Listening as Refuge
Deep Listening in Uncertain Times
Sunday, May 17, 11 am – 1 pm Eastern Time · Zoom
2-hour deep listening® Workshop
Sound Sangha has gathered weekly for five years — a container of music, silence, and presence that became home for many of us. This is its first live gathering in a new form, and it continues the question we kept returning to in those sessions: what does deep listening mean when the world is genuinely difficult?
Not as an escape from what’s hard. As a way of meeting it. Refuge isn’t hiding — it’s the ground you stand on.
"The open ear is not passive. Listening is a practice of presence, courage, and refuge."
Session structure
| 15 min | Opening talk — Right Listening, the Triple Jewel, and listening as a posture of strength |
| 30 min | Ahlam & Michael conversation — a practitioner’s perspective on listening in a war zone (Lebanon) |
| 30 min | Open discussion |
| 30 min | Closing sound bath — live, for integration & meditation |
Michael has been composing and performing for over 25 years, working at the threshold of sound, silence, and the body — in hospice care, breathwork ceremony, maternity wards, and contemplative practice. He is certified in the Deep Listening® lineage of Pauline Oliveros, holds an MHTP certification, and founded Sound Sangha in 2021. He is based in Tuscany.
Ahlam Dirani is an interdisciplinary performing artist and community arts practitioner whose work unfolds at the intersection of bodies, memories, and land.
Her practice is grounded in embodiment, collective memory, feminist inquiry, and deep listening, while enjoying experimentation, collaboration, and practices of collective care.
She employs movement-based research, oral history, and ecofeminist thinking to create artistic processes where stories, gestures, and archives become shared sites of reflection and transformation. She is based in Lebanon.
Registration
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Zoom link sent on registration
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Recording sent to all participants afterward
Listening as Refuge: Deep Listening in Uncertain Times
May 17, 2026, 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
*Dāna is the Buddhist practice of generosity
— giving what you are able, freely and with care.
If $25 is not accessible to you, please come anyway.
If you are able to give more, that too is welcome.
Free to attend for monthly Patreon Supporters
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Patreon supporters get free access to all live events, plus ongoing access to the Sound Sangha class arichive (200+ recordings, weekly soundscapes, and more.
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Questions? Reach out michael@soundoflistening.com