While you're free to interpret these celestial events however you please (I'm getting superpowers), the confluence of events is an appropriate moment to sit back and reflect on this headfuck of a year. And if you're looking for some intentional community and events, the Northwest Film Forum has got you covered.
In collaboration with REDEFINE magazine, Holocene, Pink Noise, Crash Symbols Records, and Seattle Documentary Association, NWFF is hosting Longest Night: Solstice Ceremony 2020, a virtual funhouse of events to celebrate the aligning of heavenly bodies on this auspicious day.
For sliding scale admission, you'll have access to different Zoom rooms throughout the night, and you are encouraged to drop in and out of different activities. On the astrology side, Elissa Ball of Hit the Deck Tarot will give a public talk on the Great Conjunction then offer free private 15-minute intuitive tarot readings. At the same time, Hannah Piper Burns will offer sliding scale birth chart consultations.
One Zoom room, "Cinema 1," will host music performances throughout the night. Join Mōksha's The Biōm Experience for some deep relaxation and meditation through plant and light therapy. Artists and musicians like Hair and Space Museum, Yawa, Crystal Quartez, and Moss Wand will also perform throughout the night to bring some much needed healing through music and multimedia installations.
Over in "Cinema 2," viewers will be treated to video art and music videos from local, national, and international artists alike. NWFF staff members Paul Siple, Vivian Hua, and Brenan Chambers (with his musical project Plant Lab) will present video art; Dustin Wong, Sondra Sun-Odeon, Man Rei, Diana Duta & Julia E. Dyck, and ciénaga will premiere music videos. In the "workshop room," zine Fail Times will host contour drawings while dream tech researcher and producer Courtney Sheehan and Deborah Girdwood will conduct a meditative dream exercise.
Perhaps the event I'm most excited for is Woozy, a "virtual movement mediation" and guided dance party featuring Matt Drews, in the event's "lobby." Woozy isn't meant to be a workout, rather a "psychonautic surge" where Drews harnesses his experience with yoga and dance to guide viewers through different movements and rhythms.
Most excitingly, he'll be joined by Seattle-based DJ livwutang, who is taking over the music for the event. If you haven't yet been acquainted with liv, she recently released a mix in Truants' mix series, which has been getting me through these dark, gloomy nights. Her dubby, energetic, and joyous mix reminds me of damp green moss and rainy walks along the Sound—exactly what I need to get me through the longest night of the year.
For more details on the night's proceedings, head over to NWFF's website. Go forth and bask in the light of two planets as one!
