The Choral Commons

Choir as Dreamspace

Sat, 10 Apr 2021 13:03:45 -0700

Show notes assembled by Emilie Amrein

Who's who in this episode

Aisha Shillingford is the artistic director of Intelligent Mischief and the Wakanda Dream Lab. She is a visual artist, author, and cultural strategist, originally from Trinidad and Tobago. She is the co-author of Contending for Dreamspace and co-editor of Black Freedom Beyond Borders: Re-Imaging Gender in Wakanda.

adrienne maree brown is the author of Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, and We Will Not Cancel Us; she is the co-editor of Octavia's Brood, a collection of speculative stories written by community organizers, activists, and cultural workers, inspired by the work of Octavia Butler.

Toshi Reagon is a composer and musician, who with her mother, Bernice Johnson Reagon, co-wrote the opera Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower. Toshi facilitated the song circle at the Emergent Strategy immersion described by Aisha in this episode.

Bernice Johnson Reagon is a scholar, singer/songleader, and activist. She was one of the original Read More

Singing in Prison Roundtable

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 13:21:01 -0700

Singing in Prison Roundtable

Introduction to Transformative and Healing Justice for Choral Practitioners

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 16:22:42 -0800

Introduction to Transformative and Healing Justice for Choral Practitioners

Krystal Morin, TCC Leadership Group

Continuing the conversation on how the practice of abolition can help us reimagine the systems through which we operate, we offer introductions to Transformative Justice and Healing Justice to aid you on your path towards understanding, analyzing, and noticing where harm occurs in your practice and how we might transform patterns of harm into patterns of healing.

As we look to reimagine and reactivate the choir as a community of people coming together to do the hard and beautiful work of healing, transformation, and justice in the world, we recognize that we have much to learn from the frameworks of Transformative Justice and Healing Justice. These ideas are fundamental to a compassionate choral practice and our pursuit of justice.

Some beginning reflection questions for choral leaders:

What musical experiences have you had that have been oppressive and harmful?
Have our choral pedagogies, practices, or policies caused harm to members of our community?
What are some of the harmful ways that choir members interact or treat each other and how can we change this? How can we prevent these harmful interactions?
What practices of care are established within your choir?
How do you respond to instances of harm within the choir? Do you examine steps that led to harm through a wide and holistic lens?
Are there pathways for members to share experiences of harm with leadership without negative repercussions?
What elements of your practice change when you center spiritual, physical, emotional and psychic wellbeing?

Transformative Justice:

Transformative Justice (TJ) is an alternative political framework and approach for responding to violence, harm, and abuse without creating violence, harm, and abuse. TJ seeks to prevent, intervene in,...Read More

Reflections on Abolition in Choral Contexts

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 07:41:04 -0800

Reflections on Abolition in Choral Contexts

Michael Genese, TCC Leadership Group

To be a student of abolition is to be in the constant practice of imagining a better world that does not currently exist. Abolition, as both an organizing tool and a long-term goal, can help us reimagine the systems through which we operate in any and all contexts, especially choral ensemble and broader music education contexts.

Abolition primarily addresses our systems of imprisonment, policing, and the Prison Industrial Complex, but when we ponder how these systems, frameworks, and harm-causing entities have manifested themselves in spaces outside of the prison, we are called to address the harm that manifests from punitive punishment in our music classrooms, the exclusionary practices and hierarchical frameworks within our ensembles, and the purpose of heavy police presence in our schools.

In a broader sense, abolition works to combat white supremacy and its manifestations. When we think critically about our music curriculum, our repertoire, what is seen as “beautiful,” “conventional,” “quality,” and in turn what is not seen as those things, we have to ask: what has been intentionally erased from the historical picture of choral music? Furthermore, how must we, as music practitioners of the 21st Century, critically affect our professions? The answer is found within abolitionist frameworks.

Glossary of Keywords:

(Definitions and Supplement from Critical Resource Workgroup, 2004)

1. Abolition: Abolition is a political vision with the goal of eliminating systems that cause harm such as prisons, policing, and surveillance, and at the same time, creating lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment. [...] Abolition is both a practical organizing tool,...Read More

Not Society's Trash: The Incarcerated Voice

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 15:48:12 -0800

Not Society's Trash: The Incarcerated Voice

envision 2021 roundtable

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:29:55 -0800

envision 2021 roundtable

building the beloved community

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 07:28:07 -0800

building the beloved community

Peacing in Transition

Sat, 05 Sep 2020 08:57:59 -0700

Peacing in Transition

The notion of “peace” drives this week's discussion. We explored how choral singing creates an alternative space for peace-making. While we acknowledged peace is worth protecting and pursuing, I am particularly intrigued by how different definitions of peace create tensions and conflicts. In the podcast, Micah mentions the word “peace” has become a word with negative connotations — that the concept of peace is now associated with much eye-rolling.

Co-creation process

In response to these puzzling reflections about peace, I designed this week’s creative response based on a simple chant-like hymn tune from “Prayer of St. Francis” — which was also mentioned in the conversation with Micah Hendler. I encouraged participating musicians to improvise with reference to the Prayer, both musically and textually. The recording process itself was a space for musicians to engage in a dialogue with the tune and the lyrics, as the hymn says, “make me a channel of your peace”. This hymn tune is intertwined throughout this work in different forms. From its original form, E - F - G - E as a cantus firmus, as a base for improvisations, and a base for chord structures.

Beyond “Prayer of St. Francis”

In our dialogue, we explored how peace elicits various emotions. We dug deep into the positive and negative effects of peace. Within the layers of improvisations, you will hear sounds from our daily lives, everyday activities at home, and field recordings of things like public transportation and social activism. You will also hear other hymn tunes and spoken words in different languages, such as Arabic, Cantonese, French and Hebrew. Each musician freely expressed their reactions to peace. You will hear materials from other peace-related hymn tunes embedded...Read More

The Choral Commons

Choir as Dreamspace

Who's who in this episode

Singing in Prison Roundtable

Singing in Prison Roundtable

Introduction to Transformative and Healing Justice for Choral Practitioners

Introduction to Transformative and Healing Justice for Choral Practitioners

Transformative Justice:

Reflections on Abolition in Choral Contexts

Reflections on Abolition in Choral Contexts

Glossary of Keywords:

Not Society's Trash: The Incarcerated Voice

Not Society's Trash: The Incarcerated Voice

envision 2021 roundtable

envision 2021 roundtable

building the beloved community

building the beloved community

Peacing in Transition

Peacing in Transition

Liberation Theology, Poverty, and the Choir

Liberation Theology, Poverty, and the Choir

Intercultural Understanding and the Choir

Intercultural Understanding and the Choir