Carrie Newcomer
Carrie Newcomer is a songwriter, recording artist, performer, educator and activist. She has been described as a "prairie mystic" by the Boston Globe and one who "asks all the right questions" by Rolling Stone Magazine. Carrie has 20 nationally released albums on Available Light & Concord/Rounder Records including A Great Wild Mercy, Until Now, The Point of Arrival and The Beautiful Not Yet. Newcomer has released three books of poetry & essays, A Permeable Life: Poems and Essays, The Beautiful Not Yet: Poems and Essays & Lyrics, and Until Now: New Poems by Carrie Newcomer. Her song "I Should've Known Better" appeared on Nickel Creeks' Grammy-winning gold album This Side, and she earned an Emmy for her PBS special An Evening with Carrie Newcomer.
Recent appearances include PBS Religion and Ethics and Krista Tippett's On Being. In 2009 and 2011 Newcomer was invited by the American Embassy of India to be a cultural ambassador, resulting in her interfaith benefit album Everything is Everywhere with master of the Indian Sarod, Amjad Ali Khan. In 2013 Carrie traveled to Kenya and the Middle East, performing in schools, spiritual communities and hospitals assisting AIDS patients. In 2016 Carrie was awarded an honorary degree in Music for Social Change from Goshen College. In 2019 she received The Shalem Institutes's Contemplative Voices Award.
In recent years, Carrie has become one of Substack's most popular music writers with her weekly offerings of topical reflections, videos, poetry and songs. She has also joined with the author Parker J. Palmer on several projects, including The Growing Edge collaboration which explores growing edges, personally, vocationally and politically. Together they created live events, personal growth retreats, and the highly rated The Growing Edge Podcast that features authors, activists, poets and musicians. Spirituality and Health Magazine named Parker & Carrie in the top ten spiritual leaders for the next 20 years. She has also presented workshops with ServiceSpace.org, an international interfaith community for creating positive change through personal and collective service experiences. In addition to her busy touring schedule, which has included presentations with full choral arrangements and string quartet, Carrie has become known for her personal growth retreats and speaking engagements.
Carrie is known for her low and resonant voice as "rich as Godiva Chocolate" according to The Austin American-Statesman, for her musical depth and the progressive spiritual content of her songs, poetry and workshops, and for her continued work in justice, spiritual and interfaith communities, and health and hunger organizations. In a time of deep divisions, Carrie has become a national voice for finding how we still connect at the heart of the human story. She lives in the wooded hills of South Central Indiana with her husband and two shaggy rescue dogs.
CURRENT WORKSHOPS & RETREATS
TELLING OUR STORY IN SONG: A COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE
Day Workshop (90 minutes - 2hours)
In this fast paced and engaging workshop Carrie will invite participants to explore a topic creatively through the use of song. She will lead the group through the process of choosing a topic, creating the language, moving the language into music form, and by the end of the workshop have a finished song the group can sing together. This workshop requires absolutely no musical experience. This experience is a fun and exciting way to understand and embody new ideas and material. In a conference setting this experience is a wonderful way to creatively move the theme of the conference from head to heart, embodying the stories and ideas being discussed during the conference. This is a fast paced, guaranteed to make you smile experience, presented in a safe and welcoming atmosphere.
Note: Carrie will create a very simple MP3 version and a lyric/chord sheet of the song after the experience and send to group leader for distributing to participants.
This workshop can be a stand alone experience. When it is combined with one of Carrie’s other retreats it creates a full head & heart experience. The time needed for a combined experience is a minimum of 3 hours.
THE BEAUTIFUL NOT YET: SUSTAINABLE HOPE
Day Retreat (90 minutes - 2 hours)
Living into a sustainable hope is getting a bead on a true north and then walking toward it, living into love is a daily practice, our work for a better, kinder world is an orientation not a destination.
Hope is holding in creative tension, everything that is, with all that could and should be, andand each day taking action to lessen the distance between the two” Parker J. Palmer.
This day retreat led by singer songwriter, Carrie Newcomer, will explore maintaining hope and our ability to envision during times of individual and community challenge. Carrie will use music, poetry, reflective writing, reflection to explore the personal stories and practices that affirm that hope is sustained through individual and community action. Participants will consider the things that have helped them maintain hope in the past as well as ponder if those things are still available to us, and if so how do we access them, and explores how might we might hold our individual and community challenges with creative and life-giving tension, knowing that our work for the better world is not just a destination, but a daily orientation.
Possible Addition: Telling Our Story In Song: A Community Experience - See description below (Together a 3 hour retreat)
WHAT WE NEED IS HERE: LIFELINES, LAKES & THE LIVING POSSIBILITY WITHIN US & BETWEEN US
Day Retreat (90 minutes - 2 hours)
Join Quaker Songwriter/Poet/Author, Carrie Newcomer, as she invites us into the inner work that supports and deepens our outer walk in the world. In times that feel increasingly divisive and fractured, what helps us stay grounded, resilient and cultivates our threads of connection? Using music, poetry, story and reflection Carrie will lead participants through a series of experiences designed to affirm who we are, who we are becoming and the power of daily human size actions to create positive change.
Possible Addition: Telling Our Story In Song: A Community Experience - See description below (Together a 3 hour retreat)
A MAP OF THE JOURNEY IN PROCESS: CONVERSATIONS AT THE GROWING EDGE
Day Retreat (90 minutes - 2hours Retreat )
“Stories tell us of what we already knew and forgot and remind us of what we haven’t yet imagined.” – Anne L. Watson
This workshop is designed to be a warm, welcoming and creative exploration of our personal and collective journeys. Using music, visual art, poetry and openhearted conversation Carrie will honor the story of our history, reflect upon our current inner and outer experience, and envision our hopes for the future as we lean into our next growing edges. Carrie invites and welcomes anyone with or without previous experience in writing, songwriting or creative expression to exploring new ways of envisioning our own stories through a new creative and compassionate lens.
Possible Addition: Telling Our Story In Song: A Community Experience - See description below (Together a 3 hour retreat)
THE EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY: WRITING AS THE PRACTICE OF PRESENCE
Day Retreat (90 minutes - 2 hours)
In this workshop Carrie leads participants through exercises that encourage paying attention to the small details, experiencing delight in small moments. Carrie will use small and large group conversation, music and poetry. This workshop welcomes those interested in songwriting, prose or poetry, or journaling as a reflective tool. All experience levels are welcome to explore.
THE EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY: SONGWRITING & THE SMALL MOMENT WITH CARRIE NEWCOMER
Day Retreat (90 minutes - 2hours)
Carrie will lead songwriters through exercises and practices that focus on songwriting with attention to the small moment and detail. This workshop isdesigned for those wanting to expand deepen their songwriting practice with a nationally recognized performing songwriter and recording artist.
