S H I R A

NEW ALBUM • "SUBTLE CREATURE" • AUGUST 2016

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SHIRA - Myth (LIVE @ Home Body EP Release Show 2014)

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SHIRA - Splashhh (Song for A.M.) - LIVE on the Q Train

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SHIRA - Handlebars (Official Music Video)

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SHIRA - Shouts & Sparks (Official Music Video)

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SHIRA - Myth (Official Music Video)

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SHIRA - “Handlebars” LIVE @ Home Body EP Release Show 2014 

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and I knew the world was full of women at windows, that the world was an overflowing rush of bloodwater and my breath was where it unfolded and became, and I knew it was impossibly possible that there had been no sound at all, that I’d risen violently from my own peace simply because I was a woman and there was a window simply because a woman has been her own window for so long tapping, tap‐tapping on the glass

Shira Erlichman, from “When I woke up to a woman screaming help out the window and a car door,” published in Winter Tangerine Review

shiraeeee is a friend // lighthouse & she catches me daily. How lucky we are to be in her orbit.

(via myshoesuntied)

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Want me to serenade your best of friends & drooliest of dogs in your living room? 

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Welp, guess what - NOW BOOKING LIVING ROOM SHOWS all over New York for June/July/August 2015! 

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Intimate / Communal / Magic / Just for Us! Let’s glow-in-the-dark-star the ceiling. Let’s order pizza! Let’s arm wrestle between songs! Let’s do none of that & just sinnnnnnnnng! It’s going to be heartfelt & bright & yours. 

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Email thisisshirae at gmail dot com with inquires & to book!

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Self as Garden

I resent the term "mental illness." Why can't we just call it an "illness"? I resent the idea that the brain is somehow not the body. Because personality/character is so inextricable from said "mental illnesses" we distinguish it as "mental." Why? Is the lung physical, but the brain an island the waters of the body only border?

Perhaps it's because we don't want to see what "mental" illnesses point to: the tenuous nature of Self, the cocktail ecosystem that is the Brain, how one could be different at the flick of a major switch (Hello, Phineas Gage), the existential soul-questioning that comes along with seeing a Beloved become Stranger. It's unsettling, to say the least. We want Self to be fixed & firm & confirmable.

But Self is an aurora borealis - a swirl of color & light, a charge & dispersal of energy. But Self is a garden - & the bees make the garden, as do the flowers, as do the birds, as do the clouds. There is no border to the garden's body. It dwells in the caretaking hands of rainfall as much as ant footsteps. What if we - each - are this? A system? A party? An interrelating dance? This isn't poetry. It's chaos held close like a marble. I have simultaneously been the Beloved & the Stranger. I am sitting in the center of myself, wanting to know where I end, or begin.

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New Writing Course! "So This is Madness"

Our task in this course is to leave behind the tropes of Madness in order to define our experiences of illness, wellness, & consciousness for ourselves. Through art we will explore the cultural & often structural isolation of the individual in a mad society. What makes someone “Mad?” Who defines Madness? If freedom is the ability to speak, think, & act for one’s self, than together we will carve our own pulsing & intimate vernacular of our most elusive mental-physical-spiritual experiences. In a space of non-judgement we will joyously venture like astronauts into the inner-cosmos of being (wildly) human.

Guided by the poetry of Jeanann Verlee, Andrea Gibson, Morgan Parker,Rachel McKibbens, Tarfia Faizullah, & Lucille Clifton; the personal letters of Van Gogh; the music of Kendrick Lamar & Nina Simone; the visual art of Francesca Woodman; & the Shamanic insights of Malidoma Some we will dive inward utilizing the creative tools of non-linearity, persona, the unreliable narrator, interview, & paradox.

This course is offered both as a 1-on-1 online experience & for the FIRST TIME as an in-person group class. Sessions will be held in Brooklyn.

Space is limited! To find out more email thisisshirae at gmail dot com!

With maple syrup, Shira

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I Statements (Reposting from my Facebook Page)

What I'm interested in: Accountability. I will do more than pray for change. I will do more than "send light & love." I will listen to how change makers want help from me. I will take cues. I will read articles and books. I will educate and inform myself. I will support actions spearheaded by POCs. I will be more conscious to support Black businesses. I will question my preconceived notions of "peace" and "violence." I will maintain a personal spiritual practice to replenish my hurting heart. I will not rely on POCs to replenish my hurting heart. I will not use POCs in my life as "props" in my own journey and necessary work. I will honor a movement whose particular daily struggles I don't bodily share, am most often blind to, and possess a privilege to turn away from. I will not rack my brain trying to "fix Ferguson" (where very real activists are daily organizing their own community and protesting) - I will recognize that this impulse is Whiteness attempting to control. I will, instead, listen. A lot. I will check my privilege and honor my blind spots. I will call out other white people, and allow myself to be called out. I will shed what I take personally so that I may serve the universal: Human Rights. I will hold myself, and my country, accountable. I will not willingly turn away and pretend this isn't happening - or hasn't been for centuries. I will love myself in my journey, and never let my floundering become an excuse, nor my learning become a trophy. There is work to be done. It is my work. Because of love, I will be ready before I am ready.

Please do not post congratulations or amens below. Leave it empty. Please do not like this status. Leave it unliked. If you have feedback or disagreements, backchannel me. If you want to share this post, you may do so but I ask that you write your own I statements within your share. Thank you, as always, for listening.

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||| NEW VIDEO! ||| 

||| Handlebars  |||

Performed by SHIRA

Off the forthcoming album "Subtle Creature"

As premiered by BlackBook Magazine 

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Go Find Your Self & get some Self-Love

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>>>>>>>>>----------------- <3 -------------------------->

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I love it when people say they are "literally dead."

This is an elevator group selfie from the cast/crew of the Literally Dead Video Shoot (Directed by "Handlebars" Director Peter Collins Campbell ---top right in the back!) Let's just say there was karaoke involved. New album "Subtle Creature" out Late Spring 2015! New video to drop then - with all them cherry blossoms! Stay tuned! 

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FLOWER POWER! SHIRA adorned by floral magic at Rockwood Music Hall, NY, NY with the distinguished electro-heart duo Home Body. 11/23/14.