by Michelle Tocher | Jan 12, 2021
Over the holiday, I rediscovered “Down in Yon Forest,” a mysterious old ballad that I performed at the Toronto Storytelling Festival many years ago. I stood alone on stage and sang it in a childlike a cappella voice, imagining it to be sung by an absolute...
by Michelle Tocher | Apr 18, 2020
I’ve been having a recurring image of us sailing away from the harbor of the world as we knew it. Some of us are reaching back, wondering how to recover the security we had before. Others are groping in the fog to find hopeful possibilities. Then there are the...
by Michelle Tocher | Sep 20, 2019
I’ve recorded a little impromptu talk here (with an equally impromptu demonstration) of how I’ve been working with poetry lately and crossing the bridge from speech to song. The lines I’m demonstrating come from a poem by St. Teresa of Avila. I also make reference to...
by Michelle Tocher | Jun 28, 2019
Since January, I’ve been doing a lot of singing and exploring what it means to sing, speak, and write in our natural voices. I wonder how much real freedom our voices get and the extent to which they are distorted by the culture at large and the media through which we...
by Michelle Tocher | Feb 8, 2019
“Destiny’s Song” came to me when I was working with the Italian fairy tale Catherine and her Destiny. When Catherine was a young woman, her destiny appeared to her as a goddess and offered her happiness. But she could only have it for half of her...
