Our Second Offering Recipient for April, May, and June 2025 is Great Promise for American Indians

04/17/2025

Each month, Wildflower Church collects a second offering during our worship services to benefit a nonprofit organization whose values align with ours. For the months of April, May, and June 2025, we have selected Great Promise for American Indians as our 2nd Offering recipient. Through donations, attending community events, and volunteering our time in support of the nonprofits who are recipients of our 2nd Offering, we live into our shared UU values (love, justice, equity, transformation, pluralism, interdependence, and generosity) and our church’s mission: Growing spiritually together spreading love, justice, and joy.

The mission of Great Promise for American Indians is to preserve the traditions, heritage, and culture of Native American and Indigenous people, while supporting the health and education of their youth and families. Great Promise does this by providing year round cultural education opportunities to the community through the Moving Moccasins Powwow dance performers, hosting free family friendly culture days and presentations at schools, museums, libraries and weekly workshops at our cultural center.

In 2025, they are proudly hosting the 32nd Annual Austin Powwow and Native American Heritage Festival — the largest one-day event of its kind in the U.S., bringing together more than 15,000 attendees, hundreds of dancers, and over 100 Native artists and food vendors.

Great Promise comes into 2025 with a significant reduction to their funding due to federal cuts to cultural arts programs. To make their family-friendly, and nationally recognized events and programs possible, they rely on community generosity and sponsorships to help cover essential expenses.

Please give as generously as you are able to. Any donation helps! Donations can be made at in-person at Wildflower Church on Sundays, or online (see the Second Offering link on Wildflower Church’s website’s giving page — click the Donate Online button.)

Current Volunteer Opportunities to Serve with GPAI Include:

  • Volunteers at the Austin Powwow for the gates, hospitality area, set up and clean up.
  • Food and beverage donations for volunteers, dancers, and performers
  • Coffee and refreshments for hospitality areas
  • Coverage for security and police officers required for the event
  • DJ services for live music and cultural presentations
  • Raffle items, supplies, and equipment

Love in Action!

Our Relationships Continue: Events and Volunteer Opportunities

There are many ways to be involved with some our Past and Present 2nd Offering Recipient Organizations. What a great opportunity to deepen existing relationships and build new ones (and learn something new!)

Here are some upcoming activities to attend or serve:

  • Saturday, April 19, 9:30 am – 8 pm, Attend or Volunteer at the NAIC Powwow at Travis ECHS
    The Native American Indigenous Collective will hold a Powwow on the campus of our neighbors, Travis Early College High School. This powwow is completely run by students and held off campus because of the lack of University support subsequent to the passage of anti-DEI legislation last Texas legislative session. Volunteer at the Powwow for various logistics throughout the day by completing this form. Donations of water, drinks (non-alcoholic), snacks, or breakfast items at TECHS anytime after 7:30 am on April 19th. (Be sure to look for some familiar faces from Great Promise for American Indians.) Find the Volunteer sign up form here.
  • Sunday, May 4, 1:30 pm to 4 pm, Attend or Volunteer at the BRAVE Communities Connection Event in North Austin
    A Fireside Chat with Rep. Gene Wu, Followed by a K-Pop Dance Experience! This unforgettable gathering brings together Texas House Representative & Democratic Chair Gene Wu (District 137) for a powerful fireside chat on identity, solidarity, and the fight for equity across racial and generational lines. We’ll dive into topics ranging from affirmative action, meritocracy, and the lasting impact of solidarity work – critical conversations that shape our communities and futures. Then, it’s time to let loose and move! 🎶💃🏻🕺🏽 Get ready for a high-energy K-Pop dance session, the perfect way to celebrate AAPI Heritage & Mental Health Awareness Month – helping students de-stress during finals, embracing the global impact of Korean pop culture, and giving us all a chance to shake off the socio-political divisiveness and move in solidarity. Find more event information and registration here. Want to volunteer with BRAVE? Fill out their volunteer interest form.
  • Saturday, May 17, 10 am to 2 pm, Attend Austin Youth River Watch’s Open House in Del Valle
    FREE family event! Come take a hike, participate in outdoor yoga and other activities, while learning about and supporting River Watch! RSVP here.

Meet Our 2025 Artist Salon Guest: Preston Andrew Patterson

04/14/2025

Preston Andrew Patterson is a native of Atlanta, Georgia where he began his training with Ballethnic Academy of Dance. At 14, Preston enrolled at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and at age 19 he completed his dance training with The National Ballet School of Canada. Preston joined Ballet Austin as an apprentice before joining the full company, where he was a member from 2008-2022. In his time at Ballet Austin, he danced works by George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, and Pam Tanowitz. In addition to dance, Patterson has made two short films The Prophet and Cloud Nebula. The Prophet made its world premiere debut at the Seattle Transmedis and Independent Film Festival in 2017.

Preston joins us as a featured guest during the 2025 Artists Salon Series on Monday, April 21, 2025, from 7 pm – 9 pm, on Zoom. You can learn more about the salons and find the registration link to attend here.

Meet Our 2025 Artist Salon Guest: Lisa Rogers

04/07/2025

Lisa sings and plays with The Therapy Sisters, Nonviolent Austin, and The Raging Grannies. Creativity, music, and social justice are her current trinity. thetherapysistersmusic.com

Follow Lisa on:

Lisa joins us as a featured guest during the 2025 Artists Salon Series on Monday, April 14, 2025, from 7 pm – 9 pm, on Zoom. You can learn more about the salons and find the registration link to attend here.

Meet Our 2025 Artist Salon Guest: Yohan Montozzi-Wood

Yohan Montozzi-Wood (any pronouns) is a theater-maker, singer-songwriter, and Assistant Professor of the Practice in Theater Studies at Duke University. Their embodied research explores Black queer performance and post-dramatic theater, weaving together ritual, ecology, and jazz aesthetics. Johann is currently developing Grandfathered In, a concept album and devised theater project that investigates biraciality, ancestral grief, migration, and queer resilience through a pastiche of original music, acrobatics, and drag performance. https://yohansol.com

Follow on Instagram @yohanstudios

Yohan joins us as a featured guest during the 2025 Artists Salon Series on Monday, April 7, 2025, from 7 pm – 9 pm, on Zoom. You can learn more about the salons and find the registration link to attend here.

2025 Artists Salons

03/21/2025

Simone Monique Barnes, Wildflower’s Director of Membership and Spiritual Life, hosts an annual gathering of artists and creative thinkers for virtual living room-style conversations, in the tradition of the Harlem Renaissance. This six-week salon series of artist-led, artist-centered conversations uses a mix of art, music, poetry, dance, essays, film, current events, and/or spiritual texts as springboards for dialogue and community.

Salons are open to anyone, especially those who self-identify as an artist (in any visual, performing arts, literary, or other creative expression), art lover, or as a creative thinker. You do not need to be a professional artist to attend a salon.

Held on Monday evenings, March 24 through April 28, 2025, on Zoom.

During these salons we focus on the artist, rather than solely on their artwork, engaging in conversations that artists want to discuss, such as imagination, creating during hard times, survival, rejection, criticism, racism, oppression, the creative process, fear, artistic expression, developing new work, spirituality, faith, religion, and more.

This year’s theme is Keeping Pace, inspired by the poetic words of Kahlil Gibran (b. 1883 – d. 1931): “You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth,” which is a line from the poem “On Work” in The Prophet in which Gibran reminds us that “Work is love made visible.”

Join us for one or more of the six Monday Virtual Artists Salon dates, held from 7pm – 9pm Central Time, on Zoom.(Note: The first 30 minutes are for checking in, getting settled, and socializing. The salon topic of conversation begins at 7:30 pm CT.)

Register in advance for these Zoom meetings:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/NSu0XJYdSsuZdBAVhP6JYw 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

SALON DATES

Mondays, 7 PM Central Time

  1. Mar 24 – Instead of a Scream: Creating in Hard Times
    We explore the work of Maisara Baroud, a Palestinian artist born in Gaza.
  2. Mar 31 – House of Dreams: Transformative Grief
    We explore the work of artist Stephen Wright.
  3. Apr 7 – A Conversation with Yohan Montozzi-Wood
  4. Apr 14 – A Conversation with Lisa Rogers
  5. Apr 21 – A Conversation with Preston A. Patterson
  6. Apr 28 – Blood Memories: Formative Experiences, Feelings, and Emotions That Fuel the Work.
    We explore the work of Alvin Ailey and Judith Jamison, including Revelations and Cry.

Notes for Artists and Creatives:

The artist salon is a day off, not a day on for artists. There is no expectation of performance or art exhibition. There is no expectation to talk about “the work.” The salons are an invitation for artists to participate in conversations with other artists, art lovers, and creatives about topics they are interested in.

Why Lent and Why Artists?

In many Christian traditions, Lent is a solemn forty-day period of self-examination, reflection, spiritual discipline, fasting and prayer leading to Easter. The word “Lent” comes from the Old English “lencten,” referring to Spring and the “lengthening” of days that occurs at this time of year. 

In the book The Cross and The Lynching Tree, Black Liberation theologian James H. Cone writes about how it was artists who pushed the Church into social change during the Harlem Renaissance. “Most black artists were not church-going Christians. Like many artists throughout history, they were the concerned human beings who served as society’s ritual priests and prophets, seeking out the meaning of the black experience in a world defined by white supremacy. As witnesses to black suffering, they were in the words of African American literary critic Trudier Harris, “active tradition-bearers of the uglier phases of black history.””

This Artists Salon Series honors artists, as a whole, as society’s ritual priests, prophets, and tradition-bearers who demonstrate our understanding of people’s experiences. In this series, the Artist’s Lent is an inter-religious, spiritual season of creative reflection, self-examination, reading, meditation, and connection.

As Cone notes, “More than anyone, artists demonstrate our understanding of the need to represent the beauty and the terror of our people’s experiences.”

“Artists force us to see things we do not want to look at because they make us uncomfortable with ourselves and the world we have created.”

This year’s series extends past the season of traditional season Lent, as we explore together the experience and themes of transformation.