Now Hear This 2020
A creative songwriting challenge with an inspiring live show.
Now Hear This completes our 7th year!
Now Hear This is a creative songwriting workshop that offers a monthly song prompt and a chance to perform your new song live on stage at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn, NY. We are a loose collective of songwriters and the live show is different every month depending on who’s in town. The event is hosted by Deborah C. Smith and open to all who are 21+ years of age.
We have a few rules. 1) Write your song from scratch based on the prompt. 2) No disclaimers.
Other than that its pretty open so we can feel safe to flex our creative muscles and enjoy the fun of low stakes artistic expression. The community is extremely supportive and newcomers are welcome.
Now Hear This began in the Winter of 2017 with a group of friends who had the common interest of elevating their songwriting skills through practice and constructive critiques. We hold the meetings online for 5 weeks every Winter but then in 2020, decided to share our creative process with the public by adding a live stage show to the workshop. This adds a little extra pressure to truly show up ad rock this fun creative challenge.
Wanna play?
If you are interested in participating in this workshop, there are a few ways to play along. We have a private Facebook group, NowHearThis2020, where I post the monthly song assignment and other creative content related to songwriting. Anyone is welcome to use that prompt to create a new song and share it with the group.
We also have a monthly residency at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg, NY, curated by Deborah Smith and open to all. Each month there is a call for artists, a sign up and confirmation. Once all the performers are confirmed, there is a show order created and emailed out to the group.
All are encouraged to bring friends and to hang out to support the other players in the group.
If you’d like to receive info about this showcase, please click here to sign up for a free monthly newsletter, which includes info about my solo performances and other events as well.
“Creativity is our birthright. We are all creative just by nature of being born. Let’s use that gift to inspire.”
— Deborah