Mary Jane Knight is a singer, composer, author, and vocal empowerment guide whose work sits at the intersection of music, healing, and the sacred power of the human voice. With a background in opera, church music, and vocal education, she is known for using the voice as a transformative tool — for connection, emotional release, and coming home to yourself. Her debut album Rising Free: A Journey of Healing has been praised as "raw, heartfelt, and hopeful" (EARMILK), offering "a profound message of self-discovery and emotional release" (Rival Magazine). Her debut poetry collection "The Light Between the Lines" is a spiritual journey through the darkness — equal parts comfort and illumination. Once a month she sends a heartfelt, intentional letter from her heart straight to your inbox — stories, music, reflections, and invitations to reclaim your voice. Subscribe and receive a free song meditation as her gift to you.
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Standing in the Power of Our Voice
Published about 21 hours ago • 5 min read
Dear friend 💜,
My heart is heavy this month. Maybe yours is too. We are in the descent. I can feel that aching in my body, the signal it sends when things are out of alignment, and I know I need to release what no longer serves me.
This month has been painful, but in an enlightening and powerful way. I know I talked about pain last month, but it teaches us so much. It is a hard practice to sit with the pain and sometimes it can feel overwhelming.
My mother-in-"love" died this month. My husband and I will celebrate five years of marriage on November 6, so I didn’t get to know her for very long, but she had a heart of pure gold. Despite being a preacher’s daughter like me, and despite living with debilitating pain and illness for the last twenty-five years of her life, she lived outside the box and persevered through all of that pain. Now my husband and I are both motherless, and there is something particularly significant about that.
When my own mom died two years ago, I knew it would be too much for me to offer my music at her service. But my beautiful mother-in-law has been one of the biggest fans of my music and poetry. Somewhere deep down, we have a soul understanding. So I was blessed to lead the music for her celebration of life, and to finally finish the song I had started writing about my mother and include her and share it with family and friends gathered there.
Death is so painful, for the one who is dying and for all of us in the grief that follows. But it is also powerfully magical. The veil grows so thin between the world of the eternal spirit and our bustling, messy, human lives here in the physical world. And most of all, death brings people together in a deep, communal way. We all have known loss. That shared heartache is a powerful root for connection and healing, and that healing is what I hope to share with the world through song.
Last month I promised you a new song that’s a bit different from anything I’ve shared before, and here it is! Last Friday I released the opera aria: “Sì, mi chiamano Mimì” from Puccini’s La Bohème. In it, Mimi introduces herself to Rodolfo and shares who she really is and what her soul longs for.
Click image to listen on Spotify
Just a little back story: in middle school and high school I lived in a very small town in western Iowa, and although I was completely obsessed with singing, there were no voice teachers in town. My choir directors could see my passion and fed it in all the ways they knew how. My junior year, my director gave me this aria to sing, even though technically I had no business singing it. I fell in love with it. Something about it spoke to my soul. I sang that aria at the top of my lungs at every audition, community gathering, and even for the governor’s wife at a tea in the governor’s mansion!
About four years ago, I revisited the aria and read the text with the perspective I have now. Mimi starts by saying she will be brief, then describes herself as a sensitive soul, tucked away and secluded, always drawn to dreams that feel impossible and to poems only the soul can understand. But when spring comes, she possesses the light! “The first kiss of April is mine,” she sings. It is as if she wants to possess the very soul of the flower, of beauty, the eternal scent of spring. And yet she admits that the flowers she embroiders have no scent, and she finishes with an apology: “I’m so sorry to bother you.”
The undercurrent of this aria feels like the resonating essence of my life: being connected to something so deep, beautiful, and unexplainable, and feeling like too much, my voice too big and too much, while at the very same time feeling like I am not enough because I cannot fit into the boxes of my life. I know that paradox in my bones. Maybe you feel it too. That wound, which may be a deep feminine wound, is what I have been healing from. This journey of mine is about expanding into the glorious possibility of the power of our voices, and completely obliterating the belief that our voices and our essence are not enough.
But journeys take time. I just realized I played out this very scenario last weekend. I went to FARM; the Folk Alliance Midwest Regional conference on a scholarship. It is a conference of singer-songwriters and folk musicians where everyone shares their songs with each other in various breakout rooms and sessions.
My first breakout performance session was hosted by the head of the international folk conference which was a bit intimidating. I rather nervously shared three songs with small roomful of people. Afterwards, a politician who attended the session and dabbles in artist representation came up to me and said she loved my music but that she felt like my introductions to the songs sounded a bit like an apology. GEESH—Yes, I sang Burning Cages, which I feel is very deep and powerful, and I know I apologized for it being a bit too much beforehand.
MESSAGE RECIEVED!
And so, I have made a commitment to myself, and I even wrote it on a Post-it note on my computer. It’s the title of a song from my favorite musical Ragtime:
“Make Them Hear You!”
No more victim. No more blame. No more complaining.
Stand in the power of your voice.
I hope you will hold me to this and maybe challenge yourself as well to stand in the power of your voice, even if it feels like too much, or like it doesn’t fit, or like no one is hearing you. And maybe that which is coming up painfully now is begging you to release your hold on it.
If this endeavor sounds like something you want to explore, I invite you to join us in community as we lift each others voices up in a safe space.
Voices of Healing: November Online Gathering Sunday, November 1, 7:00–8:30 PM CDT • on Zoom
Find a cozy spot, maybe with a nice warm cup of tea, and join us from wherever you are.
Thanks for your understanding with my cancellations last month!
I will be sending out a separate email to fill out the google form to perform Dec. 6th. Our concert is almost upon us!! Studio Concert:
Sunday Dec. 6th 7pm: Riverside Theatre!
Also, Adam and I are planning on hosting our annual Christmas Sing-a-long Party. We are debating between Jan. 2nd & Jan. 9th-feel free to let me know your preference in a session or reply here!
Gentle Reminders:)
Policies — I’ve updated my rescheduling and cancellation policies so I can serve as many people as possible. When you open my scheduling link, please take a moment to read them.
Zoom lessons — As the weather begins to get colder, remember I can no longer give credit for when you are sick, but I have a nice set-up with my keyboard for zoom so we can work from afar. And even if you aren't feeling up to singing, we can find new literature or explore other resources.
As always, any questions at all, scheduling or otherwise please reach out — just reply to this email.
Mary Jane Knight is a singer, composer, author, and vocal empowerment guide whose work sits at the intersection of music, healing, and the sacred power of the human voice. With a background in opera, church music, and vocal education, she is known for using the voice as a transformative tool — for connection, emotional release, and coming home to yourself. Her debut album Rising Free: A Journey of Healing has been praised as "raw, heartfelt, and hopeful" (EARMILK), offering "a profound message of self-discovery and emotional release" (Rival Magazine). Her debut poetry collection "The Light Between the Lines" is a spiritual journey through the darkness — equal parts comfort and illumination. Once a month she sends a heartfelt, intentional letter from her heart straight to your inbox — stories, music, reflections, and invitations to reclaim your voice. Subscribe and receive a free song meditation as her gift to you.
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