What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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8 WHAT'S UP! DECEMBER 15-21, 2019 LARA JO HIGHTOWER NWA Democrat-Gazette T he Bentonville-based group Beer and Hymns is definitely on to something. Led by Ken Weatherford, Bentonville's First United Methodist Church's director of Music and Worship Arts, Beer and Hymns has taken a simple concept — gathering a group of people to sing together around food and drinks — and turned it into an effective fundraiser for other area nonprofits. In fact, Beer and Hymns is on track to donate more than $50,000 this fiscal year to organizations like the Northwest Arkansas Children's Shelter, the Samaritan Community Center and various area food pantries. As it turns out, the reason for the popularity and success of Weatherford's venture is based in science. Research has shown that communal singing offers a wealth of social, emotional and physical health benefits. The nonprofit organization Sing Up Foundation's website is a clearinghouse of peer-reviewed research that shows that, among other things, singing with other people lowers cortisol, reduces stress, releases oxytocin, boosts confidence, promotes mindfulness and encourages social connections that help stem depression and feelings of loneliness. I knew this to be true long before I read the research. I first experienced the power of singing with strangers at a Chicago performance of "A Prairie Home Companion" in the late 1990s. My parents had come to visit me for Thanksgiving, and the tickets were a treat for all of us. At the end of the show, Garrison Keillor led the audience in a sing-along, and I never forgot the power of that moment — raising my voice with thousands of other strangers, my mother's sweet alto on my left, my father's tone deaf but enthusiastic deep voice on my right, as the words of the song soared to the roof of the grand Chicago Medinah Temple auditorium. Were people a little more polite on the way out of the aisles? Did I smile a bit more at the random strangers I walked side by side with out the doors to the bustling Chicago streets? It seemed like it, and that impression was cemented into fact a few years later when, in the harrowing, grief-filled days following the Sept. 11 attacks, I gathered together with a couple dozen other citizens of Evanston, Ill., to sing patriotic songs on our lunch hour. It seems like such a silly thing now, looking back, but as I sang, sobbed and hugged people I didn't know on that street corner, it was the first time since I heard the news that I felt like there was hope that we could emerge from that dark time with our spirits still intact. Hymns And More Weatherford says he first became aware of the power of communal singing when he was traveling with his wife, Casey, as the acoustic duo The Weatherfolk. They lived in Scotland for a time, where communal singing is popular. According to a census completed by the group Voices Now in 2017, the United Kingdom boasts around 40,000 choirs in which 2.14M UK citizens are active. "You can find Beer and Hymns Simple concept heals hearts, creates community COVER STORY Photo courtesy Russell Bloodworth Photography