Music & Peacebuilding

Tacoma Refugee Choir Part 2

Fri, 16 May 2025 05:00:00 -0400

This second episode focuses on the Tacoma Refugee Choir and explores its mission, the philosophy of creating collaborative and shared spaces, placemaking, and a dialogue about the language of refugees and who gets to choose the language that defines the stories of who we are. Within decentered choral pedagogy, we examine notions of Empowering Song and the themes of risk and exploration within decentralized leadership. In relation to placemaking, we consider how the arts contribute to knitting together communities. Interwoven throughout this episode is a tapestry of Tacoma Refugee Choir performances and the voices of the singers reflecting on what this choir means to them.

The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.musicpeacebuilding.com - thinking deeply we reclaim space for connection and care.

Tacoma Refugee Choir Part 1

Wed, 07 May 2025 06:00:00 -0400

This first episode explores the backgrounds of Erin Guinup and Orlando Morales, directors of the Tacoma Refugee Choir. This episode looks at histories of belonging, how we cross thesholds into belonging, and the role of the voice and choir in cultivating belonging. Exploring Erin Guinup's travels abroad, we look at how travel opens our acceptance of hospitality and gives us the life changing experience of not belonging as we lean into the generosity of others. Finally, the episode concludes with an exploration of Orlando Morales' background in theatre, what theatre and story telling does for us, and how we benefit from holding space for stories at the margins.

Together Somehow pt3: Unfoldings, Thickenings, and Utopian visions

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 07:00:00 -0400

The conclusion of this series on dancefloors, electronic dance music, and house music examines how dancefloors offer space to imagine differently. The episode looks at how the synchronous movement and entrainment of bodies propels bodies to move closer, creating a sense of “thickening” that moves toward social cohesion. We look at the importance of utopian visions to peace and reconciliation work and how these visions may be both helpful and harmful. Finally, using a case study of Bjork, we look at how dancefloors offer an unraveling and unfolding that offers space for new ways of being.

Together Somehow pt 2: Intimacy, Belonging, and Paradox

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 04:00:00 -0400

Part two of this three-part series on dancefloors and belonging examines how we experience intimacy and a sense of vague belonging. We look at the complex conflicted feelings of our lives that introduce paradox in a queer approach to analysis that draws upon magical realism. We examine the notion of an intimate public and how our constructions and projects of a “we” inform our feelings of belonging. Finally, the episode looks at senses of vague belonging and vague intimacy that are most profoundly experienced on dancefloors. Interwoven are reflections on peacebuilding and how peacebuilders may use the arts to lubricate spaces for vague belonging and multilayered affective experience.

Together Somehow: Place, Space, and Belonging

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 05:00:00 -0400

Part one of the three-part series on Together, Somehow explores structures and politics of belonging, cultural tightness and looseness, and understandings of translocal culture. Looking specifically at nightlife and rave scene subculture, we look at how doors are managed and how individuals creates translocal bonds of belonging across different nightlife scenes. Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta is Associate Professor in Ethnomusicology and Popular Music Studies at the University of Birmingham. His book, Together Somehow: Music Affect, and Intimacy on the Dancefloor is published by Duke University Press

World Music Drumming Legacies and Visions

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 05:00:00 -0400

World Music Drumming offers opportunities for teachers to enrich general music curricula through ensemble-centered explorations of diverse musics. This episode with Patty Bourne, director of World Music drumming, explores the legacy of Will Schmid, impacts on teachers, expansions of musical visions, and the future of this curricula. Alongside the voices of Lynn Brinckmeyer, Michael Checco, Fabian Galli, Melissa Blum, and Tereasa Evans, we look at the lasting impact of Will Schmid’s vision for music education. With Patty Bourne, we open up conversations about how encounters with Afro-centric music-making expand our understandings of music and music literacy. We also look at how we center these encounters as ethical encounters that are filled with practices of care. The episode is interspersed with recordings of ensembles from the 2023 World Music Drumming workshop at Elizabethtown College.

Dignity, Kindness, and Social Identity

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 05:00:00 -0500

This interview with Dr. Mica Estrada explores her work in researching belonging, social identity, and kindness. Beginning with an exploration of impostor phenomena, we first explore stories about Donna Hicks’s direct experience at being affirmed and welcomed. Returning to Estrada’s research, we examine the impact of Dr. Kellman and the development of a social integration model of self-efficacy, identity, and values. This model has been used to explore the experiences of minoritized students in STEM fields and community responses to climate change. The episode closes with examinations of belonging and stereotype threat and the power of kindness and accompaniment as dignity-affirming practices.

Dignity and Self Expansion with Dr. Donna Hicks

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 05:00:00 -0500

This is the first in a two-part series on dignity, belonging, awe, humility, kindness, and identity. In this first episode, we spend time with Dr. Donna Hicks to discuss the magic of dignity language, a South African heritage of Mandela Consciousness and Ubuntu, and expansions of the self through pathways of humility, vulnerability, and awe.

Sound Connects Us: Belonging, Synchrony, Language, and Noise

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Part two of the conversation with Dr. Nina Kraus examines how we find our sense of belonging within our sonic worlds. Speaking of how sound connects us, we enter dialogues about modulations of harmony, synchrony, the power of singing, and how musical training may make us more emotionally sensitive to harmonic cues within human voice. Turning to bilingualism, we examine gains of bilingual abilities, including the grouping of auditory objects, attention, and inhibitory control. The podcast concludes with an examination of the violence of noise, wartime sound and trauma, and the cumulative health effects upon communities.

Sound Connects Us: Betweenness of Sonic Experience

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 05:00:00 -0400

In this two-part series with Dr. Nina Kraus we examine the neuroscience of our hearing brains, exploring how we make meaning from our sonic worlds. In episode 1, we look at the afferent and efferent journeys as our brains construct meaning from sonic experience. Examining reading, we understand how reading is powered by the strength of our recognition of frequency, harmonics, FM sweeps, and other ingredients. In Episode 2, we explore the impact of musical training and bilingual experience on comprehension, synchrony, abilities to hear sounds in noise, our belonging, and our empathetic capacities to respond to affect. The two-episode series concludes with an examination of the violence of noise and sound and resulting impacts on our health and wellbeing.

Dancing the Dance of Emotions Between Us

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Exploring the research of Batja Mesquita and other cultural psychologists and social psychologists, this episode examines how emotions are enacted between humans. Challenging the US-centric worldview that emotions are only within an individual, Mesquita notes that emotions are continuously enacted within culture and relationships. Our podcast contrasts differences in Japanese orientations with amae, omoiyuri, and haji or shame. Drawing upon research on happiness, we examine how happiness has changed over time and how happiness differs across cultures. Within Latin American cultures, notions of simpatía and familísmo construct happiness as relational and go-with-the flow agreeableness. The episode concludes with an examination of the relevance of emotions to conflict transformation and the importance of approaching emotional disconnects with a spirit of empathy, perspective taking, and curiosity.

Re-membering Ourselves Home through Breath and Voice

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 05:00:00 -0400

This episode explores the work of Taína Asili, her album Resiliencia, and the many voices that inspired her work in this album. As we understand notions of belonging, we explore Puerto Rican heritage, alternative voices of punk culture, language of re-membering, and the work of dismantling frameworks of scarcity to find deeper forms of belonging to the land and each other. Exploring the work of Sophia Smart, Leah Penniman, Sonia Renae Taylor, and others, we look at the role of the arts and an expansive sense of self in reclaiming our "own divine enoughness" (Renae Taylor). Taína Asili is a Puerto Rican activist/musician who weaves a fusion of musical styles and roles the explore liberation themes from her work in racial, gender, and climate justice movements. Her newest album, Resiliencia and the accompanying documentary series is a profound exploration of the stories of women of color from the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico about their stories of resilience.

Season Four Trailer

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0400

What does it mean to belong? This question and other fascinating questions on belonging will be explored in season four of the music and peacebuilding podcast. Our topics will include musical reclamations, musical identities, the neuroscience of sound and belonging, the psychology of our emotional lives, belonging and refugee choirs, peacebuilding, and the reparative work of world music drumming. In studying belonging we might sing a sense of home within ourselves, our relationships, and our sense of rootedness in place. And in a world of uncertainty, loneliness, and disconnection, our work of peacebuilding might be artistic affirmations and expressions of generous relations.

Dialogues of Courage, Wisdom, and Compassion with Olivier Urbain, Kevin Maher, and Anri Tanabe

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 04:00:00 -0500

This is the second in a two-episode series exploring the legacy of Daisaku Ikeda and the practice of dialogue. In this episode, we ask how wisdom, courage, and compassion is lived and practiced through music and dialogue. In particular, we look at how genuine dialogue might bring out the best in ourselves as we look to bring out the best in the other. Together with Olivier Urbain, Kevin Maher, and Anri Tanabe, we explore how this is lived out at the Min-on Music Research Institute and the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning and Dialogue.

Courage, Wisdom, and Compassion with Olivier Urbain: Ikeda’s Story

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 04:00:00 -0500

This is a two-episode series exploring the legacy of Daisaku Ikeda and the practice of dialogue through interconnectedness and a human revolution of courage, wisdom, and compassion. In this episode, we explore the legacy and history of Johan Galtung, Ikeda, Toda, Makiguchi, and Oliver Urbain’s groundbreaking work to explore music and peacebuilding. Exploring histories and models of violence, we come to a clearer, interdependent understanding of how direct, structural, and cultural violence are enacted within modern contexts.

Crossing Thesholds and Passages in Shakuhachi Practice with Kiku Day

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 06:00:00 -0500

This second episode of a two-part series with Kiku Day explores shakuhachi soundings of cultural translation and peacebuilding. With the famous honkyoku piece, Tamuke, we encounter the problems of cultural translation and how a piece about passages has been problematically recast as a requiem. The episode ends with a discussion of ryu or localized schools and the sounding of the robuki wave during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sounding Flow and Silence in Shakuhachi Practice with Kiku Day

Sat, 05 Nov 2022 08:00:00 -0400

This first episode of a two-part series with Kiku Day explores shakuhachi history and how the shakuhachi is taught and learned. Central to shakuhachi are traditions of flow and the use of silence or absence through the language of ma. Recordings from Wild Ways are generously provided by the composer, performer, and record label. 15ZWATlBgcYPn7lBZWgq

Reflective Celebrations of 10,000 Downloads

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 18:00:00 -0400

Bringing together Dan Shevock, Jon Rudy, and Tyné Angela Freeman, this is a reflective episode about the first three years of this podcast. Exploring notions of story, spirituality, theoretical framework, and the notion of a lived walk, this is a slow, expansive, and reflective move through the first three years of podcasting. Join our celebration!

Dynamic Samul Nori and Intentional Difference

Sat, 03 Sep 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Samul nori represents a modern percussion genre of four things - the changgo, buk, k’kwaenggwari , and ching. Originally known as p’ungmul and nongak this genre was transformed as dynamic as it entered concert spaces. Comprised of karak that dynamically shift weight and feel, this genre represents the balance of Yin and Yang and alignments with hohŭp, or the breath. Katherine In-Young Lee investigates the rhythmic form of Yŏngnam nongak and how a sectional rhythmic form might invite global encounters, breaking down cultural barriers, and performing a “unification of difference” that is central to peace. The episode features recordings from the Minnesota-based Shinparam.

Who We Be: Agency, Performativity, and Collegiate A Cappella

Sat, 06 Aug 2022 07:00:00 -0400

In this podcast, we take a tour with Dr. Brent Talbot on Talbot and Mantie’s research into American collegiate a cappella singing through the lens of agency, performativity, and leisure. Our performances of gender, sexuality, and identity are often rooted within larger frameworks and can be liberated from these frameworks in exploring new ways of being through musical practices. We close this two part series with the replay of a powerful speech that ties together agency, narrative, performativity, and Balinese collectivism.

Who We Be: Collectivist Agency and Balinese Gamelan

Sat, 23 Jul 2022 07:00:00 -0400

In this podcast, we take a tour with Dr. Brent Talbot Balinese gamelan through the lens of agency and performativity. Exploring diverse cultures of Bali and the US, we ask questions of how we construct agency and stories of our performances in collectivist and individualistic contexts. We take the time to explore Talbot’s resource, Gending Rare and the work of Made Taro. While US notions of agency assume individualistic contexts, we ask about the potential to live into agency that is embraced by community.

Building Changed Spaces for Peacebuilding in Filipino Contexts

Sat, 25 Jun 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Wendy Kroeker explores her research on peacebuilding and conflict resolution in the Philippines and the island of Mindanao. Exploring the root causes of violence, we examine histories of colonialism impacting Moro, Lumad, and the Filipino residents. The podcast examines notions of transgenerational trauma, group identity, and retutoring the body through the practice of dialogue. Kroeker holds the possibility of the Tinikling dance and the sway of bamboo as metaphors for peace.

Beauty Beneath the Surface: Composing Change with the Japanese Koto

Sat, 28 May 2022 07:00:00 -0400

Masayo Ishigure is a world-renowned performer of the Japanese koto. This conversation explores the legacies of Tadao Sawai, Kazue Sawai, Michio Miyagi, and Japanese traditions of composing for the koto. Exploring notions of wabi-sabi, the Meiji period, and hogaku, this podcast looks at the ethical demands of cross-cultural composition. We open up fundamental questions about how a culture changes and evolves while remaining rooted to traditions and heritage.

Constructing an Activist Music Education with Juliet Hess

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 07:00:00 -0400

Drawing upon the input of 20 activist musicians, Dr. Juliet Hess wrote a book about building curricula that support noticing, naming, and coming to voice. Building from Paulo Freire’s understandings from the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Hess offers a curriculum that asks students to construct songs, discuss soundscapes, and notice and name the structures that surround our expressions of music. Exploring the lessons of James Hwang, Lisa Vaugeouis, and Theresa Vu and Taiyo Na of the Magnetic North Band, we enter profound lessons that seek to hold space for student voices in music education curricula.

Tajik Maddâh, Healing, and Flexible Framing with Dr. Benjamin Koen

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 05:00:00 -0400

The music of the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan offers opportunities to explore the importance of poetry, rhythmic flexibility, and sacred space within wellness and healing. Dr. Benjamin Koen is a leader in medical ethnomusicology who has written texts and articles exploring Maddâh or Maddoh and the practice of this sung poetry as an expression that promotes psychological flexibility for new perspectives of healing. This episode explores Rumi’s Masnavi and spirituality with musical excerpts.

Sounding Tuvan Hospitalities of Place with Theodore Levin

Sat, 19 Feb 2022 07:00:00 -0500

Theodore Levin has a lifetime of scholarship in studying music, culture, and spirituality of Central Asia and Siberia. His book on Tuvan Singing opens new understandings of melodies of timbre and musical relations with ecology and the natural world. This episode draws together a rich conversation on hospitality, mimesis, sonic painting, intertwined listening, and the violence of uprooted imaginations.

Loving Intimacies and Interconnected Being

Sat, 29 Jan 2022 01:00:00 -0500

Dr. Jeffery Long explores delicate balance, love, longing, devotion, intimacy, and compassion in Hindu texts. Beginning with the story of Ushas and the arrival of dawn from the Rigveda, we journey to the dance of Shiva and Shakti and understandings of love and longing within Radha and Krishna. As we explore love, we encounter Bhakti and Bhajan, and the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh and Mahatma Gandhi.

Surrendering to Hope and Joy with Sandeep Das

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 06:00:00 -0500

This conversation with Sandeep Das explores the influence of Yo-Yo Ma, the generosity of musical service and Dehli to Damascus. This centers on the notion of incompleteness, shared heritages of poetry, maqams, and the unique stories that inform a wisdom of compassion. We enter deep notions of “surrender” in a bhajan beloved by Mahatma Gandhi and the HUM ensemble’s musical realization of surrender, longing, balance, and cyclical hope.

Season 3 Trailer

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 10:00:00 -0500

Coming in January 2022, season 3 on "Silk Roads of Peace." Season 3 of the Music & Peacebuilding podcast explores Silk Roads of peace, interviewing musicians, ethnomusicologists, and authors about music and peacebuilding along historical silk roads. In this season, our curiosity travels through cultures in India, Uzbekistan, Russia, China, Japan, Lebanon, Turkey, Indonesia, and much more. In studying diverse heritage and cultures, we might illumine a deeper understanding of who we are and imagine acts of restoration and repair that are informed by the beauty of our diversity.

Stress & Mindfulness

Sun, 06 Jun 2021 01:00:00 -0400

Dr. Elizabeth Dalton is an expert on stress, health behaviors, and how our beliefs impact our use of coping mechanisms. Together with Dr. Tomás Estrada, we explore research on stress and how a research-informed understanding may lead to healthy approaches to peace and social-emotional learning. We close by examining recent research on mindfulness and how mindfulness mediates stress and opens space for the vulnerability, uncertainty, and intellectual stretching needed for creativity and problem-solving.

Narratives of Trauma and Transcendent Hope with Tyné Angela Freeman

Sun, 02 May 2021 07:00:00 -0400

Tyné Angela Freeman’s work spans songwriting, ethnomusicology, recording, and authorship. This podcast explores her album and text by the title of “The Sky is Deeper Than the Sea” to discuss questions of trauma, transcendent hope, history, love and resilience. We also explore her earlier work of cross-cultural bridge-building and her research on Mamie Smith. Resting on a profound belief in hope, Freeman explores the reconciliation of traumatic histories through evocative approaches to story and time.

Collaboration, Belonging, and Dignity in Choral Contexts with Renae Timbie, CMT Pt. 3

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 01:00:00 -0400

This podcast explores notions of dignity, home, identity and collaborative music making with Renae Timbie. As the third and final podcast in a series on Compassionate Music Teaching, Karin Hendricks writes that Renae Timbie has an “instinctual ability to connect deeply with people no matter who they are, and no matter their worldview.” This podcast enters that conversation with Timbie, exploring her work with multicultural and refugee choirs and the search for home and identity across diverse cultures.

CMT Part 2 - Empathy, Joy and Samba Reggae with Marcus Santos

Mon, 08 Mar 2021 01:00:00 -0500

This 2nd of the Compassionate Music Teaching Series explores Afro-Centric musical traditions, Samba Reggae, and the importance of empathy in music teaching and learning with Marcus Santos. Santos is a native of Bahia, Brazil who commits his life to the study, teaching, and performance of Afro-Brazilian music and heritage. His network titled, Grooversity has built from traditions of Samba Reggae performance as a time-space for social change. As an episode of laughter, joy, and curiosity this episode explores the embodied joy and empathetic practice of Marcus Santos as is profiled by Karin Hendricks’ book Compassionate Music Teaching.

Compassionate Music Teaching with Karin Hendricks Part 1/3

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 01:00:00 -0500

This episode is the first of a three-part series exploring Dr. Karin Hendricks’ book on Compassionate Music Teaching. In this series, we will follow the profiles within the book to encounter lived practices of relationship, identity, community, voice, empathy, and dignity in music education. In this first episode, we explore Hendricks’ research on Suzuki, Steve Massey’s legacy of community, music, and leadership, Brian Michaud’s joy and curiosity, and the patient question-driven instruction of Dorothy Delay. This episode also contains a special treat with a tribute by Wynton Marsalis in honor of Steve Massey.

Son Jarocho, Community, and Liberatory Imagination: An Interview with Martha Gonzalez

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 01:00:00 -0500

Imaginations in peacebuilding and the arts are seen as almost a universal good. This podcast episode adds complexity, exploring how imaginations of a “modern” Mexico led to indigenous persecution and how imaginations of fame and prestige may be destructive to relationship. In contrast, Martha Gonzalez of Grammy-nominated Quetzal, explores liberatory imaginations of community, belonging, and women’s testimonio within the fully embodied, communal practice of Fandango and Son Jarocho. Exploring indigenous relationality, Fandango Fronterizo, and Chicana feminist scholarship, this conversation opens new perspectives of activism.

Season 2 Trailer

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 12:00:00 -0500

After a much-needed break, we are excited to announce the launch of Season 2! In season 2 we explore new questions about cultures of transformative healing with ethnomusicologists, musicians, educators, and peacebuilders. Join us as we explore episodes on Balinese Gamelan, Compassionate Music Teaching, Building Bridges of Storytelling, and much more!

The Embodied Poetry of Ritual and Symbol in Transformative Space

Sun, 26 Jul 2020 01:00:00 -0400

This final episode of season 1 explores ritual, symbol, and peace building with Dr. Lisa Shirch. Dr. Shirch is senior research fellow for the Toda Peace Institute, Senior Fellow with the Alliance for Peacebuilding, and Visiting Scholar at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. We explore the “rationality” of ritual, the power of symbol and transformative space, and the dark side of ritual when it is used for xenophobia and hate.

Drumming Empowered Lives of Community with Hong Le

Sun, 05 Jul 2020 01:00:00 -0400

Hong Le is a National Board Certified elementary music specialist who teaches workshops in World Music Drumming Curriculum. We sat down to talk about her belief in community, universal talent, and the ability of music teachers to empower student voices. Weaving in her own story as the child of Vietnamese refugees, Hong Le also speaks to the centrality of hospitality, community, and generosity in building compassionate lives.

The Humanizing Project: Addressing Racism and White Supremacy within Systems and Structures

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 12:00:00 -0400

The second in our Anabaptist theology series features an interview with Dr. Drew Hart of Messiah College on his book “Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism.” Our conversation looks at issues of embodied solidarity, ground-up thinking and organizing, systemic racism, reconciliation, dignity, and hope.

Lived Walks of Humility: Anabaptist Reflections on Peace

Sun, 24 May 2020 01:00:00 -0400

Embracing a diversity of voices and musicians, this podcast explores the beautiful interwoven thoughts and expressions of what it means to live the Anabaptist walk of peace, community, witness, and humility. Featuring Rev. Pam Reist, Dr. Drew Hart, Dr. Jeff Bach, and Dr. Don Kraybill, the Oasis Chorale, the Nigerian Women’s Choir, and Frances Miller and Daryl Snider of Sopa Sol, we explore the intersections of history and the lived, and embodied walk of faith and love.

Indic Traditions: Restorying Women and Ethics of Care through Indian Dance

Mon, 04 May 2020 01:00:00 -0400

This podcast explores the artistry of Sreyashi Dey's interpretations of the Mahabharata through the Odissi style of Classical Indian Dance. Dey sought to restory the life of Hidimba, a minor female character in the Mahabharata who is marginalized within structures of ethnic and class power. Alongside this artistic narrative, we explore Vrinda Dalmiya's exploration of feminist care ethics and the storied contrast between masculine order and principle against the vulnerable, embodied, and contextually situated ethic of care. Our exploration of care and restorying deepens our notions of care and narrative within peace work.

Indic Traditions: Yogic Values of Peace and Nonviolence with Dr. Jeff Long

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 01:00:00 -0400

Together with Dr. Jeff Long, Elizabethtown College scholar on Indic religions and philosophies, we launch the first of a two-part series exploring Yogic values and Classical Indian Dance. Our discussion centers on Dr. Long's United Nations speeches regarding peace, nonviolence, ahimsa, and Hindu and Yogic values. Exploring Ahimsa, we examine the interconnectedness of care for one another and the centrality of sound and story in Hindu traditions.

Oliver Mtukudzi Part 2: Creative Zimbabwean Peacebuilding with Vurayai Pugeni

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 01:00:00 -0400

Our first in this series examined the music of Oliver Mtukudzi. In this episode, we extend this conversation, interviewing Vurayai Pugeni about his work as a peacebuilder with Grow Hope Globally, the Mennonite Central Committee, and Score Against Poverty. We explore the meaning of Tuku music in Pugeni's life and work. And then we turn to a fascinating story of the "Men Can Cook" cooking competition - An initiative that found an innovative and creative challenge to patriarchal structures and resulting food insecurities for families, women, and children.

Peace Agency and the Centrality of Relationship: A Conversation with Bridget Moix

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 21:00:00 -0500

Bridget Moix is an advocate, educator, activist, and leader of the US Office of Peace Direct. She believes in the power of local people to build lasting peace. In this conversation we encounter themes within her book, Choosing Peace: Agency and Action in the Midst of War, to explore the notion of peace agency and how our best work is bounded in relationship. Weaving together the teachings of James Waller and Elise Boulding, we explore our innate capacity for peace and relationship, and the importance of families, friendships, and communities in rooting our advocacy and care to place. The episode concludes with a joyful exploration of hope, choice, and imagination led by the laughter and music of the Bluegrass Ambassadors and members of a Ugandan community.

Musicking Ecological Care and Rootedness

Mon, 13 Jan 2020 04:00:00 -0500

In this podcast we explore the beautiful, creative, and challenging work of Dan Shevock's Eco-literate music pedagogy. His notions of the local and rootedness challenge teachers to live into a sense of being in relationship to our locality. A profound scholar and poet, Shevock weaves together strands of philosophy, theology, poetry, music, and science to imagine the radical interconnectedness of an ecology of being. Our discussion speaks to meditative presence, being rather than having, and the balance of conservation and liberation. Interwoven with our conversations are Dan Shevock's poems, whale songs, soundscapes of the National Park Service, and the soundscapes preserved and musicked by preeminent acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton. May we return our ears to the soundscape of our presence, finding the connection that repairs our ecosystem of relationship.

Musical Embodiments of Weight, Sound, and Time with Josh Ryan

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 10:00:00 -0500

Josh Ryan is Department Chair and Professor of Percussion at Baldwin Wallace University and a well-known clinician within the World Music Drumming workshops. Known for the depth of his knowledge, his musicianship, and the approachableness of his presence, he is well-loved by World Music Drumming participants all-over. Our conversation today is an exploration of the music of Africa-West, the importance of musical embodiment, and the rebalancing of visual-focused musicianship with aural, listening-centered and embodied traditions.

Sonia de los Santos: Children's Voices of Joy and Playfulness

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 04:00:00 -0500

Play is a rich site for cultivating creativity, empathy, voice, and finding out who we are. Sonia De Los Santos is an award-winning Children's music artist who models the essence of play, creativity, joy, and voice through her music. In this episode, we explore her music, listening to sounds of Cumbia and Son Jarocho, while simultaneously exploring her lyrics and empowering outreach to children. If play is the heart-space of creativity, imagination, and empathy, then musical play is the work of musical peacebuilding.

Decolonizing the Music Room with Brandi Waller-Pace

Mon, 21 Oct 2019 06:00:00 -0400

Brandi Waller-Pace created Decolonizing the Music Room as a website and Facebook group to use research to inform educators about decolonizing and help develop culturally competent pedagogy. In centering the voices of educators from marginalized groups, they imagine instructional practices, repertoire, and lived presence as bringing restoration and change to oppressive practices. This particular podcast looks at the importance of moving beyond theory to encounter the lived experiences of oppression, hate, and brutality. In so doing, we may musick into deeper forms of love, compassion, and care.

The Musical Politics of Belonging in 1917: A Conversation with Douglas Bomberger

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 06:00:00 -0400

We discuss questions of belonging, boundaries, and the role of music in war as we examine the tumultuous year of 1917 that led America into World War I. Dr. Douglas Bomberger leads us in the study of four characters: Carl Muck, Ernestine Schuman-Heink, Fritz Kreisler, and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Through the lives of these characters, we study the role of the National Anthem in articulating belonging, traumas of war, exoticism, and whether music is an instrument of peace or a tool for war.

Singing Connected Relationships in Prison Contexts with Dr. Mary Cohen

Mon, 09 Sep 2019 06:00:00 -0400

Dr. Mary Cohen is a leading scholar exploring community music making within prison contexts. Our conversation explores the redemptive, restorative, and connective empowerment of choral singing as building imaginations of possible selves and ubuntu, or connectedness. This podcast blends conversation, quotes from Andy Douglas' book Redemption Songs: A Year in the Life of a Community Prison Choir, and sound clips from the Oakdale Community Choir.

Yoga, Mindfulness, and Music Education

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 13:00:00 -0400

Students often arrive at the doors of our classrooms deeply anxious and disconnected from their fully embodied presence. With Ms. Laura Norris, we have a conversation about the practice of yoga and the importance of mindfulness in grounding and centering our beings. This topic explores the foundations of teacher self-care as well as strategies for centering students for more fully embodied, and centered musical practice.

Plumbing the Depths of Connectedness

Wed, 19 Jun 2019 11:00:00 -0400

Our guest Jon Rudy once reflected the importance of moving to a place of gratitude, where we live into deep gratitude for every breath we take. This episode explores gratitude for a magical course in Artistic Peacebuilding, the wisdom of Jon Rudy, and Mellon Grant funding that made this possible. The conversation explores connectedness, spirituality, space, and student work products in the arts.

Building life skills and embracing musical cultures with World Music Drumming

Wed, 29 May 2019 11:00:00 -0400

Mr. James Mader was among the first to pilot the World Music Drumming curriculum under the direction of Dr. Will Schmid. Our conversation explores the power of pursuing World Music Drumming as intentional curriculum. James also explores the potential for embracing diverse identities, empowering middle school general music students, and building life skills with intention, love, and care.

Singing songs of mattering, caring, and altruism: Lived experiences within choral contexts

Tue, 28 May 2019 07:00:00 -0400

Much of Dr. Elizabeth Parker's work has sought to listen to the lived experiences of students and teachers within choral environments. Parker writes of how structures and intentions have an impact upon mattering and the development of healthy identities and caring communities. I join Elizabeth Parker to have a conversation about the intersections of her research into identity and belonging within choral contexts. *Special thanks to Dr. Anne Gross, the Fenice choir, for providing a recording of El Noi de la Mare, a Catalan carol arr. Anne Gross for use in this podcast episode.**

The Countercultural Peacebuilding of Mister Rogers

Thu, 16 May 2019 15:00:00 -0400

Michael Long is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Elizabethtown College. He is the author of more than 11 books, writing beautiful, approachable biographical books that take a deep look at spirituality, non-violence, peace, civil rights, and forms of civil disobedience. In this book, Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers, Long takes a deep look at the dilemmas that Fred Rogers faced, where he was a countercultural voice of love and care, and where he seemed to stumble as he encountered deep, ethical dilemmas. We explore Rogers' presence, small acts of peacebuilding, and his capacity to inspire moral imagination.

Season 1 Trailer

Thu, 16 May 2019 15:00:00 -0400

Introducing season 1 of the new Music & Peacebuilding Podcast.