Chicago resident Pat Murphy, left, and doctoral student in teacher education Mark Kissling have a laugh between songs during a folk music workshop Saturday at the Mid-Winter Singing Festival held at the Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbot Road.
The group of musicians onstage is there to lead, not to perform. Everyone in the audience sang along to hits from the 1840s to the 2000s, from “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to “My Girl.”
At the eighth annual Mid-Winter Singing Festival, participation was key.
“It’s about community,” said Fenton resident Kim Watroba, the wife of one of the festival’s song leaders, Matt Watroba. “It’s about bringing all groups of people together … your neighbors, all generations. It’s a way for everyone to sing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a good singer or a bad singer.”
The festival, held at the Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbot Road, began Friday night with a community sing featuring Kim and Reggie Harris, Pat Madden and Julie Beutel.
On Saturday night, there was a second community sing, featuring Joel Mabus, Susan Werner, Frank Youngman and Rachel Alexander.
The event was produced by the Ten Pound Fiddle Coffeehouse, the same group that hosts a weekly concert series.
Sally Potter, the festival’s founder, said community sings help bring people together.
“You’re sharing the same space,” she said. “You have trust with the guy next to you that he’s going to sing and you’re going to sing. It’s a singing conversation.”
Royal Oak resident Mary Ann Sara, who has been coming to the festival for about four years, loves singing with an auditorium full of people.
“It brings community because you’re doing something together,” she said. “You’re sharing this love. When you sing you feel so relaxed. It’s not a competition, it’s not a choir — it’s just a lovely opportunity to sing.”
In addition to the two community sings, the event also offered several workshops Saturday afternoon about different genres of music on.
“Since I can’t sing, I’m hoping to pick up a few tips and tricks,” said Holt resident Joy Owen, a newcomer to the festival. “I’ve never had any instruction so I think it’ll be helpful — plus it’ll be fun.”
The workshops varied from bluegrass to rap, but Sara chose to attend a workshop about folk singer Pete Seeger.
“These (songs) were popular when I was in college and I loved them and sang them growing up,” she said.
On Saturday morning, Kim and Reggie Harris, touring artists from upstate New York, led a children’s concert called “Songs and Stories of the Underground Railroad.”
“The Underground Railroad is a great American story,” Reggie Harris said. “As Americans, we like to talk about freedom a lot, but we take it for granted. The Underground Railroad, the fact that it was so many people of different races and religions coming together to fight an injustice … it’s such a heartwarming human story.”
Kim Harris said passing on the stories and messages of events such as the Underground Railroad to children is important.
“The idea of songs purely as entertainment is a very new idea,” she said. “People learn through singing, people protest through singing, people have gained their freedom through singing. So I want the next generation to have that tool.”
Kim Harris said coming to an event dedicated to a community singing is a nice change of pace for the traveling duo.
“This was particularly exciting because in our performance we always invite people to sing with us,” she said. “So to have a whole festival dedicated to community singing was exciting.”
Her husband said that festivals like this are important for a community.
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“The arts are such a way to draw people together, and I don’t know any better way than to sing, eat and dance,” Reggie Harris said.
