Community Kirtan with Francesca & Friends

Join us for an evening of uplifting and soulful chanting, community and chai!

Francesca will lead us in kirtan, a joyful practice of call-and-response chanting and devotional practice of bhakti yoga. Singing as a group connects us as a community and is opportunity to open the heart, still the mind and take refuge in our innermost experience of the Divine.

No musical experience necessary, just an open heart and mind.

Friday, April 21 | 7-8:30pm

Suggested Donation: $10 – $15 cash at the door

About your musical leaders

Francesca Nicosia has been chanting and leading kirtan for over a decade. She grew up in a musical family — her mother an opera singer and father an organist — and started playing piano and singing in choirs at a young age. She was first exposed to the sacred music of India during a semester abroad in Northern India. While living at Shoshoni Yoga Retreat in Colorado, chanting became an integral part of her daily practice. She was blessed to play with members of the ashram’s acclaimed kirtan band, Shiva’s Garden and study classical Indian singing with Megan Yalkut. Francesca regularly led kirtan at the Eldorado Mountain Yoga Ashram and the Denver Ashram before moving to the Bay Area in 2010. Francesca is an active member of the Adeline Community. She teaches Yoga for Every Body on Monday nights and is a graduate of the Sadhana Studies program. Chanting is her musical prayer and offering on the path of devotion, or Bhakti Yoga. She is grateful to share her deep love for this devotional practice as a way to open the heart, still the mind and take refuge in our innermost experience of the Divine.

Douglas Chermak has practiced Iyengar yoga since 2001 and is a graduate of the inaugural Adeline Yoga Sadhana Studies program. He has studied Middle Eastern and Indian percussion since 2006 with teachers including Aharon Wheels Bolsta and Faisal Zedan. Doug’s day job is as a plaintiff’s side environmental attorney with the Oakland-based firm Lozeau Drury LLP, where his practices emphasizes the protection of water quality.