Growing The Voices: Festival 500

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Did you know that Newfoundland and Labrador was the 1st province in Canada to to include ASL (sign language) interpreters in the news briefs about Covid 19? And we are leading the way again by offering an opportunity for all Canadians to learn how to sign our national anthem - facilitated by our very own Shallaway Youth Choir and NL Deaf Choir. Enjoy watching and learning! #SigningOCanada

We are excited to share with you our most recent initiative, Signing O Canada: A Learning Video. The vision driving this effort lies at the heart of our mission helping to create a more inclusive and accessible community. Whether you try your hand at learning to sign or not, this experience may bring you together with others in different ways. This can be empowering. The video’s intent is to: ... widen the existing sphere of awareness about the deaf community in Canada, and wherever the video shows, introduce and encourage that awareness in others, further grow that awareness to those inclined through offering a learning opportunity to sign a commonly known song (our national anthem) through Canada’s official language for the deaf ASL (American Sign Language). In this experience members of the NL Deaf Choir and Shallaway Youth Choir are your facilitators. Children have been chosen to facilitate as their communication is open, purposeful and joyful. Their welcoming spirits invite us to take risks and offer us both confidence and the means of accomplishing the challenge at hand. We thank wholeheartedly all of our terrific partners in this project Leigh Ann Ryan of NL Deaf Choir, Kellie Walsh of Shallaway Youth Choir, and Professor David Buley of Memorial University of Newfoundland. Andrew Mercer of Andrew Mercer Consulting for video production. Deaf advocate Myles Murphy, to whom we have dedicated this video. The NL Association of the Deaf for professional oversight and much encouragement. And huge thanks to the eight talented and fearless young signers & singers and their supportive families. We hope you enjoy this unique experience as much as we enjoyed creating it. Perhaps it may inspire you to imagine and create your own variations of new, inclusive and accessible community. https://youtu.be/F5uKCk9ThGA

We stumbled upon this video and just couldn’t resist sharing! It is such a lovely illustration of why Growing The Voices exists - to encourage singing as a vital part of life and doing it with enthusiasm...and of course an adorable puppy. Ok the puppy is a bonus but seriously. Enjoy the moment. And if it inspires you and your loved ones to sing together, in your own bubble, then consider this a win! #lullaby #everyonecandoit #bubblesinging #puppylove

We are sharing a #FridayFavourite for families and couples hitting the road to the cabin or a 'stay home' vacation. There are no doubt many great memories of family car trips and singing together to pass the time. Which is one way we can safely sing together at this time...in your most personal bubble! We've chosen I've Been Working On The Railroad. It's short, sweet and highly memorable. For those who want the words they will be attached in the first comment. ... Have a listen!

Today’s #TunefulTuesday celebrates NL’s Indigenous talent Eastern Owl. If you haven’t heard of Eastern Owl you should check them out. They are an Indigenous led All Nations Women's Drum group based in St John's NL. And they were just named Indigenous Artist of the Year at the 2020 ECMA’s. ... Congratulations Eastern Owl!

Today is a celebration of Atlantic Canadian music and singing The East Coast Music Association (ECMA) are airing their annual awards as a two-hour special tonight at 9:30pm NT on CBC and CBC Gem. Originally designed to be live in St. John’s NL, it will feel ‘just like home’ with Mary Walsh hosting and many of our local favourites featured.... To help you get in the mood we are sharing one of Tim Baker's songs from his debut solo album Forever Overhead. Tim has said that "All Hands" is a song about growing up in St. John’s and showing all of the people that were instrumental in the making of the record, and the making of him. Enjoy!

A Christmas song in July is this week's #ThrowbackThursday. It’s not as weird as you may think. The W Network airs Christmas movies every weekend in July - #ChristmasInJuly. And after watching and singing along to this #InstantChoir video at The Rooms it will be hard to wipe the smile off your face. And the songs from your memory.... We cannot wait to get back together again. Until thenenjoy! #TogetherApart #SingingHeals #SocialDistancingWorks #TheRooms

Happy Tuneful Tuesday! It’s a nice and sunny one out there so we’re posting Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves lyrics on screen. Enjoy the nice weather and have a singing session on us! We can’t wait until we can all sing together again. Credit for video to YouTube page, Audioandlyrics. #InThisTogether #TunefulTuesdays #SingingUnites #SingingStrengthens #SingingHeals #GrowingTheVoices