SANGHA FEST Lineup

Ananda Das is a revered figure in the realms of Kirtan, Sattva Himalayan Kundalini Yoga, and the teachings of singing, mantra, and Bhakti Yoga. With a heart deeply rooted in devotional practice, Ananda Das has dedicated his life to exploring the intersections of music, yoga, and spirituality, guiding countless souls on their journey towards inner peace and liberation. Ananda Das’s teachings are a reflection of his own journey—a testament to the power of music, movement, and mindfulness in achieving harmony and enlightenment. His compassionate approach and dedication to the path of love and service inspire all who cross his path, making him a beloved teacher and guide in the global spiritual community.

Internationally touring artist, performer, and speaker, J Brave’s intention is to inspire the remembrance of our divine nature.

He learned to transform his trauma into triumph, turn his mess into a message, and shift suffering into songs to heal himself and inspire the world.

His greatest gifts are to speak life into others, bring people together, and utilize his music as a means to unify and connect us all. 
His live shows fuse storytelling and fierce Hip Hop lyrics, and his DJ sets offer a selection of Global Bass and World Beats intended to celebrate the power of diversity. 
During his travels through Kemet he had a massive spiritual awakening, and has since been plant based for over 20 years as a part of his dedication to health and well-being. 

As a former counselor for homeless and at-risk youth, he learned the importance of service during a nearly 10 year period working at five non-profit organizations.
He founded the legendary Hip Hop collective the Luminaries, curates events under the brand Benevolence, and co-created Actualize Music.

He also offers guidance to artists through the Keys Of Kreation community, and supports people to find healing through the creative process.
Beyond all of his accomplishments and titles he is most proud of being a father to his beautiful children Simunye and Numi. 
“I am simply a vessel allowing the Universe to express through me”

Join Katie and her band for an intimate set of heart-opening mantra-folk: yogic chants blended with emotionally crafted songs reminiscent of Sarah McLachlan and Alanis Morissette. Designed to calm the chaos inside and out, Katie’s newest songs are about healing, letting go, and transcending. The band incorporates acoustic and electric guitars, keyboard, bass, drum kit, and female+male harmonies including Katie’s own vocal looping.

Katie Wise & Bhakti Explosion is a kirtan band fusing heart-opening mantra with contemporary folk rock. Since forming in 2014, the band has appeared at some of the biggest international yoga and transformational festivals such as Bhakti Fest (CA), Rocky Mountain Folks Fest (CO), Hanuman Festival (CO), Holistic Manchester (UK), Arise (CO), Festival of Colors USA (UT), Mammoth Yoga Festival (CA), Shakti Fest (CA), Bhakti Love Reunion (CA), Lovelight (MD), Relaxspansion (OR), and Stonehenge Music Festival (UK). Bhakti Explosion has toured and recorded with David Newman, has been the backing band for Donna DeLory, Girish, Brenda McMorrow, Daphne Tse, and David Newman, and has shared the stage with Wah, Sean Johnson & the Wild Lotus Band, Guru Ganesha Singh, Deva Premal and Miten, and many others. Katie regularly leads or co-leads yoga and spiritual retreats in the US, India, and Mexico, alongside teachers like Kirsten Warner, R.R. Shakti, Chameli Arbaugh (Awakening Women Institute), and Saul David Raye. Australian Yoga Life writes “Wise’s soulful, earth voice embodies vulnerability in a way that turns emotion into art.”

Monica Mesa Dasi is a Tantrik yogini, intuitive, author of bestselling book WithYou Forever, mother of three sons, and devotee of beloved Gurus Neem Karoli Baba & Amma. She is a deeply trusted mentor, channeler, plant medicine woman, and an activist that leads the Soul on Fire movement. Monica has impacted the physical, mental, and spiritual lives of people around the globe with her message of self love, the power of daily practice, and the importance to claim your power, purpose, and passion, & be a beneficial presence on the planet. She is a presenter at festivals, retreats, global events, and is the creatress of Soul on Fire Mystery School for Women of Wisdom & Sacred Yoga Sadhana. Her message, “Love Yourself & You Love The World” is what she believes will give rise to personal and planetary healing for a more compassionate, healthy, and harmonious humanity.

Manoj (people call him a spiritual standup comedian) uses an uniquely entertaining, interactive story telling style using Hindu/Buddhist deities in his workshops to illuminate Bhakti practices as well as deep non dual philosophy. He teaches at festivals, yoga events, his ashram and whoever wants to listen.

Manoj uses these deity archetypes to help people in their hero’s journey as elucidated by Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung. An Indian-born scientist with a PhD in Chemical engineering from Cornell University, Manoj helps individuals find their archetypes in Hindu/Buddhist Yogic deities and teaches the 5 practices to work with their archetype as a spiritual practice. He has also compiled a book on the symbolisms of these deity archetypes. For over 25 years Manoj has held workshops and teachings.  He has been key note speaker at Telluride Yoga Festival, and regularly brings his gifts to the greater Sangha of the world.

Website www.MurtisAndVedanta.com

Sheryl McGourty founded and co-owns Yogadurango, Durango’s community yoga center in successful operation since 2006. She is an Ayurvedic Health Practitioner, completing her education from the California College of Ayurveda (CCA) in 2015. She has been teaching yoga for over 20 years and has maintained an active ayurvedic practice for almost a decade. Sheryl is a mentor and leader in her community and volunteers her time and skills to serve where needed. She is a lover of language and enjoys all aspects of creativity. She has a son who is flying the coop this year, while her 2 dogs will be taking another gap year. You might find Sheryl deep in projects around her land, cooking tasty food and part-timing as a wood nymph.

Evie has been in southwest Colorado for 5 years now and teaching yoga for 4 years. She feels most alive in or near water and loves to help facilitate sup yoga. In her free time, Evie loves to be playing in the mountains and attempting to homestead with her two kids. 

I feel very fortunate to have been practicing yoga for over 20 years years. It has been a path of health, joy, transformation and empowerment since my teen years. Initially, it was the physical practice that captured my attention, but over the years this led me to study all the other facets including pranayama, meditation, tantra, and yoga’s sister science, Ayurveda, as well as other influential disciplines, primarily Buddhism, the Tao te Ching, and plant medicines. I have participated in over 1000 hours of yoga trainings, and am an affiliate of Shiva Rea’s Samudra Global School of Living Yoga, leading 200 Hour Prana Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Trainings.

As a Sacred Sensuality Guide, Yoga Teacher, Retreat Organizer, Podcaster (Your Inner Radiance) and Ayurvedic Practitioner, my goal is to guide others to embody a path of connection to their higher selves and to all other beings, and be empowered to access the great cosmic source of radiance, creativity, and healing. My deepest passion is connecting with women and guiding them to fully cultivate their natural feminine powers of sensuality, intuition, compassion, radiance and pleasure! www.lilyrussoyoga.com

Prem Vidu is a sacred music artist whose journey began in a home filled with harmony, rhythm, and the magic of barbershop chords. Though he started singing at five, percussion soon became his heartbeat, leading him to explore global rhythms and earn a BFA in Percussion Performance & Jazz Studies. His music carried him across the world—from Broadway’s Blast! in London to the steel pan rhythms of Trinidad & Tobago and beyond. Yet, it was the deeper call of music as prayer that truly transformed him, guiding him into devotion, shamanism, and plant medicine. In a sacred vision, he received a message that changed everything: “There is no shorter umbilical to your soul than singing.” At 35, he returned to his voice, blending decades of musical experience with his spiritual path. Now, through The Band of Now, he leads kirtans with Nischala Bright, and other guests of the ‘Now’, to sing, heal and awaken together. Jai Ma!

Kate Herrera Jenkins, Shu-wah-mitz, (Turquoise) is a member of the Pueblo of Cochiti (NM).   She is the founder of Native Strength Revolution, an Indigenous wellness non-profit whose mission is to help Indigenous communities heal one breath at a time.  Through this organization’s YTT, she’s trained over 100 Indigenous yoga instructors to teach in their own communities throughout Turtle Island (U.S. & Canada)

 Kate started her journey in the healing arts by first becoming a Board Certified Music Therapist in 1998.  She found hot yoga in 2007 and was drawn to the similarities shared with traditional ceremonies in the Pueblo Traditions.  She became a yoga teacher in 2009 and opened her studio Kiva Hot Yoga in Birmingham, AL in 2011. Through movement, music and Indigenous story-telling, she hopes all her students can find moments of ceremony and sacred connection while on their mat.   

Mindy Arbuckle is a powerful and intuitive guide, teacher and healer. She embodies the profound wisdom of Shakti, the sacred feminine, in all she offers. She weaves together a unique blend of Shakti awakening, energy clearing and activation, and true revitalization through her work. She is a holistic coach, long time yoga teacher, crystal energy healer, singer/song writer, and spiritual entrepreneur. She creates crystal charged meditation products through her company, Shakti SOULutions.

Abby Spotskey E-RYT-500, YACEP came to the yogic arts seeking relief from back pain.  What she has discovered on the mat has brought her to a place of joy and deep devotion.  Over the decades, the power of the practice of movement and a surprising love of chanting, grew organically into the desire to explore her voice.  She has studied with many talented vocal teachers including Sanghafest headliner, Ananda Das, and has discovered how incredibly uplifting it can be to make music, not only for the benefit of her wellbeing but for those who listen.  Abby has catapulted from being a “non-singer” to one who delights in sharing her voice as a connection to community and the divine.  This delightful experience from singing is infectious, and one of her current passions is to support the opening of the voices of others.  She offers weekend yoga camps around the southwest, leads a kirtan band in Northern Arizona, is a member of Threshold Choir International, and offers the opportunity to chant in all of her yoga classes.  You can find her offerings under her name on http://www.humanitix.com/

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Bandar is Bhakta who’s music is a portal through which he transmits the medicines of love and devotion to share in splendor with others for planetary awakening. Alongside stewarding his Sedona conscious farming eco village, he offers his Weekly Kirtan’s which are a one-of-a-kind Ecstatic journey through the heart, invoking an intimate experience of the Dancing Cosmos within. Through his grounded, clear, and passionately embodied presence – a rainbow bridge is cast between the Ancient Soul of India’s divine celestial beings and the Sacred Sedona Red Rocks calling a vibrant community in to praise and celebrate the God in all.

Stephanie Welch is a 500 Hour certified Kundalini and Hatha yoga teacher with an additional certification in Yin yoga. Stephanie has been practicing various styles of yoga since 2012 and teaching In Flagstaff, AZ since 2022 and recognizes the physical, mental, and emotional power of a holistic yoga practice. Stephanie is also a Sound Healer and Lucia Light facilitator and has experienced the benefits of frequency medicine from these modalities and how sound and light are powerful complementary components to healing.

Since 2008, Sarah has considered herself privileged to share and serve by spreading the spark of yoga. She sees sharing yoga as a true honor, one that she takes seriously. Her intention is to convey the teachings of yoga from the heart, igniting a fire of self-curiosity in her students and inspiring them to pursue a lifelong practice. Sarah believes that through the potent teachings of yoga, we can shift humanity’s current trajectory. Let’s awaken together through yoga and spread the light.

Sarah Klein is the founder and director of Anu Yoga School. She initially found her yoga home in the Ashtanga lineage, deeply moved by the devotion required by this practice and its ability to create a moving, breathing meditation through its direct and clear nature.

As the founder and director of a Yoga Alliance-certified, Ashtanga-inspired 200-hour and 300-hour yoga school that began in 2007, Sarah emphasizes the idea of teaching to learn. She takes great pride in continuing her formal studies annually with her primary teachers, Bhavani Maki and Annie Pace.

Sarah has two B.S. degrees from the University of Vermont in Health Psychology and Human Development and Family System studies. She is an E-RYT-500 with well over 500 hours of training. She is a certified Health and Wellness coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, with continuing education in hormonal health and Ayurvedic studies. She is a lifelong learner who thrives in exploring the mystery of life. 

In her asana classes, Sarah effortlessly weaves in teachings from The Yoga Sutras and mythic storytelling, inviting students to delve deeper into themselves through the wisdom of the practice. As an Ashtangi at heart, she guides her students with precision rooted in tradition while embracing creativity, playful sequencing, and open exploration to meet them where they are. Sarah’s love and devotion for yoga shine through her charismatic and effervescent personality.