The Noah Project
I’m the artistic director of The Noah Project, an open group of men who have gathered once or twice a month for 17 years in the San Francisco bay area to joyfully participate in the beauties and sorrows of the world.
The Noah Project uses chant, song, poetry, group movement and story to
ritually explore (albeit imperfectly) what it is to be male in this society.
Our past gatherings are posted on the
Events page.
We welcome women to join us around the Winter Solstice,
Valentine’s Day and an event we call, “Just Because It’s
June!”
In these events men and women gather in a great candle lit hall, in a perfection free zone, to sing healing universal chants and songs in magnificent harmony. We have tea and cookies and share laughter and praises and blessings. The evenings are never ordinary. They seem to ask, “How much love and joy can you handle?”
We take our name from a poem by Jalalladin Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks) that exhorts the reader to: “Start a large, foolish project like Noah. It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.” How true, how true!
The music is learned by call and response so it is not necessary to read
music. The only criterion for acceptance is the ability to sing Happy Birthday
without driving anyone out of the room! Oh, and naturally they must be men
of good will who love to sing!
In Beauty It’s Begun,
“What a gift to my soul to joyfully celebrate
life, with total abandon, through song, poetry, gesture and movement with
the Noah Project.
The three evenings that women are invited to join are the highlight of my
year. They are always profoundly spiritual experiences.”
Alexa Simpson,
Yoga instructor
“What are singers but the servants of God.”
St. Augustine
“He who sings prays twice.”
African Proverb
