I put a lot of heart and soul into every word and idea. The chapter is about the time I worked with Heartbeat, and what I discovered (via an educational lens) through the work alongside many wonderful, resilient, and passionate Palestinian and Israeli youth musicians, who are, as Maxine Greene says, reading their world… who are becoming. I try to show within this context the relationships between encounter dialogue and music education, peacebuilding/human rights education and anti-oppressive pedagogies, the personal and the political, group/intergroup dynamics and power dynamics, socialization and education, self-expression and group-expression, youth voices and educational structure, musicking and songwriting, and so forth. I try to examine what works, what hasn’t worked, and what isn’t good enough to consider critical work in education, unfortunately also existent within this context and field. I try to show that the presence of genuine love, care, and solidarity cannot be based upon simple philosophies, but rather through understanding the complexities present, and the need for questioning and critical thinking as a lens through which to look at the world.
“Upon reflecting on their song in a dialogue session, some in the ensemble interpret that hope exists – that one day things will change. Others understand the song speaking to remorse and suspicion because of the lack of change, questioning whether change will ever arrive. The lyrics can be read both ways, like how Haifa is Israel and Haifa is Palestine or perhaps East Jerusalem is Palestine and West Jerusalem is Israel. The multiple interpretations of the song, which are also mirrored musically, can be viewed as a reflection of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself. The longer I am a practitioner in this field, I wonder daily as I work alongside Palestinian and Israeli youth musicians: How can we recognize each other’s aspirations and pain equally in the same place? How can we learn to question our histories and current realities in the same musical line? How can we struggle for existence, coexistence, and co-resistance in small and large ways of our choice? I have come to believe we can ground the rights of Palestinians and Israelis in the same educational space through a process of uncovering and revealing marginalized narratives, power dynamics, and the telling and witnessing of intergroup oppression complexities (Gottesman & Sappir, 2017). Even as the conflict, occupation, and systemic violence continue to see another day, maybe we can continue by enabling a multiplicity of possibilities through self-reflexivity and the co-creation of realities, existences, and authoring with always further questions, challenges, and possibilities.” (Gottesman, from Critical Articulations of Hope from the Margins of Arts Education: International Perspectives and Practices, 1st Edition)
This chapter was written while on a journey within a certain place and time… and I expect realizations, thoughts, and understandings to change, renew, and regenerate. After all, I hope I will always continue to learn and grow alongside my students, colleagues, institutions, teachers, stranger, and mentors.
With gratitude and appreciation,
Shoshana
P.S. If you would like a copy, email me and I will gladly share it with you!
Today I feel called to write. To go deeper into what I do not know. To question further what I am discovering.
We were around seven meetings into our music education-facilitation course, and I felt frustrated. Something was wrong.Part of that responsibility was my own as one of the educators of the group of Israelis and Palestinians learning facilitation skills with and through utilizing the expressive arts, and yet that was not just it. The other entity at fault was the reality enveloping us all: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on socialization and inflicted trauma. As I spoke with one student during an activity trying to reach him, to make him think beyond what has been forced into his mind as a form of submission, inside I felt desperate. Remain calm. Move slowly. Think deeper. Unfold carefully. Love truly. How deeply had this young man been socialized by the conflict, by trauma, and the education system to be functional, and yet with a sleeping consciousness. How could he begin to imagine and think beyond these forces, to think for himself on his own terms as a young person with already the knowledge and experiences to speak his own truths – to awaken. Sometimes I think I am not prepared to do this; sometimes I think maybe I am not supposed to do this at all. After all, am I not also part of the system? This is in the back of mind all the time – submission of another kind that must also be disrupted.
This is not my first encounter of this situation with both Israelis and Palestinians of all ages and sectors, but as I work with Palestinian and Israeli youth (and in the summers with Tunisian youth), this is where I encounter it the most. It is not just the loud and terrifying violent events that intrude our lives – for some occasionally and others daily, but rather the quiet and disturbing presence of the conflict in so many aspects of life here, stifling creativity, imagination, and critical thinking. The longer I am here, the more convinced I am of how incredibly deep its influence is in all sectors of society and everyday life from the mundane to the psychosocial. Though Israelis and Palestinians are both resilient “in defiance of and because of” (Gaye, 2014) the conflict, this then still does not leave much energy or room to confront the socialization of the conflict, trauma, and the conflict in general in ways that explore, as Greene says, beyond the dualities (1995) of what is. If the conflict and occupation relentlessly forces us into submission through its cyclical routine, domination, and impossibility as it oppresses both Palestinians and Israelis in differing ways, then we must be disruptive with equal force and possibility. Perhaps this is simply nonviolence, which can also be described as “positive force.” Perhaps in transformational educational spaces, this is where we can find and re-find, see and hear our true selves, discovering our power to overcome and co-create beyond what is, as individuals and then maybe as a society.
“All depends upon a breaking free, a leap, and then a question. I would like to claim that this is how learning happens and that the educative task is to create situations in which the young are moved to begin to ask, in all the tones of voice there are, “Why?” – Maxine Greene, p. 6, Releasing the Imagination
Like Maxine Greene says, we must be moved to ask “why” in all of “the tones of voices there are” (Greene, p.6, 1995). In a protracted conflict, asking “why” can feel dangerous. Any part of life, whether nationalistic ambitions, religious understanding, methods of resistance, which cannot be questioned, simply become dogmatic – an “ism.” Suppressing and not teaching the act of questioning of society and oneself enables old, oppressive structures to remain in place. Often I tell my students, “If there is nothing to question, there is nothing to learn. And there is always more to learn, therefore there is always more to question.” Enabling these oppressive structures to stay in place by those who benefit from them is its own kind of “banking concept” (1970) as Paulo Freire speaks of, where there are “attempts to control thinking and action,” which then “inhibits their [women and men’s] creative power” (Freire, p.77, 1970). I ask my students questions, such as: “How do we break free, as Greene speaks of, from the given, the taken-for-granted, the ordinary? What feelings are involved in breaking away? What is “wide-awakeness” in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or to you? If we are all “becoming,” then what are you “becoming?” Answering these questions requires critical thinking, self-reflection, and raising of critical consciousness. It requires the possibility to imagine what you are not yet. These questions are not only fitting to those involved in a place of protracted conflict. These questions are relevant for everyone, everywhere, while challenging Whiteness, patriarchy, colonialism, self-depreciation, education reform and capitalism in its many harmful forms, and the lack of youth voices in society. And yet this is not only an intellectual exercise, but also an emotional one. The heart is exposed when speaking of identity, narrative, and belonging. Israeli and Palestinian youth speak about how this can feel terrifying, frustrating, confusing, painful, and unsettling, and yet also gratifying, interesting, exciting, comforting, and freeing. To ignore the emotional needs, irregardless of whether Israeli or Palestinian, is equally irresponsible and negligent of the educator when seeking to do everything in her power to reach a young person while she is navigating the socialization of the conflict and trauma. We cannot shut down the heart, whether our own or our students. As hooks says, “When we love, we can let our hearts speak” (hooks, p. xi, 2000).
The call for transformative educational spaces with a critical pedagogy, anti-oppressive competences, and locations of possibility (hooks, 1994) sustained through an “ethic of care” (Holloway & Krensky, 2001) and attention, from the origins of the word “to hold,” of the participants’ emotional needs could not be greater. In fact as socialization of the conflict is multifaceted, it must also be challenged through an intersectional (Crenshaw, 1989) approach by considering all of the mechanisms of power across class, race, ethnicity, ability, language, religion, and gender. There is so much marginalization of many different groups in this conflict, within and beyond just the two pillars of Israeli and Palestinian. Perhaps by including educational competences about feminism, human rights education, the language of feelings and compassionate communication, in addition to values-based education and learning about each others’ narratives and realities, solidarity can grow. As a musician, I strongly believe as well that we awaken when we experience the arts, musicking (Small, 1995), and co-creation, where we can therefore internalize and continuously renew these topics by actively examining, digesting, putting into practice, processing, self-reflecting, and questioning the many realities and truths co-created within an equalizing process and ultimately, equally a part of each of us. Seeking structural changes in the education systems here from formal to nonformal education are also desperately needed. Often these days I wonder (beyond curriculum and educational process) what this could look like on the level of student/participant, educator/facilitator, organization/NGO, and policy/school system.
Delving deeper into these questions is the responsibility of the educator, the student, the individual, and the society – both Palestinians and Israeli Jews. It is a matter of the heart, mind, and soul. It is a decision to not be complicit in the old, oppressive structures, while also activating possibilities of philosophical and emotional regeneration, of what could be – to ask why?
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. U. Chi. Legal F., 139.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed, trans. Myra Bergman Ramos. New York, NY: Continuum.
Gay, R. (2014). Bad feminist. Hachette UK.
Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Holloway, D. L., & Krensky, B. (2001). Introduction: The arts, urban education, and social change.
Hooks, B. (2014). Teaching to transgress. Routledge.
Hooks, B. (2000). All about love: New visions. William Morrow.
Small, C. (1995). Musicking: A ritual in social space. A lecture at the University of Melbourne June 6.
A few weeks ago I shared my first publication. Now I feel so grateful to share my second in the Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis! This second article is meaningful to me because of the topics explored and the work through which it was created.
Thanks to my colleagues, peers, and mom who supported me in writing this. Thank you to all Palestinian and Israeli youth musicians, artists, and singers for being you.
“Because love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is a commitment to others. No matter where the oppressed are found, the act of love is commitment to their cause–the cause of liberation.” – Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
“What Palmer speaks of is a remnant of traditional education, in which teacher is all knowing and student is an empty novice awaiting her or his teacher’s fulfillment of knowledge (Dewey, 2007; Freire, 1970). And yet I believe the “need” of the educator to be unquestioned and infallible in all respects of knowledge and understanding not only disables the dialogical nature of horizontal learning (Freire, 1970) with and from students, furthering a hierarchy within learning which recreates the systems of oppression existent in society, but as well prevents the incredibly transformative need for an educator to look inward to question and reflect upon herself. To co-create liberatory educational spaces (1994) as bell hooks1 speaks of, educators are not exempt from the internal and critical search for understanding of self and community, but rather are called to this place in the pursuit of (e)quality of education.” (Gottesman, 2017, p. 104)
“Palmer’s quote transfers beyond a general context within teaching, but as well to a very particular one: the deconstructing, re-examining, and relearning of what role nationalism and identity plays in our lives and within education, not just as a place of learning but as a space in which to learn to live. One could assert that music education is included here as well. After all, music education is not simply learning how to play one’s instrument and how to read notes, but in addition it is exercising our expressive outlets in which to share our deepest selves, individually and collectively, while exploring how we interpret the creations of others. When we enter the realm of creation in musical spaces, educators must address questions of content, structure, and pedagogy. When we build spaces of learning in music, we must include “our humility toward our own perspective and our capacity to listen to the perspectives of others” (Allsup & Shieh, 2012), from the type of music that enters this space to the realities and musical traditions of our students. This required “wide- awakeneness” as Maxine Greene (1995) speaks of enables educators in musical spaces to question alongside their students what is perceived as unquestionable, to reimagine what is thought of as permanent, to in the words of Palmer, “escape fear’s paralysis and enter a state of grace where encounters with otherness will not threaten us but will enrich our work and our lives” (Parker, 2010, p.57). ” (Gottesman, 2017, p. 104)
Towards better questioning and transformative loving,
Shoshana
P.S. This will also be translated into Arabic and Hebrew as well within the coming months, so please stay tuned!
Though there are many aspects about this article to celebrate, I also recognize it is discussing and seeking an ideal of what can be, of what potential through music, love, critical thinking, co-creation, empathy, and re-education, we all can make our small and large marks on our families, friends, communities, and of course, ourselves.
“It is easy to say that the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict looks bleak and uncertain. What is clear is the need to continue to (re)invent, (re)extend, (re)generate, and (re)revise our notions of reality, and surely we cannot do this alone. Israeli and Palestinian youth have the power to challenge the status quo of violence, separation, occupation, and inequality by pushing the boundaries in and between their communities to seek the unknown and the stranger hidden behind walls, checkpoints, and fear. It will be a long-term process, perhaps even a life project, but every day is a potential day for both Israeli and Palestinian youth to co-create change.
This notion of youth-led conflict transformation with and through musical spaces extends beyond the context of Israeli and Palestinian youth, and is indeed applicable and relevant to youth throughout the world seeking to hear and be heard in locations of conflict and systemic injustice. Dialogical musical spaces, filled with consonances and dissonances, love, harmonies, care, rhythms, humility, sound and solidarity, are liberatory places in which youth can imagine and proactively co-create locations of possibility.” (Gottesman, 2017, p. 29)
Ultimately, it is in the power of our words and actions to make these choices of who we are “becoming.”
Beyond the Dualities,
Shoshana
P.S. In addition, I plan on translating the article into Hebrew and Arabic as well within the coming months, so please stay tuned!
Often as a practitioner-music educator, I find myself pondering many questions that arise from my work in practice and how they relate back to theory. Most days, questions arise that I would like to unpack further, but cannot find the time. In fact perhaps each day new questions arise that I can never fully unpack. Many times I feel lousy that there is not the time to explore everything that comes up in practice as fully as I would like. I assume this constant struggle with time is the story of every educator. During these times, I think of my teachers and inspirations who somehow seem to do so much, if not all, as practitioner-educators. Teach. Question. Write. Ponder. Produce. Examine. Challenge. Reflect. Suggest. Be Present. In the spirit of their tireless work, I will share one of my current quandaries.
Recently, I wrote an article for 972.Mag questioning the criticality of the work of Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding and reconciliation educational organizations, emphasizing that if even we in the peacebuilding and reconciliation fields cannot name the inequality in front of us and within our programs, how do we expect those in our spaces of learning and in society to do so either? As you have perhaps guessed, I am also a part of this field, working for two such music education NGOs. But even the former statement is overly simplified, and paints an incomplete explanation of the issue at hand. We, as educator-practitioners, must constantly look much closer and deeper through a critical lens at what we are creating (or not creating) within our programs. Every decision and action of ours, whether in determining structure and pedagogy of the program to facilitation techniques and overall theory of dialogue, does not happen within a vacuum. The continuity of experience (Dewey, 2007) for our youth musicians[1] within our programs is in continuous formation, and directly affected by our choices of action, and inaction. We are responsible, and one of the largest “of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only the particular things she/he is studying at the time.” (Dewey, 2007, p.48) All of these factors matter. And in that same light, all of these factors determine if we, as practitioner-educators, are actively choosing to build with our youth musicians a just, positive peace. (Barash, 2009, p.146)
How can we look at this issue through an educational theory lens? A good starting place is beginning with John Dewey’s theoretical examinations of educational experience or experiential learning. Experiential learning is a basic component for all learning, and a particular component of many Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilding and reconciliation educational organizations with such a large focus, across all mediums, on sharing one’s narrative and experiences, and learning by listening to others. John Dewey in Experience and Education explores the differences between traditional and progressive education, with a concentration on the possibilities of either, and how these relate to the conception of learning through experience.
Dewey challenges the assumption that traditional education is inherently negative, and therefore against progress, while progressive education must be automatically better by default because it is modern. Instead of placing the old and the new as reactionary, direct opposites of each other, Dewey points out that experiences aren’t lacking in traditional education, but rather they are “defective and wrong character- wrong and defective from the standpoint of connection with further experience.” (Dewey, 2007, p.27) The inability of traditional education to foster experiences that lead to further growth limits learning, equality within learning experiences, and the ability to adapt to our globalizing, ever changing world. In other words, “It is not enough to insist upon the necessity of experience, nor even of activity in experience. Everything depends upon the quality of the experience which is had.” (Dewey, 2007, p.27) An often missed point is that this does not only serve as a reason to not teach with traditional education, but in addition applies dually to any type of progressive education in both formal and non-formal education.
How does this relate back to musical spaces of learning amidst inter-group conflict? The majority of Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding and reconciliation educational organizations exist within the structure of non-formal education, meaning that they exist outside of the formal school system, but have some type of structured learning, largely with an emphasis on experiential learning. In any of these educational youth programs, music or not, each has the potential to either be mis-educative or lead to further growth depending on its structure and pedagogy. “The belief that all genuine education comes about through experiences does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative.” (Dewey, 2007, p.25) Some experiences can be “mis-educative” (Dewey, 2007), and any experience that is mis-educative “has the effect of arresting or distorting the growth of further experience.” (Dewey, 2007, p.25) Of course the obvious choice is: we would all like for our programs to lead to further growth. Yet, the chances of this happening is connected to our ability to foster quality experiences dependent on:
“an immediate aspect of agreeableness or disagreeableness” (Dewey, 2007, p.27)
“its influence upon later experiences” (Dewey, 2007, p.27)
If inter-group power dynamics manifesting in the representation of who is speaking over another, constant use of the dominating language in the group, speaking in a language not everyone understands equally, and control of one ethnicity group in decision-making processes within the group over the other ethnicity, are not identified, challenged, and disrupted, quality of experiences will be lost and be unequal. Practitioner-educators and staff personnel cannot just learn to be aware of what are these dynamics. A critical, youth-centered pedagogy and structure must be adopted, and even beyond that, implemented with Paulo Freire’s critical ingredients of love, care, humility, and solidarity.
Like most uncharted educational territory, new questions bubble to the surface, such as: what is a “quality-of-experience” educational structure for a music peacebuilding/reconciliation education program? What should dialogue look like? How should understanding and knowledge be assessed? What is considered a successful program? All of these questions could be answered differently by different organizations depending on context. No matter the context though, addressing power dynamics and the experiences of learning within the bounds of the program, and considering experiences of learning outside of the program occurring simultaneously, are nonnegotiable. In the words of Dewey, “A principle responsibility of educators is that they not only be aware of the general principle of the shaping of actual experience by environing conditions, but that they also recognize in the concrete what surroundings are conducive to having experiences that lead to growth.” (Dewey, 2007, p.40) This is even more crucial in peacebuilding and reconciliation educational organizations to challenge existing power dynamics while also transforming violent conflict. Ultimately, one cannot be won without the other.
Within a protracted conflict, cycles of violence and systemic injustice are reoccurring everyday, often affecting Israelis and Palestinians in disproportionate ways. As the conflict continues to spiral, its affect takes a toll on each ethnicities’ socialization. It is the duty of peacebuilding and reconciliation educational organizations of all mediums to disrupt this socialization of separation, segregation, violence, hate, and incitement by using a critical pedagogy in education to foster new structures and frameworks of equality, freedom, rights, and dignity. After all, education is not synonymous with socialization (Hansen, 2010), whereas the opposite is the case of socialization, which creates and informs experiences of learning, both of quality and mis-educative.
As music educator-facilitators, it is our responsibility to build a musical space that is loving, caring, dialogical, and critical for our youth musicians. Within this space as a location of possibilities (hooks, 1994), youth musicians are enabled to fully explore the boundlessness of music, while also learning for and about peacebuilding, nonviolence, solidarity, human rights, social justice, coexistence, and coresistence. Ultimately, this is a means and an end, a continuity of experiences, a process-product-process-product progression of raising the critical consciousness of youth musicians, in which they can transfer their new and renewed knowledge, understanding, and skills to less safe spaces in their world. We must pay attention (from the linguistic root “to hold”) to the balance of individual youth musician growth within the group dynamic and the overall encounter dynamic in and between the group identities of Israeli and Palestinian- not to mention as well gender dynamics. Our curriculum, or beginning formations of curriculum, must be built with the structures and pedagogy of values, such as equality, freedom, rights, dignity, in addition to musical content and pro-social skills, that will lead to (e)quality experiences[2] “that live fruitfully and creatively in subsequent experiences.” (Dewey, 2007, p.28)
Recognizing the need always for more context and examples, I leave you with a few questions to reflect upon and a few articles to peruse:
1. When building an educational musical space, what are our assumptions about those participating, and the underlying power dynamics within space, language, knowledge, and culture?
2. How do we address the needs and feelings of every youth musician equally? And along those lines, how can this musical space be a safe or safer space for every youth musician equally?
3. How do we introduce meaningful musical content through a critical pedagogy that is connected to the new, and yet the local? In other words how do we as music practitioner-educators foster a space where what is loyal to the local/known, and what is open to the new/unknown (David Hansen’s Cosmopolitanism and Education) can co-mingle, exploring harmonies and dissonances between the two and beyond.
I hope these support further questioning and bubbling to the surface that will take us all beyond dualities and into places of “in-between” and “becoming,” as we navigate the daily challenges and excitements of this work with our youth musicians.
“The relation between freedom and the consciousness of possibility, between freedom and the imagination- the ability to make present what is absent, to summon up a condition that is not yet.” (Greene, 1988, p. 16)
[1] I refer to youth participants as “youth musicians” throughout the article to address specifically my context and for ease of understanding. The term “youth participants” of any project, whether arts-based, sports-based, etc., is also an applicable term instead of “youth musician” in every instance.
[2]I have placed the “(e)” in front of “quality” to emphasize that the quality of experience in an inter-group space depends on whether “equality” is present in structure, pedagogy, and content.This is a new theoretical musing of mine that I will investigate further in upcoming posts.
Is music an expression of our reality or the creation of our reality? Where does technique meet possibility and where does learning meet technique? How can multiple truths and multiple perspectives exist in the same co-created space, and how can we express these multiple truths and perspectives with and through music? These are a few of the questions that were explored in this year’s Improvisation Class during theCultures in Harmony-Atlas Music Festival. The festival, held in Tunisia in the small town of Beni Mtir near the mountainous border with Algeria, seeks to implement Track II Diplomacy in the form of cultural diplomacy between Americans and the West, and Tunisians and the MENA region.
Credit: Ny No
The name “Improvisation Class” is merely a label for the class to exist within the structure of a mainly classical music summer camp for Tunisian youth. When exploring and redefining the possibility of musical creation and interaction, no clear title seems to exist. Similar to the lack of label, the way in which the class co-created musically through a dialogical process of learning and sharing is generally unheard of in what is considered classical music education and pedagogy. I believe what we co-created challenges how music education is overwhelming taught and calls to question what could be. In the words of the late education philosopher Maxine Greene, “Imagination has to do with possibilities; never settle with what is!”
I suspect one of the greatest challenges music education faces today (or even yesterday as a violist myself who grew up completely immersed in a classical music education regimen) in our ever globalizing world is exactly what Maxine Greene speaks of: the imagination of possibilities. So often, we musicians are trained rather than taught. Our musical goals focus on digesting, and external benchmarks instead of creating. And so often, the flow of knowledge is merely from teacher to music student without even the consideration of how the music student can and should add to the flow of knowledge and understanding. This translates beyond the space of learning, but even to who is considered a musical creator versus a musical vessel. In the current music education environment in the classical music world, young musicians are often expected to follow this one-way hierarchy of teacher-knows-all and student-knows-none-until-told. This issue is not exclusive to the classical music world; its traces can be found in the teaching of other music genres, such as jazz, and inadvertently, continues to marginalize and undermine music genres, such as hip hop and rap, in music education.[1]
Now for those musicians and music educators getting ready to run for it after these last sentences, don’t go anywhere just yet! Join me for a moment in questioning not what music education is, but rather what it could be. I believe there are possibilities in which a youth musician achieves musical greatness, and musical creator. And in this process it is not only the responsibility of the musician or music educator, but as well the youth musician. How does a music educator create this type of dialogical space with her or his students? What are the benefits of doing so in the first place? And finally, why question our current system of musical learning by asking what could be? Elements of our Improvisation Class can perhaps shed light on these very questions. Of course, all learning should be contextual to each space of learning, which suggests adopted ideas and concepts from here must be contextualized to their new settings, too.
Our Improvisation Class consisted of around 25 youth musicians from the ages of nine to 19 all with various levels of experience, whether on the violin, piano, guitar, voice, sax, darbuka, and accordion. I sought to provide a certain structure that enabled a few key elements that could lead to the possibilities of musical greatness and musical creator through our dialogical space, where knowledge, understanding, and skills were transferable to outside musical and non-musical spaces. Whereas the process of sharing musical knowledge and understanding should be a two-way street, I believe musician and music educator is responsible for providing the initial structure in which creativity can thrive.
1. All ideas are welcome within our fundamental social agreement of listening, respect, and responsibility to our peers, our creations, and ourselves.
We all have a natural desire to feel appreciated. When we feel appreciated, we are more willing to confront vulnerability positively as moments of growth and self-transformation (seeBrené Brown’s TED Talk: The Power of Vulnerability). In providing structure in which creativity can flourish, I wanted to welcome everyone into a setting where youth musicians felt safe or at least safer in sharing their ideas, feelings, and emotions musically and verbally. In our entire group we all agreed, including myself as a facilitator-participant, to listen, respect, and be responsible to each other, our creations, and ourselves.
2. Every youth musician has valid experiences, and has gained understanding and knowledge through these experiences, in which to teach and share with the group.
In harmony with challenging what education philosopher Paulo Freire termed the “banking concept” where students are looked upon as empty vessels awaiting for their teacher to fill their mind with knowledge, our Improvisation Class was a problem-posing (Freire, 2000) space in which peer learning flourished and youth musicians built upon previous musical and social experiences. Progressive education philosopher John Dewey speaks of experiences as a continuum of quality doing and undergoing (Dewey, 2007), which builds knowledge and understanding, ultimately leading to personal growth and openness to further growth through continuous doing and undergoing (Dewey, 2007). The first day of our class began with a spontaneous jam session that morphed from the original beats of my rhythm sticks on the chairs in our circle to saxophone solos flowing on top of violin, viola, percussion, guitar, and piano. In other words, youth musicians’ previous musical knowledge and experiences were acknowledged and respected straight from the beginning.
3. The invitation is there. I am not the absolute teacher; they are not the absolute students. We each have differing responsibilities and roles to play in the space we build together, which contributes in a unique way to the dialogue and music we co-create.
Credit: Ny No
In setting up the space where peer learning could flourish, I chose to implant opportunities of teaching, learning, leadership, and teamwork amongst the youth musicians. I might have overseen the spark of certain conversations and musical ideas, though ultimately, each youth musician had the freedom to take the conversation and musical dialogue where she or he wanted. The most important factor in enabling this location of possibility was each youth musicians’ agreement to enter our social agreement where each person’s freedom was dependent on the other’s. As Alfred Schütz describes in Making Music Together: A Study in Social Relationships, “Each of them [musician] has, therefore, to take into account what the other has to execute in simultaneity. He/She has not only to interpret her/his own part, which as such remains necessarily fragmentary, but he/she has also to anticipate the other player’s interpretation of his/her – the other’s – part and, even more, the other’s anticipations of his/her own execution. Either’s freedom of interpreting composer’s thought is restrained by the freedom granted to the other.” (Schütz, 1951, p. 94-95)
These three elements of structure created the possibility for the youth musicians to be:
Self-express through multi-modal means, putting youth musicians constructively on-edge from the start
Co-creating a space equally belonging to each one of us in “withness”
In planting the initial structure of the Improvisation Class, I was able to put our adventure on pathways to discover deeper societal issues, with and through musical co-creation, that were taboo in Tunisian society and across multiple societies. A big element of the class was the focus on certain social/environmental/political issues that were self chosen by each youth musician, and then grouping together youth musicians interested in overlapping issues, such as privilege and war, peace, and justice to work together to explore those topics further musically and with dialogue in their new, micro community. This also presented the opportunity for each community of youth musicians to establish their very own social agreement for their group, describing how they would create and share with each other. The results of each community’s focus on their various topics led to authentic music making with the purpose of learning, both musically and socially, all as equals with various responsibilities. To push this concept even further, each exercise surrounding these topics included elements of individual teaching, learning, leadership, and teamwork, in addition to group teaching, learning, leadership, and teamwork. Here are a few of the exercises that combined all of these elements:
Musical Sensitivity Line, where youth musicians stood in a line in front of the rest of the class, and first created a number of free-flowing stories verbally as individuals and then as a team, and then musical compositions as individuals and then as a team.
Credit: Ny No
Human DJ, the co-creation of a human soundtrack where one youth musician is the DJ and determines the sounds and rhythms of each youth musician in the group. Then, the DJ rejoins the circle and a new DJ from the group takes the stage.
Credit: Ny No
Teaching of a new musical idea by each member in each community, and then the entire community choosing at least two newly learned musical ideas to teach to the other two communities, and vice versa.
Choosing any two new musical ideas from any community, whether your own or another’s, to create a cumulative composition for the final concert
Some community’s cumulative musical co-creations were a reflection or statement based upon their specific issue, whereas others did not mirror their issue. However, every group nonetheless underwent a spherical, deepening process of building knowledge and understanding based upon past experiences and new experiences through multi-modal means to co-create what did not exist before. This process is on the pathway of musical creator and musical greatness.
In summation, it is crucial that we, musicians and music educators, question whether we are co-creating with our students spaces of learning and teaching that foster the imagination of possibilities. There is so much more to describe about our Improvisation Class’s six sessions together, yet not enough room or enough words. Each day could have it’s entirely own reflection. What is clear is how our Improvisation Class was youth-centered with horizontal learning, and inclusive and participatory practices supporting peer learning, authentic music making and learning, and critical thinking of deeper issues in our societies and the role we, and especially youth, can play in making music that impacts our world. I believe these transferable skills will translate beyond our Improvisation Class’s special space, and into less safe spaces in everyday life.
Credit: Ny No
And finally, is this a negation or replacement of the current classical music structure? No, it’s not. Replacing one ideology with another never solves the root issues at hand. In John Dewey’s Experience and Education, he does not advocate for traditional education to be completed replaced by progressive education without thought and deep investigation of the meaning behind both. “For in spite of itself any movement that thinks and acts in terms of an ‘ism’ becomes so involved in reaction against other ‘isms’ that it is unwittingly controlled by them. For it then forms its principles by reaction against them instead of by a comprehensive, constructive survey of actual needs, problems, and possibilities.” (Dewey, 2007, p.6) I invite you all to be the stranger in the development of new educational spaces that constructively question what music education has been and what it could be, and finally, to invite our youth musicians to do the same.
Dear musicians, music educators, scholars, educator-facilitators, activists, researchers, and anyone else who would like to join,
It has taken me a while to arrive here. It has taken me a while to piece together the many strands of what I have experienced in practice and learned in theory this past year. It is not until recently that I “caught sense” of what is this developing grassroots field we and the youth we work with are in the process of co-creating. More than ever I feel this edgy pressure bellowing down my back to share, and to make accessible the funds of knowledge I’ve gained while studying my MA at Teachers College with you all- musicians, music educators, scholars, educator-facilitators, activists, researchers, and anyone else involved in this field throughout the world. It is the language and understanding of this field that I hope to develop in dialogue with you all who are investigating theory and who are in practice on the ground.
When asked earlier this semester by a professor of mine that I highly admire whether it was my goal to publish anything by the end of this year, I answered with a resounding, “No.” I shut that door so closed that I could feel my eyes squeeze shut. Let’s be real, putting your discoveries down on paper and then sharing them on a public platform is terrifying. Many questions arise surrounding your validity, your right to lay down such ideas, explanations, and beliefs: Will they think it’s smart enough? Will I seem “expert” enough? Does this really matter? Who is this for?!
Several weeks ago, I had, in the words of educational philosopher Maxine Greene, “an awakening.” When will it be time for me to assume this role of interpreter, researcher, knower, doer, and sharer in this developing field? As long as I wait for the next understanding, and then the next understanding, I will find myself waiting forever. No change can come in waiting, whether boldly big or significantly small, for somebody else to tell you that the time has arrived. Along these lines, I found within my own musical and administrative work with grassroots music education-youth empowerment nonprofits that a divide arose before me between the language that I have learned in my MA and the language that is understood on the ground in practice. Overcoming this divide is critical, and the way I believe we can do this is by uncovering the existent bridge between theory and practice, so that individuals from both worlds can speak with each other.
What is theory after all but just a way of explaining ideas and understandings? What is practice after all but the carrying out of ideas and understandings? Educational philosopher Paulo Freire speaks of the idea of praxis, the conjoining of theory and practice. In other words we learn by taking action and then from reflecting upon this action. And who are educational philosophers anyway, but people who do not take what happens in the world for granted by noticing the world around them and who they are in this world. It is the re-recognizing of our everyday knowledge that exists within every one of us, while uncovering new parts of ourselves when we experience and reflect upon new things or re-experience and reflect upon past things- like the already existent bridge between theory and practice that we are unveiling.
I thought this was clear to me after all my experience in practice and now time in academia, but then felt a reverberating shock when I found myself entangled in this abyss. It became clear that my call to write could wait no longer as I found myself part of the system that continues to create this divide. I had become “the stranger” to the world of practice when my first steps into activism and social change were born in practice! And yet, could I have made this discovery if I did not find myself “the stranger” in this situation where what had been familiar became unfamiliar?
It is my utmost goal from this point on to do everything possible to unveil the bridge connecting these two worlds with you through interpreting and discovering with care, providing points of entry for those involved in theory and those involved in practice, and hopefully co-creating with you all an ever evolving space in which these two worlds meet, so we can truly foster social change through our daring work.
The field of peacebuilding is ever growing and expanding with new partnerships forming between state and non-state actors through more creative ways of access enabled by advancing technological platforms. Amidst a rather negative media that seems to be more willing to tell stories of conflict, rather than stories of peacebuilding and reconciliation, it is incredibly important to create a stronger emphasis on exposing communities to the integral activism that is occurring perhaps even in their own backyards.
As the field of peacebuilding continues to grow, so too does the development of critical peacebuilding education increasingly with a focus on music and the expressive arts. One such example of this was brought to my attention recently.
The grammy winning Colombian musician Juanes, a familiar name in my own music library, recently partnered with the United States Institute of PeaceGlobal Peacebuilding Center (GPC) to address his activism as a musician and peacebuilder through music. This partnership, between state and non-state actor nonetheless with music as a medium for social activism, perked my interest. Not only does this partnership facilitate and serve as an example of the many ways in which music can be utilized as a tool for social activism, but in addition it is a resource perfect for the classroom readily accessible through the Internet and technology.
Searching further on the GPC website, I found a short video segment created by GPC recognizing the importance of youth and peacebuilding pointing to the growing power of youth via social media and technology.
In the music classes I teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays at KIPP Star Middle School in Harlem, I used both the GPC’s Juanes video segment and the Bukra fi Mishmish music video, written and performed by Israeli and Palestinian youth members of Heartbeat, as examples of how music is powerful. From there, we asked ourselves: what is our Hope List? What do we hope for ourselves, our families, our communities, our world? Our Hope Lists, which will ultimately serve as the foundation of the last song(s) of the semester, were shared via an exercise called a Sensitivity Line (to view, please visit the KIPP Star Musical Collective blog).
The Sensitivity Line is a group performance exercise that was taught to me by PYE- Global: Partners for Youth Empowerment during the Seeds of Peace-Educators Course I attended last August. The Sensitivity Line gives each student the spotlight to shine, yet while in a group atmosphere with group support. By putting the student constructively “on edge”, the interest in delivering a rewarding outcome in front of peers increases the student’s affinity for self-efficacy, thus building self-confidence, too.
I was impressed with the overall results of this classroom activity on many levels. My students:
1. Had fun!
2. Learned new aspects about music, musicmaking, and peacebuilding.
3. Deepened their understanding about themselves, their peers, and their communities.
4. Expressed critical consciousness, solidarity, and imagination.
5. Were constructively put “on edge” by performing through the Sensitivity Line
6. Experiencing the concepts of drafting and process.
I look forward to the possibility of many more classroom activities such as this one, which facilitate growth and creativity, while teaching about and for the subjects on hand. After all, great partnerships and imagination made this classroom activity possible.
(And by great partnerships, I am also referring to the genius and loving nature of my best friend who created the idea of the Hope List.)
I attempt to cite all of the sources used in my writings and research as correctly as possible, so please adopt the same policy toward the works presented here and as well my own writings by citing this blog’s findings correctly. This blog is meant for sharing, not plagiarism. Thank you for your respect.
The purpose of this blog series, “A Bird’s Eye View,” is to give a periphery overlook into my classes at Teachers College, Columbia University. The majority of topics will derive from class assignments, specifically this semester from the course Creativity and Problem Solving in Music Education. Besides sharing experiences in learning in exposing a process of learning, I hope that beneficial insight from the classroom will seep into these posts for you- the reader.**************************************************************************
Earlier this week, I began my graduate school studies at Teachers College, Columbia University pursuing a MA in International Educational Development with a focus on peace education. A say what? Yes, a MA in International Educational Development with a focus on peace education. Don’t worry, many others already pointed out that the title is long and semi-baffling. Before you ask the next question, let me take a step back and then elaborate further.
Comparative education is described by comparative education academic I.L. Kandel (1933) as the study of “general education, elementary and secondary, in the light of the forces- political, social, and cultural-which determine the character of national systems of education” (qtd. in Bajaj, 118). Now place comparative education into an international context where all of the above is researched at a global level, with the added intent of producing international content and programs that reflect research and theories that also foster intercultural understanding by bringing “together students, teachers, and scholars from different nations to learn about and from each other” (Epstein, 918). This, my friends, is international education development. Both comparative education and international education intersect with peace education. All three of these terms are connected to relatively new, expanding fields reacting to current events and meeting the needs of our current globalizing world.
The study of international educational development can entail many focuses. Mine will center on how the creative process of music is used as a tool for social activism to empower youth and transform conflict.
Our first class discussion in Creativity and Problem Solving in Music Education revolved around the usual topics of “what is music?” and “who is a musician,” yet in a much more fascinating way ushered by inspiration of John Cage amidst his centennial. John Cage, best well known for his piece 4’33”, was a controversial modern composer and innovator who pushed the ideas of music and sound, performance, and purpose.
Of course we in class were given the chance to experiment in the making of all sorts of creative music/sound/noise with whatever we found in the classroom. Not going to lie, it was actually empowering at times and fun! I started with my Starbucks coffee cup, and then moved to a drum stick and blinds. That’s right, I was playing the blinds.
The reflective portion of the assignment was to divulge into what is considered beautiful music/sound and, when we perceive music/sound as ugly, why is that so? Two great readings, which are included (Greene – I still wonder at how unaware I was (2000) & Sheehy – Children Sound) for your curiosity as well, were utilized to supplement our writing. Many of my peers spoke about the sounds they heard in New York City or the performing we did in class. For whatever reason my reflective piece took on a whole different edge. I’m sure if John Cage read it, he would understand. “It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else. Here we are now.” (Artificeofeternity, 2009)
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“It’s obvious this page not for any of you, and its more obvious we don’t want to deal with any one of you at any level. stop telling us your stories you are not the case owners, we are the case owner . so stop telling us your stories to gain our sympathize. And how you asking for equality, I will come to your place and steal your house and then when we rise the case at the court I will ask them to divide your house for two halves between you and me, is this equal for you?” –Commentator A from Facebook, retrieved from online article in 972 Magazine
Here it is again tonight. I can see and hear the “angry barking,” though the only thing in front of me is text from an online magazine on my laptop screen. From there, I take a big, deep sigh. The feeling of my pulse as the palms of my hands rest on my temples is pronounced enough at this point, that I as well hear the thumping. All of a sudden what is gray, separates to black and white. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is screaming at me once again.
Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs and this is nothing against them! I use the word “barking” and in fact, “angry barking,” because that is what commentary becomes on the Internet when discussing controversial topics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (or perhaps, it’s the oh-so-regular topics discussed by controversial people). Amazingly, the “angry barking” is about whether or not a group of Israelis should be allowed to join their Palestinian counterparts in attending a concert this week in Amman, Jordan of a well-known music ensemble from Beirut, Lebanon, in light of historical events/historical stories/historical hearsay. This sentiment, the rejection of developing “normal” relations with Israelis and recognizing the establishment of the State of Israel, is known as anti-normalization. Though I do not personally know the people involved in the “angry barking,” I hear in my mind the escalation of their oscillating timbres as they duke it out virtually with one another. This reality, coupled with the sound effects, is the mind-game we enter when involved, connected, or a part of this conflict. It is not beautiful. And yet this very experience, of only small stature of many that affect Israelis, Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, Christians, concerned peoples, etc., leads to the question: how do we overcome from here and find what is beautiful in the not beautiful?
A month ago, I participated in an Expressive Arts Educators Course at the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Portland, Maine. Seeds of Peace, to simply cut and paste from their website, “inspires and equips new generations of leaders from regions of conflict with the relationships, understanding, and skills needed to advance lasting peace.” (Seeds of Peace) Though Seeds of Peace programming is usually for youth, their various educators’ courses are for leaders and educators who are involved with reconciliation activities at the grassroots level, producing curriculum for these programs, or administrators in the school systems. At the Expressive Arts Educators Course, 35 artists (from visual art and theatre to music and spoken word) and/or educators represented of eight countries came together for two weeks to undergo a deeper understanding of the power of the arts to transform conflict and empower youth. Besides instructional class time, we all were placed in “home-groups” to discuss topics and reflect within a smaller, intimate setting, underwent group physical activities, and prepared a performance for the end of the course that encompassed what was discovered in deepening our understanding of each others’ narratives through our various art forms.
While reading the two articles for class after the “angry barking” episode, I began to reflect further on my time at Seeds of Peace. An incredible amount of the lessons in both of these articles are exactly what the organizers of the course were trying to construct for us through creatively exploring, learning, and sharing our narratives within and through our art forms. All of the participants at the camp were adults of varying ages. Don’t let that trick you into thinking we all acted maturely and intelligently no matter the situation. There were tough times, including several verbal explosions between members of different ethnicities (Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus, the U.S., India, and Pakistan were all represented). Even one member left mid-camp in tears; the rest of the group in shock of loosing what they had thought was a safe space. What did our facilitators use to rebuild the safe space that was shattered and assist us all in finding the ways in which we were able to express ourselves again? They had us reconnect, deeper through art, opening the space wider for our “inner-kiddo,” similarly as to what Sheehy describes, to feel safe enough to appear and interact with “the other.” Also, the final performance served as a team-building activity where we took artistic risks together and possessed a responsibility to each other to succeed.
In essence, we had discovered a freedom of some sort. With our imaginations vivaciously leading the way to our creativity unrestricted, we became more than just our labels, not just to the joyous audience present, but perhaps most importantly to ourselves. It was beautiful! If anything, the line Maxine Greene quotes of Sartre “”at the heart of the aesthetic imperative we discern the moral imperative” because “the work of art, from whichever side you approach it” (1949, pp. 62-63) is an act of confidence in the freedom of human begins. We feel that freedom here—to interpret, to reflect, and (now and then) change our lives”” resonates with the successful outcome, artistically and communally, of the final performance (Greene & qtd. in Greene, 198). We had surpassed our “angry barking” episode leading to the possibility of a shared future. Like the quote of Emily Dickinson in Greene’s essay: “The Possible’s slow fuse is lit/ By the Imagination.” (Greene & qtd. in Greene, 198).
Within the thread of my camp reflection, I call to mind the various texts I’ve read as of late in preparation for the awesome event of graduate school. The writings of Paulo Freire jumped off the page for me, as well various others like John Paul Lederach’s The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace. Now that I am here, I’ve read for another class several chapters of the Encyclopedia of Peace Education, which deconstructs all of the various terms and meanings in peace education, such as human rights education, global citizen education, structural violence, etc., and Galtung’s article on cultural violence.
Here is where I find myself at a current crossroad.
For as much as we may feel the essence of freedom through the exploration of art in all of its imagination and expressiveness, what about the structural violence on the outside which continues to keep the system afresh of top-dog in power marginalizing the underdog through lack of services and opportunities, fragmenting a population further beyond its repression of identity and culture? How do we encounter or counter this structural violence, which can be or lead to direct violence, through the arts and even more specifically, through music education? We at camp did surpass an ugly point through music and the arts in America, but what will happen now as we’ve returned to our respective countries with the “angry barking” of the media and the extremists? Can it last? Will we be able to expand upon what we learned from skills to our relationships with each other?
I leave you with these questions, which also I ask myself while searching for how to confront these issues, prepare curriculum and programming for the Israeli and Palestinian youth music non-profit Heartbeat, and keep updated on the events and issues in Israel/Palestine: What does it mean to sing about freedom and experience freedom through music, when beholden to structural violence and societal pressures like anti-normalization? What role can music education play in confronting structural violence? What do you think?
I attempt to cite all of the sources used in my writings and research as correctly as possible, so please adopt the same policy toward the works presented here and as well my own writings by citing this blog’s findings correctly. This blog is meant for sharing, not plagiarism. Thank you for your respect.
3. Bajaj, Monisha (Eds.). (2008). Encyclopedia of Peace Education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.
4. Epstein, E. H. (1994). Comparative and International Education: Overview and Historical Development.In T. Husén & T. N. Postlethwaite (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Education (2nded. pp. 918-923). New York: Pergamon.
5. joelyhberg. (2010, December 15). John Cage’s 4’33” [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4
6. Seeds of Peace (www.seedsofpeace.org)
7. spncr525. (2009, May 11). John Cage- Water Walk [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63HoYXUeUTA
Bibliography
1. Bajaj, Monisha (Eds.). (2008). Encyclopedia of Peace Education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.
3. Greene, M. (1978) Toward Wide-Awakeness: An Argument for the Arts and Humanities in Education, from Landscapes of Learning. New York: Teachers College Press., pp. 161-167
4. Epstein, E. H. (1994). Comparative and International Education: Overview and Historical Development.In T. Husén & T. N. Postlethwaite (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Education (2nded. pp. 918-923). New York: Pergamon.
5. Sheehy, E. (1952) “Children and Sound” from There’s Music in Children. New York: Holt Publishing. 1-13
Upon discovering Musicians without Borders (MwB) earlier this year, the opportunity to see their work in the flesh during my visit to Jerusalem was a must! For the duration of a 10-hour music-filled adventure throughout the Bethlehem area I explored the versatile approach of Musicians without Borders, where we fueled joy, empowerment, and imagination to those fallen through the cracks of history and current society.
Their motto is, “WAR DIVIDES, MUSIC CONNECTS,” which is more than appropriate considering MwB has pinpointed music programs in locations of some of the most infamous conflicts and post-conflicts: Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Palestine. In communities where development is interrupted time in and time out again for even the span of decades by full-out hostilities and systemic injustice, how can the creative process of music serve as a powerful mortar, piecing back together the fabric of a community and as well enabling spurts of growth anew? What can be learned from MwB’s versatile approaches in the Bethlehem area? And finally at the end of the day, what can YOU do to join this transformative work fostering creative ways of learning and self-expression in and throughout music?
The day starts early with my trek up to Jerusalem from the bubble of Tel Aviv. By mid-morning, MwB’s project manager for the area, Fabienne, and I are already exchanging our backgrounds throughout the car ride from Jerusalem, pass the checkpoint, and into Bethlehem. We then arrive at our first destination: Al-Azzeh Refugee Camp.
Al-Azzeh is one of a handful refugee camps, ranging from al-Fawwar in South Hebron to others in the Bethlehem area like Aida and Deheishe refugee camps, that Fabienne visits throughout the week to run various music education and expressive arts programs. Al-Azzeh is considered to be the smallest Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank with around 60% of its members originating from the same initial family.
It is my first time visiting Al-Azzeh. Though it is mid-morning, the sun is already reminding us both that it is July in the Middle East. There is nobody around as we walk through one of the main roads of the camp, which is really a dusty, dirt pathway. After a few minutes of walking, none other than a group of girls meets us, awaiting our arrival. I’m not sure whether they knew we were coming or anxiously waited for Fabienne to come any which day; I do know they are incredibly excited to see that we had made it.
Children playing in Al-Azza Refugee Camp
As the girls are instructed by Fabienne in Arabic to go gather other children for our workshop, I take in my surroundings further. There are short houses or structures on either sides of the pathway, with only street art and graffiti tying them together. The majority of the street art and graffiti are images, political and identity-based. There is a narrative present there on those walls encompassing many feelings. Nationalism. Sorrow. Death. Suffocation. Oppression. Loss. I want to stare more and digest, though ultimately I have to let go.
The program begins with around 10 children sitting on lawn chairs in a circle in what is a nice, newer one-story structure meant to serve the community’s needs. Before I know it, all attention including my own, is on Fabienne as she so seamlessly gathers the energy of the group by initiating with a song playing in the background and responding to it with various hand movements in the air, on the body, on the floor, etc., which are then mimicked by the group. It isn’t long until the various percussion instruments from different types of tambourines and shakers to triangles and wood blocks appear from her bag. Each percussion instrument is passed around the circle and everybody is given a chance to create sound. Shaking a percussion instrument upon Fabienne’s non-verbal instruction, passing it to your neighbor, and receiving a new instrument to discover is quite the task, but we did it!
One of the most interesting aspects of Fabienne’s method is seen in her use of non-verbal instruction. Rather than falling apart as the circle of children, ranging from the ages of 3 to ten, continues to uncontrollably grow, there is perhaps even more concentration than expected and less strife. Fabienne had shared with me beforehand the difficulties of conducting workshops in Al-Azzeh related to outside factors, such as divisions between the different families in the camp, widespread poverty, and conflicting gender norms. Upon looking closer, children wear hand-me-downs that need washing (Palestinians in the West Bank experience water rationing, especially in the summer months, usually meaning a few days in a week of no available running water. Jewish settlements, also located in/occupying the West Bank have available running water usually every day of the week*). As well, children do not just sit next to any other child. Children sit next to their siblings, girls sit next to girls, and boys sit next to boys. Fabienne had created options of interaction for the children, in light of these issues, to increase comfort and provide a safe space for participation. For example, those who feel uncomfortable participating because of gender norm issues or another child’s participation from a family involved in the camp strife, should leave the exercise and sit on the side until he or she is ready to return. When have these children ever had safe options of choice in their lives? Some children sit outside of exercises every now and then because they are exhausted, and yet it is only 10am in the morning. Several do not even seem present at all.
Two exercises of Fabienne’s that seemed most enjoyable are drumming rhythms with drumsticks and learning sing-a-longs. Learning and improvising on different rhythms with the drumsticks is like a heartbeat discovering all of its potential. First, all of us in the circle keep a constant, medium speed beat. Then one child at a time beats another rhythm within the base rhythm, whether it is tapping the sticks together, tapping the floor, tapping the chair, or just a combination of everything possible. After several children are given the spotlight, we break up into smaller circles and continue with a similar exercise, except for the instruction of mimicking the rhythm of the leader. This allows more creativity and spotlight time for each individual. If creating rhythms together in a big circle isn’t loud enough, this makes the room burst with the sound of an entire nation.
After such a rhythmic exercise, the transition to sing-a-longs introduces rudimentary songwriting, melody construction, and collective singing. Each song possesses a particular framework, where the children decide which words are used in certain phrases and which hand movements accompany those words. All of these childhood sing-a-longs are in Arabic, so you can only imagine my learning curve trying to sing in Arabic and remember hand movements and melody. In retrospect, if it was not entertaining for the kids, it was definitely entertaining for me.
As the workshop begins to wind down after an hour and a half of facilitation, several of the girls beg us to stay longer and ask when we will return. It is amazing after all that we practically worked with the bare minimum of supplies in an environment with no previous resources to work with and yet, we all learned and bonded. The relationship fostered between Fabienne and these children is not of vertical capacity from outsider to the vernacular. The cultivation of new civic strands of social responsibility, learned through the expressive arts where children can engage, express, share, and lead, are all the beginnings of a repairing community.
After several other stops, including a government-sponsored event for Palestinian families from low socio-economic backgrounds with children undergoing cancer treatment, we end our day at the newly built recording studio in the Deheishe Refugee Camp. The studio, built by a Holy Land Trust volunteer from California who is a producer himself and runs a free recording studio for “in-risk” youth at Sunset Youth Services, is a means to use music as a form of self-expression and nonviolence communication. Meeting with the 20-something rappers of Deheishe now responsible for the studio is inspiring. Not only did these young men prove to their community the benefits of building a recording studio in the camp, they are now trained to use the recording studio and are giving back to the community by opening the studio to children in the refugee camp. More about their story can be found here: How to Build a Studio (and a better world). Their most recent project was recording the hopes and dreams written down by the same children undergoing cancer treatment present at the government sponsored event Fabienne and I attended.
MwB engages in many other activities in the area besides the several I experienced that day. A key component to their current success can be attributed to the partnerships they foster locally and internationally, such as with the Holy Land Trust based in Bethlehem and WE-ACTx in Rwanda. As well, MwB is searching for sustainability in how it teaches its methods and how to instill them at the grassroots level with the future leaders of Palestine. This is apparent in two important MwB achievements of late:
1. The publication of the next edition of the MwB facilitator guide. The guide outlines their methodology, how to be a facilitator, and lesson plans. Now, any trained practitioner possesses the tools to be a MwB facilitator in any community.
2. The initiation of a facilitation course for young community leaders, which will help spread MwB grassroots methods throughout the West Bank. The second level of the facilitation course is currently in the making.
All of these factors contribute to MwB’s success, allowing for a transparent, sustainable platform of constructive change flexible in development and initiation.
How can YOU help MwB? In the typical dilemma of a music intervention non-profit, all of these projects require funding, which means that MwB most likely spends a considerable amount of their time fundraising. Imagine how many other projects could be started by MwB if it was not necessary to spend so much time fundraising only to keep current projects running? You can help! Give a local concert in your hometown to raise money in their honor. Ask a company to provide a matching gift to your MwB donation. Choose MwB as a focus in a school project and set a fundraising goal for the end of the semester. The possibilities are endless.
Secondly, spread the word! MwB has two blogs (Music Bus Goes Middle East) (Music Bus Goes Africa) and Facebook pages: “Musicians Without Borders”, “Rwanda Youth Music”, and “Music Bus Goes Middle East”. The more people become familiar with MwB, the wider its reach to share information about its programs and its needs. Who wouldn’t be inspired upon hearing how the creative process of music can empower entire generations seeking a better future? Who says your voice can’t be the voice for change today?
Go beyond the checkpoint using the creative process of music.
I attempt to cite all of the sources used in my writings and research as correctly as possible, so please adopt the same policy toward the works presented here and as well my own writings by citing this blog’s findings correctly. This blog is meant for sharing, not plagiarism. Thank you for your respect.
Music Intervention 