Hello! It’s Ella – aka dj ella fka Castanea. Thanks for reading my first newsletter. Please send to any friends who might want to stay tuned in for sporadic emails about future offerings. (more below)

I am DJing tomorrow evening at Pentridge Station in West Philadelphia for my friends over at Freedom Side School. This is an exciting abolitionist education project that I recommend learning more about at their website, or tomorrow in person.

I’m getting ready to do more tutoring, web development, and Torah study this summer for beginning my studies at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in just a few months. Being a rabbi is not something I could have imagined as a career path even 5 years ago, but it feels like the perfect container for infusing spiritual leadership into the music, education, organizing, and agrarianism that I’ve been pouring myself into for the last decade or so. I am so humbled (and only a little nervous) to have the chance to spend the next 5 years in study, learning from teachers I look up to and joining a community of Jewish leaders. More to come!

Meanwhile, this week Ro and I put new boxes on 2 beehives to prepare for our first honey harvest. I’ll be planting out my modest garden when it stops raining, and collecting juneberries and mulberries soon to begin celebrating the first fruits that this land is giving us.

I'm looking forward to staying in touch, including some exciting news soon about new music. LOL (lots of love),