Workshops & Presentations

History Alive: Holocaust Education
Songwriting and Performing Residency
Retreat and Specialty Offerings
For Jewish Audiences

History Alive: Holocaust Education

History Alive is a 45 – 60 minute lecture that features the story of Bernice’s family’s escape from Nazi Germany in the early 1940’s, along with demonstration of artifacts and original music.  This Holocaust Education presentation is designed for Junior and Senior High School, Colleges, and congregations.  It combines historical facts with oral history and stresses the importance of discovering our family stories and all that we can learn from them. Please Visit Our Holocaust Alive Page for more Information.

Songwriting and Performing Residency
Appropriate for the general public, college, and secondary school level, and designed according to time allotted and interest, participants are coached in the basics of writing original material and presenting in a way that communicates successfully. This includes professional information and advice on vocalizing as well as accompaniment. Extended residencies often include producing a show in a local or on site venue. Bernice has been teaching annual credited courses on Songwriting and Performing at Williams college in Williamstown, Ma, and The Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO for over 15 years. Other places she has taught include Omega Institute, Esalen, Kripalu Center, Warren Wilson College, Universe of Song, Star Island Writer’s Retreat, and Lamb’s Retreat.

Previous to becoming a full time performer, Bernice made her living teaching English and Creative Writing at public and private high schools.

“Thanks to wonderful instruction, honest criticism, and a great format, I have so many of the necessary tools to become a better writer and to continue to learn and explore my own writing.”
– Harris Paseltiner (Darlingside), Williams College 2009

“This class has reaffirmed my long-standing conviction that creativity only happens in open and safe environments.”
– Thomas Calvo, Williams College 2011

“I found the atmosphere of our songwriting class to be unbelievably stimulating as an artist: I found myself writing not only songs but also stories and fragments of plays under the influence of my classmate’s work. We would all be lucky to live in a community of artists for a part of our lives.”
– Eva Flamm, 2010

“This course has been incredibly invaluable to me in that it forced me to step outside of my comfort zone in an area where I’ve always been constrained by my own fear. Even if I chose never to pick up my guitar or play the piano again, hypothetically speaking, I still feel that I have gained more from this course than many others I have taken at this college.”
– Fern Senior, Williams College 2004

“This class was designed perfectly to prepare us step by step for the day of the performance.”
– Danita Stewart, Colorado College 2005

Retreat and Specialty Offerings
Bernice has a long resume of working in retreat centers and alternative situations. She is a specialist in creating safe environments and combining skills to customize your retreat or classroom experience. She has a B.A. in English and Creative Writing, and an M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

For five summers, she was artist-in-resident and workshop instructor at the Omega Institute for Wholistic Studies in Rhinebeck, NY. Other retreat centers she has taught at include Kripalu Center (Lenox, MA), Esalen (Big Sur, CA), Warren Wilson College (Black Mountain, NC), Lamb’s Retreat (Harbor Springs, MI), Universe of Song (Loretto, PA), Star Island Writer’s Retreat (ME), and many nationally known song camps.

Finding Your Voice
You sing in the shower and in the car when you’re alone. Suddenly, when others are around, you can’t find a way to open your mouth and let it out. Everybody loves to sing once they get past the fear they experience when they hear the sound of their own voice, and very few of us are truly tone deaf. We use simple vocalizing techniques and the principles of Hatha Yoga to explore the voice.

Bernice Lewis has been a professional singer for more than ten years. She has studied vocal technique and improvisation with Bobby McFerrin, Rhiannon, Patty Andress, and Isaye Barnwell.

Journaling and Creative Writing
Journaling is one of the most important tools for an artist. Getting thoughts, ideas, and feelings on paper can stimulate creativity. We use timed writing techniques and share when appropriate. Bernice’s writings have been published in such diverse publications as Appalachian Trailway News, American Zionist Movement Songbook, Open Ear Journal, Shots, Dermanities, The Resource Exchange Quarterly, Berkshire Eagle, Raven Review/Phantom Ranch, North Adams Transcript, Bone & Flesh, Coos County Democrat

Specialty Yoga
Custom designed retreat instruction that moves beyond the postures to integrate sounding, micromovement, stress management, emotional release, community building, and breathwork with the eventual goal of bringing the principles of yoga into daily life.

Bernice Lewis, R.Y.T. has practiced, studied, and taught Hatha Yoga since 1975. In addition to a thirty year old daily practice, she has studied with BKS Iyengar, Bikram Cloudhary, Amrit Desai, Emilie Conrad D’aoud (Continuum), and innumerable other masters. She was featured in October 2000 “Yoga Journal” for her work with Yoga and Sound. Some of the places she has taught yoga include The Omega Institute (Rhinebeck, NY), Kripalu Center (Lenox, MA), Williams College (Williamstown, MA), and at North Adams Regional Hospital (North Adams, MA) REACH program for breast cancer survivors

The Art of Spiritual Practice/The Spiritual Practice of Art
We explore the issues of creating and sustaining a practice… how to choose one, how and why to create commitment, problems, pitfalls and misconceptions.

For Jewish Audiences
Bernice is available for:
Concerts
Music Shabbat
Artist Shabbat
Yom Ha Shoah Prayer Service

“Through her songs and poems, Bernice wove her Jewish experience and commanded our attention and our hearts. Bernice’s involvement with our Shabbat Service moved us from routine to an event that we will certainly remember, and want to do again… and again.”
Herb Cooper-Levy, Reconstructionist Congregation, Alexandria, VA

Bernice Lewis is a songwriter, poet, and storyteller. Proud to be a first generation American, her stories and songs spring from a well of world and domestic travel, seen through the lens of a ‘nice Jewish girl from Boston.’ For the past three decades, she has toured the United States as a performer and educator. She has also explored the world… Europe, Africa, The Pacific, South America, and North America. Born to survivors, her writings pay homage to those lost as well as celebrate the joys and difficulties of being Jewish in the modern world. She has released six albums of original songs, and her writings have been published in places as diverse as Appalachian Trailway News, American Zionist Movement Songbook, Open Ear Journal, The Berkshire Eagle, N. Adams Transcript, Bone & Flesh, and Shots Magazine.

Since 2008, Lewis has been musician in residence at Congregation Beth Isreal in Bennington, VT, where she leads a monthly music Shabbat service with Rabbi Joshua Boettiger.

When Bernice performs in a Jewish setting, her set list includes “Born to Schmooze (a sing along about growing up Jewish in America),” “I Am (song for Israel),” “Mama’s Wine Glasses (a Pesach song),” and the AZM award winning “Ways to Survive,” a piece from her collection of songs written about the Holocaust. She can also perform traditional material and prayer.