Mike Cohen Kirtan Benefits Kids Food Basket

The kirtan music scene is growing in popularity in the US, making inroads into regions where it was once little heard, or heard of. Emerging from the yoga studios and healing centers that cultivated it in the West, this interactive spiritual practice is now shared by kirtan luminaries with increasingly large audiences at venues across the country. A rising voice in that movement is Mike Cohen, whose international tours with a host of devotional chant artists include stops in Grand Rapids, where Cohen has personal ties as well as a growing audience. 

This Friday night brings the singer and his entourage to the Front Studio of the Wealthy Theatre Annex for a 7:30 performance. There, on the polished hardwood floors of a space often used for modern dance classes and more intimate musical performances, local kirtan devotees will sit on cushions or rise in movement, engaging in what Cohen describes as "...a group participatory experience of sacred call and response chanting that will calm your mind, open your heart and build deep connection to yourself, others and the Divine." Fusing ancient Sanskrit mantras and traditional Indian musical forms with Western influences from soul to funk, the group will seek to create an atmosphere of both high-energy celebration and deep reverence, hallmark characteristics of this multi-faceted genre. 

The event is staged as a fundraiser for Kids Food Basket, the greater Grand Rapids nonprofit dedicated to providing sack dinners to needy school kids metro-wide. A similar appearance by Cohen and crew last April raised $1000 for the cause, with each dollar giving a child a meal.

Cohen will be joined by percussive auteur Jim Feist on tabla and Elisabeth Pixley-Fink and Susan Picking on vocals. Doors for the 2 1/2 hour show open at 6:45 p.m.