As part of the 'Reimagining the Valley' phase of the Lake to Lake Walk 2025, we want to invite 4 musicians - Shireen Amini, ahlay blakely, Karisha Longaker and Te Martin - to support and walk with. Music, song and singing have a profound ability to expand our imaginations, sourced in healing in our hearts and bodies. It is there where we begin our liberation.

There are very real and basic costs to bring Shireen, ahlay, Karisha and Te to join the walk - food, travel, basic equipment and insurance - and we are asking your support to make this happen.

After a beautiful evening of song and story we raised $3,825 ... we now need $475 to bring these 4 incredible humans on the walk. Please give what you can and share widely ... All donors will receive a recording of the evening event.

In gratitude for all that has been received and all that will ....

Bios:

Shireen Amini is a queer Puerto Rican-Iranian American, earth-loving song creator, rhythm maker, and community facilitator based in Portland, Oregon. As a human, they carry a deep commitment to their own liberation path and vision of a more just world. As an artist, they believe strongly in music’s power to propel cultural revolution. Shireen blends pop, rock, hip hop, latin, and roots sensibilities with socially-conscious themes as a singer-songwriter and creates modern medicine music for community singing. They also teach drumming, lead workshops, and facilitate grief rituals as part of their community-based music empowerment project Shireen Amini Music Medicine.

ahlay (alexandra) blakely is a singer-songwriter, artist, and community organizer devoted to elderhood and ancestral healing. A descendant of Ashkenazi, Scandinavian, and British folk, she breaks cycles of intergenerational trauma through song, storytelling, ritual, and deep relationship with the natural world. Her 2025 album WAILS: Songs for Grief was recorded with a 200-voice choir, weaving together communal grief and Whale wisdom.

Karisha Longaker has been singing her whole life. Growing up in a home blaring music from around the world she took in the sounds of people from all over the globe, giving her an ear for many different kinds of sound. She is a deep listener and a song catcher, often finding songs coming to her through the sensation of a breeze upon her skin, or by resting her body on the earth in some wild place. She is deeply committed to the wellbeing of the human family, creating songs as tools for belonging and mutual support. She is half of the folk duo MaMuse and has spent the last 18 years of her life traveling and sharing song as a means to uplift and inspire the world into thriving.

Te Martin is a song-keeper and ritual artist who draws inspiration from Ocean, Redwoods, circus arts, and theater games. They facilitate oral tradition singing classes and workshops that focus on song as a tool for collective liberation, somatic regulation, and ancestral connection. Te served as co-organizer of Thrive Street Choir in the san francisco bay area for six years, is a student of the Irish bodhrán drum, released their first professional music video and EP of original songs, "Water & Bones", in 2021, and launched “Murmuration: A Sebastopol Community Choir” in the spring of 2024.

Walking Water Songraiser