Our Vision

Groundswell Joy Collective reawakens a sense of belonging, wonder, and connection to the earth and to community through the four participatory, healing salves of Storytelling, Song, Dance, and Silence.

“Where we have stopped dancing, singing, being enchanted by stories or finding comfort in silence is where we have experienced the loss of soul. Dancing, singing, storytelling and silence are the four universal healing salves.”
— Angeles Arrien, The Fourfold Way

What We Do

storytelling, song, dance, silence

Illustration for Brigid's Flame, a story of spring, featuring a woman holding a lantern with a flame inside surrounded by various animals and nature elements, all in black and beige with decorative patterns.

Brigid’s Flame
Story

Community Folk Dancing
Dance

Groundswell Community Singers
Song

Church of the Oak
Silence

A group of five people engaged in community singing.

Our History

People participating in a community dance.

2013: Groundswell Community Singers began as a volunteer group of women who began offering songs of comfort, healing, and courage to people on thresholds of life 13 years ago. Over the years, our group has expanded and deepened into a strong collective of women who gather regularly to build community through sharing songs in the oral tradition and to keep the spirit of community singing alive. 

2016: Recognizing that folk traditions such as live music, song, and community dance have cultivated joy and human connection in small rural communities for millennia, Mary Kay McDermott began to organize and lead community folk dances in the area.

2016: The Church of the Oak, a community within the Wild Church Network, began as a group of people with the Seasons at Sinsinawa Mound. We are now a spiritual community of practice seeking to connect with the living world as kin and to deepen into intimate relationship with the land, and gather outside on eight feast days in the Celtic wheel of the year and other sacred times of the year.

2025: Groundswell received the fiscal sponsorship of the Dubuque County Fine Arts Society, a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization.

2026: Groundswell Joy Collective launched Brigid’s Flame — our first participatory production and annual touchstone that weaves together Song, Dance, Story, and Silence

Groundswell has also been inspired by the Revels, a national arts organization based in Cambridge, MA, that celebrates our world’s cultural and seasonal traditions.