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Ritka

@heyritka

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(REET-kah ~ flip the r)
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dreamy folk pop in English + Russian ~ Asheville
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I make photos too @ritakovtun 📸
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Crescent Choir is back for a third season.

We’re looking for original songs from local Asheville area artists to bring into collective choral performance. Across genre, across style. If it has a spark, we want to hear it.

Song submissions are open now through November 2nd. Link in bio.

📸 by @ritakovtun

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October shows in the East and South and Middle. Tickets on my website.

10.4 Baltimore @faden.sonnen @furrows_
10.5 Fairfax House show hosted by @mindythomas @jedjanderson
10.6 Alexandria - private show in memory care unit at Paul Spring Retirement Community
10.6 Durham @fuzzy_needle @joshkbrough @rodeo_walrus
10.7 Asheville house show @heyritka @evan_veasey
10.11 Nashville @gardens_of_babylon with @imaginarybarns @carrie.wav
10.12 Davenport @raccoonmotel

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The next ShareHouse show is gonna be a doozy! @heyritka (our first ever returning ShareHouse performer) and I will be opening for the incredible NYC based artist @paulspring. I’ve been listening to Paul’s new record Barnstorm quite a bit since it came out and his songs are so good! Go to the link in my bio to reserve your ticket. we’ve already sold quite a few and space is limited, so grab one while you still can!

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I’ve curated a new playlist I’m calling “shoot from the heart”—a title taken from one of the included songs. I’ve been spinning these tunes throughout the summer, and this playlist feels like an encapsulation of this time, with all of its heart expansions and heartbreaks, big and small ❤️‍🔥 It includes some songs that are pretty old, pretty new, and somewhere in between—including those by local faves @lowsideavl and @natalie.jane.hill (and of course one by Dolly 🦋). Follow the link in my bio to listen in these remaining summer days 🌻 Film double exposure from a walk in my new West Asheville neighborhood toward the start of summer, shot on my favorite @kodak #ektar100 film. Develop + scan by @ballphotosupply.

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It’s hard to put into words (and today, I don’t have a lot of them) what @primrosecoke’s Tea Tent means to me, so here are some photos. Hopefully you can feel my love through them. If they spark something in you, I invite you to the Tea Tent Fête this Saturday. A day of tea, live music, and puppetry on the island in Marshall. A way to support this incredible offering that Primrose brings to our community. So many artists will be sharing their magic. I’ll play a short set of Russian songs around 5 and sing with @mothermarrow as they perform some incredible crankies at 5:30. Come gather with us as we put Leo to bed 🎪☕️🎶🦁

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📣 Golden Folk returns to the Grey Eagle this Wednesday, August 19th!

Here are some more shots from our full-hearted fundraiser last month to support @soft.talk.only. We are back at it this coming Wednesday with a lineup chock-full of rippers. This might be our best lineup yet... sometimes the stars line right on up and you'll have to trust us when we say the stars have aligned with this upcoming bunch of artists. We've got old locals, new locals, and a large dose of incredible new and old friends from out of town with a wide variety of musical stylings.

Here are the artists from last month in the order they performed and the people who made the evening possible. Give them all a follow!
@maisy0wen
@imyourluckybreak
@lyledevitry
@beccaleighmusic
@mothermarrow
@soft.talk.only
📸: @stephanpruittfiasco @fiasco.media
🔊: @doctorcigarette420
🎤: @lukelukem @eclaywhite
🎨: @grifttowngoods
❤️: @dulcisings
🏠: @thegreyeagle
☂️: @friendshipvalleyprod @outtherestudioswnc

#asheville #greyeagle #goldenfolk #ashevillemusic #friendship

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The time is nigh!!! So long awaited!
The return of the crankie box and shadow show, newly titled:
Moonglow Shadow Show!!!

This Saturday, August 22, 5:30-6pm, at Blannahasset Island, Marshall, NC.
This shadow magic has been hiding in the shed due to health challenges and the lack of a solid puppeting partner for the last few years. But we are back and glowier than ever! This show features multiple original songs of mine as well as a few traditionals, and one borrowed/bastardized. There will be an invitation to sing along. Seats will be limited, so don’t delay!

We have a small vocal ensemble: @heyritka @saigey___waigey @ceramic_mullein @soft.talk.only and our puppeteer is @mica_rage .
With many many thanks to Emma for all the help with shining up the magic box Herself @aneffort

This show is part of the larger Tea Tent Fête (1pm-Sundown, get your 🎟️ in advance!) which is not to be missed! (This event is to bring in resources to help keep the Tea Tent alive and thriving, as it has been such a good and magical home for so many of us, thanks to Primrose, who dreams it into being.)

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This set of scrolls and shadow shows was first born 10 years ago and first performed at the St. Louis Fringe Fest in 2016. It was birthed due to inspiration from @elizabethlaprelle @arg___art of @annaandelizabeth and their quilted crankie of the ballad Lord Bateman. Then, collaborating with dear friends @westof_roan who were endlessly playing with the edges of things and inviting us into their play…

It was Matty @ashevillerecyclery who built the original box, and was my first puppeting partner.
And it was @auryn.leola who partnered with me for the last chapter.

And here we arrive again…and this time it feels like a beginning, an invitation into more. Not an ending, or a dusting off, but a re-imagining, and a dreaming further in. Gratitude to you all. 🌙☁️✨🩵

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1. Perma-tears face wode thanks to lactaria indigo. And tiny behind me, tender companions who held me through more seizures and also solved a Rubik’s cube together! Not pictured- the best, longest, strongest, loveliest swim I have had in almost two years at least. I was alive for that moment and will never forget it. So happy, I wept.

2.,3. @crescent_choir singing my song at the re-opening of @madisoncountyarts and welcoming home of @amberm.jensen . What a beautiful and powerful collection of so much art!!! And so many lovely people! What a privilege to be a part of it.

4. The water that held me. The land that held the water. And the sun that warmed me.

5. A lovely flyer by @primrosecoke to remind you all not to miss this epic day of such lovely lovely music by some of the most heartfelt, kind, tender hearted, wizardly musicians I have ever known, and a collection of crankie shows and shadow puppets that are not to be missed!!! Saturday, Aug. 22, 1pm-Sundown, on Blannahasset Island. If you get your 🎟️ in advance, they will be cheaper. Check my stories to get yours!

6. We (me and friends!) are one of the aforementioned crankie and shadow puppet shows at the Tea Tent Fête! 5:30-6pm.
This set of stories and songs have not been performed for many years, so this will be a real treat. First time with a vocal ensemble, a freshly dressed crankie box, new puppeteer, more lights and colors and every detail has had so much tender care put into it. Tears will be shed. (These stories deal with the topic of death, but in a child appropriate way, and with poetry and beauty, and it ends on a very celebratory and enlivening note.)

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My body continues to be an alien landscape, and also the most familiar of places. I make my home in it the only ways I know how. By loving, by swimming, and by making.

So here’s some upcoming times to enjoy the things I’ve been making!!!

Friday, Aug. 14, 7:30-8pm - @crescent_choir will be performing a short set (including one of my songs!) as part of the opening reception of the new Mad Co Arts Council show, “Holding Together: Cloth, Material & Making” (curated by @amberm.jensen )

Saturday, Aug. 22, 1pm-Sundown - Tea Tent Fête!!! (Blannahasset Island). This event is to support the continuation of our beloved Tea Tent, and there will be so so many lovely and amazing musicians all day, and a handful of amazing crankies and shadow puppets also being performed…including, my very own crankies and shadow show! Moonglow Shadow Show will be performing from 5:30-6pm, but please be sure to come for all the rest of the magic!

Sunday, Aug. 23, 7:30pm - The Hermit dance! @ritualmovement555
This dance has been a long-awaited opportunity for me to alchemize some of my intense experience being often bedbound and disabled up on this hill. The set is going to be epic, and the altar sculpture will be a magic portal! So much more to say about it, but just wanted to make sure you all get it on your calendars!

And last but not least:
Thursday, Sep. 17 - Save the date for the first day of the fall season of @resound.community.choir ! We are working hard behind the scenes and will have more details to share soon.

I love you all! Thanks for being my reason to keep on living!

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As this Strawberry Moon wanes, I’ve been reflecting on the Strawberry Moon tour @_alice.bradley_ and I did together two years ago across the Midwest—and I wanted to share this little Super 8 recap of that special time! Thank you to all the venues who hosted us (@willowroomcollective, @lakesidestcoffee, @zestinferna), musicians who played with us (@woodrow_vine_official, @pcharlesallen, @spinestealers, @badpostureclub), friends who offered us a place to rest and helped with logistics, @leahrobot for the beautiful illustration, and of course all the folks who came out to see us play. We truly felt the love and sweetness (and still do) during this season of the heart-berry 🍓 (p.s. Vimeo link for higher-quality film in bio!)
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#super8film #strawberrymoon #tourvideo #musictour #strawberrymoontour

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Come see some music happen on Tuesday! There has been lots of it lately, and now there’s a new song, and some extremely satisfying collaborative sounds!

(There has also been lots of swimming, rain, moths, fireflies, gardens, etc.)

This upcoming @goldenfolk.avl is a fundraiser for our friend Doug (@soft.talk.only ) to help cover the high cost of his medical bills from living with acromegaly (a rare and painful disorder caused by a brain tumor). The lineup is stellar, and we’re all excited to share some tunes with you!

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First time singing my song w/ a full choir 😭
(Part 1 of 2) AVL Masonic Temple w/ @crescent_choir 🤍

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