Circle of Hope

Our Mission: “We are the cry of the exodus. there is no home for us here. we are a nomadic tribe of psalters, walking in the footsteps of ancients past to the far corners of the present, united as one voice against the oppression within and without.one more echo in the eternal song of our First Love, our Hope, our Pillar of Fire.”

For More Info, contact:

Jay Beck, bookpsalters@gmail.com
Scotty Krueger, superpsalters@gmail.com

Visit our websites: http://psalters.org and http://myspace.com/psalters

 An update from Psalters member Jay Beck, posted 2/11/11:

As many of you know, psalters is Circle of Hope’s mission team that is trying to develop the ways we cry out to God in the worship arts.

We are dedicated to listening and learning to the music of Exodus, especially refugee cultures and resistance movements, and let them shape our creativity in how we praise, celebrate, grieve, lament and challenge ourselves, the rest of the body of Christ, and also to hopefully rekindle a fire in the apathetic hearts of the dominant culture to again cry out for justice and reconciliation.  We feel that music is a powerful tool that can bring solidarity, awareness, challenge and hope to many who feel isolated or alone in their faith resistance efforts, as well as being a great way to communicate in a unique way about the issues and concerns we feel God is calling the church back to.  We hope that this mission team can become and also birth prophetic artists. For as theologian Walter Brueggemann says: “Every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep conjuring and proposing alternative futures,… because the “powers that be” want us to think their way is the only way possible.”

So–here is what us psalters have been up to and what is coming up for us as well. Come on out and join us and thank you for all your support!

psalters current roster includes folks who have been or are currently involved in all four Circle congregations:

Scott Krueger–BW, FN
Jay Beck–FN
Joshua Grace–BW, FN
Jonny Sczezniak–FN
Meko Freeman–FN
Brittney (blew) Lewis–FN
Adam Malliet–BW,HF and FN
Stephen Landis–FN, 19G
Kim Tice-FN, 19G

What we been up to:

This past year has culminated in many advancements to where we want to head next.  The biggest endeavor has been putting together our new batch of resistance psalms for our way long in coming next album!

We have finished about half of it and released those babies as an EP on our last tour.  The new songs contain musical inspirations from many cultural groups including west African, Brazilian, eastern European Roma, Native American, Celtic, Middle Eastern and even an old shape note song!–(of course they all got their gritty psalterish twists too.) Lyrically we have been focusing alot on the Jubilee concepts of redistribution of wealth and resources, our connection to the land and creation, and God’s continual desire to free the people from all the forms of modern slavery.

Fall Tour:

We went out for about two weeks this past fall and got to reconnect with many faith and resistance communities around the east coast, midwest and the deep south.  We started off at Eastern University, where the students on campus involved with the Y.A.C.H.T club–(y.outh a.gainst c.omplacency & h.omelessness today) brought us in to shake things up a bit.  A good batch of their students have been coming to our pms–so it was cool for us and them to come together on their hometurf, as well as Scotty being able to return to his Alma Mater.

          Then it was off to Ohio to team up with SugarTree ministries at their amazing complex known as “Joe’s Java“.  When we arrived there it was the week before thanksgiving and they had a line around the block of folks who needed groceries as well as holiday food supplements.  The town they are located in–Wilmington, has an enormous poverty problem, mainly due to the closing of a huge shipping and packaging plant that employed many of the townspeople.  The folks at Joe’s, not only run a coffeehouse and music venue, but also give free groceries once a week and feed over 200 people twice a day, every day, in their very dignifying “restaurant”.  The food is free, and the folks in need don’t just stand in line to get a bowl of soup, but sit down and are waited on with a full meal, plus drinks and dessert.  It was an honor and privelege to be able to get there early and help out serving the meals and then play our set for such an awesome crew and community that really shows how the Kingdom exists!
        Next–it was down to Nashville, TN for two shows–the first was at a club owned by Michael W. Smith–(ha!)–where we got to share the stage with our good friend Timbre as well as some cool local groups. That night we got to hang with and stay with some radical disciples who were all students at Belmont College and lived in a community house on campus working towards a variety of social justice issues. We had a lot of great conversations with them as well as with more of the student body the next night at our show on Belmont’s campus.
        Then it was time for Texas.  The tour was really based around these shows as we went down to Waco because of an invitation from Baylor College to come and lead three of their chapel services. Here’s some of what happened if you want to check it out here.  We got to play and speak to hundreds of young adults as their chapel services are mandatory!  After the “big fancy show” at Baylor–we went back to keeping it real, and held a concert at a real community focused venue called “Common Grounds” and joined forces with our good friends “Lesser Beggars“. ) This show turned into a really powerful worship time and we also got to hang at the Beggars communal base camp after. As many of you know, our tour bus runs on waste vegetable oil or “grease”–and we scored alot of grease in Waco thanks to our friends from beggars–and only had to get diesel once the whole tour!
        After that we stopped in New Orleans (jockamofeenanay) for a night and then made our way to Foley, Alabama to connect with a great family who takes in kids who have family problems and gives them a good home atmosphere.  “Mama Robin” used to run a coffeehouse in her town, but lost it due to the economy, so we just had a big party in their backyard–and they graciously had all of us stay at their home for thanksgiving.  We think it is beautiful how in the same tour we can communicate broadly to hundreds from the stage, and very closely with a few dozen because of folks like Robin who want to help set up shows and are willing to let us crash in their homes.  This again is what the Kingdom of God is about! 

          Lastly, we stopped in Lynchburg, VA–to play in an old warehouse for a show put together by an amazing community down there called “Burning Bush”.  Our friends Chris and Melissa have a great crew of folks living together in communal households focusing on Permaculture and Creation care as well as battling the strange theology that comes out of nearby Liberty University. It was a great way to end our fall tour and had the energy and hope of a real underground resistance movement–(complete with no heat and terrible broken sound gear!)
          We were grateful for the time and distributed around 500 copies of our new EP.

Upcoming and Ongoing psalters activities:The other big way psalters has been trying to develop and serve vocationally besides our concerts is through our training center–”Croatan Studio”.  While being a great facility for us to practice and record in, we also have opened it up to others to come in and learn from some of the traditional culture’s music and dance.  We feel that listening and learning to those cultures expressions through their art forms is hugely important for our solidarity with oppressed people groups and for our attempts at reconciliation and understanding to be deepened.  As well as to help to develop our worship leaders ability to reflect the people groups we long to side with and represent in our worship times.  You can join us at any of the classes as well as the many events we partner with, or if you are putting on an event, and want to bring some drums and dancing, we wanted to let you know we are excited to partner with your teams!
The Croatan Drum and Dance group has done performances, classes, and workshops in many schools, community centers, and social justice awareness events and fundraisers this year. We are going to be doing a big recital of all the students from all the classes on FEB. 26th at Circle F&N.  It’s going to be a fun night of cultural music and dance from West Africa and Brazil themed towards Mardi Gras—come join us as we “Dance in the face of Death”, before we enter into Lent!
    If you are interested in the weekly class schedule at the studio check out our website and be our friend on facebook!
www.gonetocroatan.org

Please Pray For:-we are currently trying to finish up our full length album as well as preparing for some upcoming shows:
-we will be headed out to Michigan in March to play and speak at Calvin College in Grand Rapids.
-we hope to do another local show on March 26th with our good friends Seth Martin and the Menders!!!
-we are involved with putting the plans together for another PAPA Fest this summer.
- we are trying to pray and discern whether or not we should accept the invitations of many folks in Europe to bring us over the pond for a Summer Tour.
-Croatan Studio needs to decide on either upgrading its soundproofing or relocating and is still in need of more partners.

So–lots going on!!!  Thank you for reading this and thank you for all your support and encouragement!

Psalm 22:4,5
“In you our ancestors put their trust; 
 they trusted and you delivered them.
 To you they cried out and were saved; 
 in you they trusted and were not put to shame.”