Soma Sessions #9: Constellations, Interludes w Ashley Holmes

~ Please note: These sessions are open to People of Colour only ~

Peaks of Colour's Soma Sessions are monthly spaces that invite global majority communities to deepen their connection with themselves, each other and the land.

Set in the Peak District, these informal and intimate sessions will offer an introduction to embodied and nature-allied practices that can assist in our healing from gendered and racialised trauma.

A space of repetition as Black Feminist practice (Foluke Taylor), and rehearsal as an abolitionist priority (Ruth Wilson Gilmore), Soma Sessions will support us to build capacity and resilience for a future in which the boundaries between our human bodies and our more-than-human landscapes are decomposed.

Session #9: Constellations, Interludes w Ashley Holmes

Join Peaks of Colour’s Nature Writer in Residence, Ashley, as we collectively consider sonic and spatial ways of navigating our natural environment.

Through sampling and recording prompts such as field recordings, plant, fungi and soil frequencies, and vocal experimentations, (inspired by artworks such as ‘Pastoral Interlude’ by Ingrid Pollard and Tina Campt’s ‘Listening To Images’) we will explore how listening as a sensory and embodied process can connect us to the resonances, details and intimacy of the land.

Together we will create recording that will contribute to Ashley’s final sound piece: a series of audio compositions that document the sonic textures of local built and natural environments.

Date: Sunday 26th October

Time: 10:30am

Meeting location: Flying Horse Lawn, Lodge Lane, Sheffield, S6 5SP

Accessibility: There is a short walk over grass from the carpark to the session location.

Duration: 2-3 hours

Additional details: There is free parking at Flying Horse Lawn along Lodge Lane.

We reccomend organising car shares via our closed Facebook group: here.

The Sunday bus is now back running. We recommend getting the 120 at 8:54am (arriving at 09:46am) in case of delays.

What to bring/wear

• Walking boots / Comfy footwear
• Plenty of water
• Weather appropriate clothing/items eg Waterproofs/sun cream
• Blanket, sit matt, yoga matt or something comfy to sit on
• Any self-soothing items that you find helpful eg fidget toy or scented oils

About Peaks of Colour

Peaks of Colour is a Peak District-based nature-for-healing club, by and for People of Colour only. Founded in 2021 by Evie Muir, Peaks of Colour offers creative and holistic Walkshops, that explore alternative routes to healing and justice. Grounded in a Black Feminist, abolitionist, and nature-allied practice, our spaces invite communities to heal from gendered and racial trauma through an informal and intimate introduction to our local landscapes.

Join our Facebook group to stay up to date with our monthly adventures.

About Ashley Holmes

Ashley Holmes is an artist interested in hybrid and collaborative methods of production, publishing and broadcasting. His work explores the ways western norms of ownership have informed both music circulation and people’s right to access land, to think about alternative methods of working with and sharing sound, writing and knowledges beyond borders, spatial constraints and categorisations. Recent research and projects have been developed from thinking about listening and sound in relation to landscape and environment, to understand the ways we construct values, power relations and histories of the places we share - with both human and more than human life.

Ashley is a resident on NTS Radio and has hosted Tough Matter, a monthly show of experimental music and sound since 2017. He facilitates Open Deck, a series of gatherings started in 2018 giving space to collectively listen and hold discursive space around embodied knowledges and relationships to music, sound, memory and oral histories.