Songs of Return
Re-visioned
11 March – 13 September 2026
With Angharad Wynne, Sam Lee, Jon Young, Dylan McGarry, Alexandra Berkely & César Rodríguez-Garavito
Course Structure
A 6 month online programme with an optional residential retreat
Dates
This programme will be facilitated by Angharad Wynne with visiting contributors.
Location
Online
An optional retreat, will take place in the UK in September 2026.
Full booking instructions will be provided once the retreat has been confirmed.
Fees
An Invitation
Dreaming Songs
“It just came out of nowhere and dropped down crying right over my head, swirling around me, just like a blessing. ” – Sam Lee
Songs of Return explores the meeting points between animate art, activism, science and spirituality with the aim of helping participants become agents for change. It unites world-renowned conservationists, artists and activists who have made significant impacts in their fields on behalf of our Earth and her creatures. Their aim is to inspire and support you to amplify whatever kernel of an idea, inspiration or cause in support of our animate world, that might be sitting in the pit of your belly right now, and to help it germinate and flourish.
You will choose (or be chosen by) an animal, a plant, a river, valley or mountain to champion – to generate a deep and abiding relationship with. They may be under threat, they might be on the verge of extinction, they may stand for all of their kind and the vital potency of their presence within the web of life. Your aspirations might be small and local or to generate world-wide change. Scale doesn’t matter. We’re in the business of putting our shoulder toward creating generative and transformational shifts towards a future in which all life can thrive together.
Through each of the six online workshops, spread over six months, our teachers will share their wealth of experience to help you explore and further research your chosen being through the lenses of conservation and ecology, art and activism, the mythopoetic, ceremony, song and storytelling, and offer practical tools to support work around policy change and the development of legal frameworks of protection.
At the end of the six months, there will be an optional gathering in the UK (with an online component) to bring the work together, to showcase your budding projects and initiatives to each other, gain support, find collaborators and further enrich skills and support.
What To Expect
We will gather together regularly as a group over six months facilitated by Angharad Wynne with visiting contributors.
6 monthly online taught modules
- 11 March – with Sam Lee
- 8 April – with Jon Young
- 13 May – with Dylan McGarry
- 24 June – with Alexandra Berkely
- 15 July – with Angharad Wynne
- 19 August – with César Rodriguez-Gravito
6 monthly circle sessions to discuss, feedback on practices offered, share experiences and responses and build community.
- Monday, 23 March
- Wednesday, 29 April
- Thursday, 28 May
- Wednesday, 8 July
- Thursday 23 July
- Wednesday 26 August
An optional four night retreat in the UK in September 2026.
- 9 – 13 September – Songs of Return gathering, UK, with Angharad Wynne and guest tutors (TBC)
Depending on students locations, if there was enough interest, we could also consider a residential in autumn 2026 outside of the UK.
Your Guides
The lead guides of this course are Angharad Wynne, Sam Lee, Jon Young, Dylan McGarry, Alexandra Berkely & César Rodríguez-Garavito
Sam Lee
Sam Lee is a Mercury Prize nominated folk singer, conservationist, song collector, award winning promoter, broadcaster and activist. He plays a unique role in the British music scene. A highly inventive and original singer, folk song interpreter, passionate conservationist, song collector and successful creator of live events. Alongside his organisation, The Nest Collective, Sam has shaken up the music scene breaking boundaries between folk and contemporary music and the assumed places and ways folksong is appreciated. Sam’s helped develop its ecosystem inviting in a new listenership interrogating what the messages in these old songs hold for us today Read more about Sam here https://samleesong.co.uk/
Jon Young
Jon Young is a deep nature-people-self connection researcher, mentor, naturalist, wildlife tracker, author, consultant, and storyteller. Mentored by his grandmothers, Tom Brown, Jr., and a host of elders and experts, he has spent over 40 years leading the field of nature-based community building. His work explores the impact of nature on mentoring, human intelligence, spirituality, well-being, and development, influencing tens of thousands worldwide. He is the author and co-author of seminal works such as What the Robin Knows and Coyote’s Guide to Connecting to Nature, and has appeared in documentaries including The Animal Communicator. In 2016, he received the Champion of Environmental Education Award for his innovative and globally impactful contributions to the nature connection movement.
https://www.livingconnection1st.net/
Dylan McGarry
Educational sociologist Dr. Dylan McGarry is an independent researcher, practitioner, and artist who works trans-disciplinarily in Environmental Education at Rhodes University. His academic work revolves around sustainable rural development and transgressive social environmental learning. His artwork and creative practice is focused on empathy and he uses imagination, listening, and empathy as sculptural materials. He is educational advisor for Earth Junkies, an organization dedicated to enabling and enriching children’s capacities to engage with the natural world and develop ecological literacy skills. In 2017, he collaborated with Neil Coppen on a two-year research and play-making process to create Ulwembu. Ulwembu (isiZulu for spider web) was an immersive social learning experiment that brought diverse citizens and civil servants into a transformative and transgressive empathetic space to explore the issue of dependent drug-use in KwaZulu Natal. McGarry calls it “empatheatre,” in that it is designed to create an “amphitheatre of empathy” for all those involved.
Ahlay (Alexandra Berkely)
Ahlay (Alexandra Blakely) is a dreamer of Whale, Tsunami, and Rain, an apprentice to Lightning and Fire, an artist, singer– songwriter, community organizer and soul guide in training. She is a descendent of Ashkenazi, Scandinavian and British folk and a commitment to breaking the cycles of intergenerational trauma both caused and endured by her ancestors.
César Rodríguez-Garavito
César Rodríguez-Garavito is an Earth rights scholar, field lawyer, and founding director of the MOTH (More-Than-Human Life) Program at NYU School of Law. He is a Professor of Law and Director of the Earth Rights Research & Action (TERRA) Clinic at NYU. César’s work has advanced new ideas and legal actions worldwide on issues such as climate justice, Indigenous rights, and what he proposes to call “more-than-human rights” (rights of nature). His contributions to Earth rights have been recognized with a More-Than-Human Fellowship by the London Design Museum and a spot in the UN Museum’s Top 10 Culture for Impact 2024 List.
Angharad Wynne
Angharad teaches from the old Brythonic tradition of the British Isles, the spirit ways of the ancestors of this land, and how we can recover and remember them to help us restore balance in ourselves and with the world around us.