This listening session will draw inspiration from the German saint and polymath Hildegard of Bingen, considering how we can remix her lessons in the present. Bingen was a nun, poet, composer, visionary, prolific letter writer, herbalist, and scholar who wrote books on botany, medicine, music, poetry, and theology. Much of her music takes an experimental approach: her melodies seem almost improvisatory; her texts don’t follow grammatical conventions, are almost stream-of consciousness, and unusually rich and sensuous in their imagery, inviting us into the fecundity and mysticism of the garden.
This session is facilitated by The Hildegard von Bingen Society for Gardening Companions, a queer-feminist collective of artists, musicians, academics, and writers, that revives a historical society believed to have been founded by Bingen in the 12th century. We will play some of Hildegard’s hymns (recorded) and work in the spirit of this proto-eco-feminist; and end with a live set by Mantawoman on the yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer), tuning into how we can rethink the past and re-activate historical material and instruments. Mantawoman is Reylon Yount’s alt pop alter ego. Genre-fluid by nature, Mantawoman’s nomadic practice carries the yangqin across a spectrum of sound worlds, including covers of familiar pop songs
Thematically, the session will float around themes of abundance, transformation, imagined and collective gardens, finding solace in uncertainty, and claiming the history we deserve.