Every month, Frankfort musician Jeri Katherine Howell invites friends and neighbors to Come Sing. Over the past two years, more than 60 people have joined her informal community singing circles in backyards and public outdoor spaces. Now, an official partnership with Frankfort City Parks is widening that circle.
From April to September, Come Sing x City Parks invites people of all ages and levels of singing experience to monthly gatherings at two Frankfort parks. The program is in partnership with Frankfort Parks, Recreation & Historic Sites and sponsored by Music to Life and the Kentucky Arts Council.
"I've visited each of the parks where Come Sing x City Parks will take place," said Howell on a warm afternoon in Lower Cove Spring Park. "I chose Fort Hill and Cove Spring as the sites for this season because they're so integral to why Frankfort is here and what has happened in Frankfort's history."
Lower Cove Spring sits a couple of miles north of downtown Frankfort, in a valley just beyond the intersection of Holmes Street and US 127 North. Before it was a park, it was a water reservoir, with wooden pipes supplying fresh drinking water to the town as early as 1804, making it the second oldest public water supply system in the country, behind only New York City.
"It's so fun for me to think about the geologic history of this place, picturing where you and I were sitting as tidal pools of ocean water that led to the creation of karst topography," said Howell, sharing what she'd learned on a self-guided walking tour. "It's why we have springs and why we have fresh water here and, now, why Frankfort's here."
Howell is a performing musician, but the music she's bringing to these spaces is not a concert. Everyone in the circle sings or plays along with a drum or hand shaker. Some sit on blankets or chairs, others stand and sway or dance. Each session begins with introductions to each other and to the land.
"My hope is that we are really connecting with this place, the memory of this place, and also contributing to contemporary memories through our singing," she said.
Howell grew up in the town's old-time music scene, where it's traditional to share where a song comes from before playing or teaching it. She teaches songs by ear rather than with sheet music.
"I think what makes it powerful to teach it aurally is that it removes a barrier of feeling like you have to read a piece of music or know how to interpret something on a page," Howell said. "I really want people who have a diversity of experiences with music, including none, to feel like they can come show up and participate."
Howell selects songs for each gathering from a wide repertoire, aiming for each one to resonate with the place it's shared. At Fort Hill, the Union Civil War fort overlooking downtown Frankfort, she plans to share Going Across the Mountain, collected and shared by old-time banjo player and ballad singer Frank Proffitt. At Cove Spring, she plans to teach songs from two present-day songwriters out of Asheville - Root Down by Molly Hartwell and More Waters Rising by Saro Lynch-Thomason.
"That song has made its way all over the world and in different languages, from the front line on protests to churches to community singing in parks," said Howell. "That song has really has been resonating with me for both parks in its themes of resilience and knowing that difficult times are with us, and they're always going to be coming, but that we can face them, and we can face them together, and we can do so singing."
Community singing has also proven practical. When Frankfort flooded last April, a member of Come Sing needed help. Howell says she was able to get the word out through the network that community singing had built.
"When you make music with people, particularly when you sing with them, you develop a connection and you develop a sense of trust and ability to more easily collaborate with each other," she said, "Which, in this case of the flood in Frankfort really turned into a network of care and folks showed up."
Sessions will alternate between Leslie Morris Park (Fort Hill) and Lower Cove Spring Park. The first community sing will be at the Gippy Graham Shelter at Fort Hill on April 15 at 6pm. The full schedule runs through September, with all sessions from 6 to 8pm.