaneity has been banned by the Good Government.
Daniel Nickerson and Tayloranne Finch create work as the Cowtown Serenaders to combine their interests in music, art, storytelling and performance. Their recordings and shows are characterized by acoustic sounds, natural materials, and fable-like stories, woven together to create a living tapestry of alternative Americana. Based in Arcata, CA, the group produces their work at the Sanctuary, a community art studio and residency.
https://www.thecowtownserenaders.com/
http://thesanctuaryarcata.org/
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
Drinks are available during the show in our Library Bar.