Difference between revisions of "Giving voice to hope"

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''Giving voice to hope'' is a rubric for several different participatory action research projects centered on music of current and former refugees, all aiming towards healing and rebuilding war-torn societies, raising global awareness about them (and compassion for them), and supporting musical community.  These efforts are currently centered on Liberian popular musicians living in Ghana's Buduburam refugee camp, or recently returned to Liberia.
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''Giving voice to hope'' is a rubric for participatory action research projects centered on music of current and former refugees. These projects aim to use music to heal and rebuild war-torn societies by promoting sustainable development and lasting peace, while raising global awareness (and compassion), and supporting the renaissance of musical community and musicians' training and careers.   
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Music is vital to human life, like food and air. Of this there is no better proof than the prevalence of music-making under the most adverse conditions, including the extraordinary efflorescence of music in refugee camps. Disasters (whether natural or man-made) and the forced migrations that follow are chaotic, cacophonous. But in refugee camps life’s regular rhythms begin once again to beat. A soundscape of noise gradually tunes into music of striking emotional depth, testimony to the remarkable resilience of the human spirit.
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Refugee music isn’t founded upon social harmony. Rather music is a technique for harmonizing, a strategy for survival: transmitting social values, restoring individual and collective balance. Music – expressing the inexpressible in human experience – is catharsis and consolation. Music creates connections, fosters reconciliations, builds communities transcending ethnic difference. Music empowers, raising consciousness beyond necessities of subsistence. Music helps people forget their pain, remember themselves and re-imagine their futures. Music critiques power, protests injustice, instills hope and fortitude. Such music can serve as a progressive force for social change.
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These participatory action research projects are currently centered on collaborations with Liberian popular musicians living in Ghana's Buduburam refugee camp, or who have recently returned to Liberia.
  
 
* [[Buduburam CD project]]
 
* [[Buduburam CD project]]

Revision as of 05:13, 5 July 2012

Giving voice to hope is a rubric for participatory action research projects centered on music of current and former refugees. These projects aim to use music to heal and rebuild war-torn societies by promoting sustainable development and lasting peace, while raising global awareness (and compassion), and supporting the renaissance of musical community and musicians' training and careers.

Music is vital to human life, like food and air. Of this there is no better proof than the prevalence of music-making under the most adverse conditions, including the extraordinary efflorescence of music in refugee camps. Disasters (whether natural or man-made) and the forced migrations that follow are chaotic, cacophonous. But in refugee camps life’s regular rhythms begin once again to beat. A soundscape of noise gradually tunes into music of striking emotional depth, testimony to the remarkable resilience of the human spirit.

Refugee music isn’t founded upon social harmony. Rather music is a technique for harmonizing, a strategy for survival: transmitting social values, restoring individual and collective balance. Music – expressing the inexpressible in human experience – is catharsis and consolation. Music creates connections, fosters reconciliations, builds communities transcending ethnic difference. Music empowers, raising consciousness beyond necessities of subsistence. Music helps people forget their pain, remember themselves and re-imagine their futures. Music critiques power, protests injustice, instills hope and fortitude. Such music can serve as a progressive force for social change.

These participatory action research projects are currently centered on collaborations with Liberian popular musicians living in Ghana's Buduburam refugee camp, or who have recently returned to Liberia.

For more information contact Michael Frishkopf.