Twenty-five women contributed to the first Group Stitching Mantra at the Weatherspoon Art Museum on August 22, 2009. Each person voiced one word or sound of their mantra every time their needle pierced the cloth of their embroidery hoops. Everyone seemed to enjoy stitching and connecting to their voice in community. People were energized by the experience.

When I listen to this recording I hear the group’s desire to harmonize and become one.

At the beginning all voices are in the person role except for the leader’s refrain HELLO – FRIENDS – HELLO, which opens in a member role voice.

Halfway through the recording many more voices can be heard shifting into membership role. Their words become more distinct and take on more authority. These voices seem to lead the harmony as others join with them.

I also hear a few voices punctuating the harmony with difference, but the difference is never fully joined to the point where chaos takes hold.

Two-thirds through the recording you can hear a climax (literally!) as the harmonizers seek to respond to a single voice that stands outside their group. The harmonizing energy rises to meet the difference and in this way the difference becomes integrated into the harmony as call and response. Afterwards the harmonizing continues, but on a slightly different path.

There are many voices that remain in person role, spoken quietly and never clearly enough to be heard. These voices blend to create an indistinct but pervasive white noise in the background. These person role voices only shift to member role as other members become silent. Another way to say this is that the member role is thrust onto them as more and more voices fall silent.

This particular Group Stitching Mantra ends with one such voice, barely audible, repeating the refrain LOVE – LOVE – LOVE, joined only with the breath of another member, as the rest of the group listens.

Finally I wonder if the session had gone longer, would there have been an uprising? What would it take, for members bored or frustrated with the pleasant message and comforting wall of tone that prevailed, to express a difference?

Oh God! Thou art the Giver of Life,
Remover of pain and sorrow,
The Bestower of happiness,
Oh! Creator of the Universe,
May we receive thy supreme sin-destroying light,
May Thou guide our intellect in the right direction.

From a poem by the Hungarian poet, Jozsef Attila.

Mantra Trailer appearance hosted by the Art Musuem of Western Virginia.

It comes easy: loneliness, happiness
And everything in between. Even the hair
You stroked almost by accident
In a crowded room, it is yours
To keep. Like the stars in the sky that neatly
Fit in the pockets. At least that’s what
Children believe. Theirs is the simple way
Of walking that we must keep learning
Each day. This too comes, like the ready
Laughter when we insist it was not us—
But a passer-by—who broke wind.
We want to complain about the sad fate
Of our country, but on the tip of our tongues
That last-song syndrome we heard yesterday
Wants to be sung. If we get a coughing fit,
It’s because someone’s thinking of us back home
Or we’re being dreamt of by strangers
We have yet to meet in some foreign land:
Those we’ve wronged who want us more than dead,
Those who want so much of us, their love kills.
We think of them too when we pick our noses,
When we forget to take our vitamins—
Whichever comes to us first late this morning.

–Paolo Manalo

For more information about Tara.

I woke up one morning in November and looked out my window and saw a squirrel with a big fat nut in his mouth twitching and shaking his tail. I had my mantra for the day and it became the first mantra recorded for this project. The Mantra Trailer podcast was my nut!