Difference between revisions of "Giving voice to hope"

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= Giving Voice to Hope Projects =
 
= Giving Voice to Hope Projects =
  
* [[Buduburam CD project | Giving Voice to Hope:  Music of Liberian Refugees]] - completed audio CD
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* [[Buduburam CD project | Giving Voice to Hope:  Music of Liberian Refugees]] - completed audio CD with 26 page booklet on the Liberian conflict and music in West Africa
 
* [http://bit.ly/shadowbudu Shadow in Buduburam] video short, introducing ''Refugee Music TV''. More episodes to come...
 
* [http://bit.ly/shadowbudu Shadow in Buduburam] video short, introducing ''Refugee Music TV''. More episodes to come...
 
* [[Songs for sustainable development and peace]].  A series of songs promoting peace and development in war-torn societies, using the sung word to raise awareness locally and globally...
 
* [[Songs for sustainable development and peace]].  A series of songs promoting peace and development in war-torn societies, using the sung word to raise awareness locally and globally...
  
 
For more information contact [mailto:michaelf@ualberta.ca Michael Frishkopf].
 
For more information contact [mailto:michaelf@ualberta.ca Michael Frishkopf].

Revision as of 10:18, 11 October 2012

short URL for this page: http://bit.ly/givingv2h


Overview

Giving voice to hope is a rubric for musical participatory action research projects centered on development work in support of current and recent refugees. These projects aim to use music to heal and rebuild war-torn societies by promoting sustainable development and lasting peace, empowering locally, while raising awareness (and compassion) globally, facilitating the renaissance of musical community and supporting musicians' training and careers, forging a harmonious culture of music.

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.

Music also raises global awareness and compassion, engaging empathy, counteracting the all-too-human tendency to dehumanize the suffering of “others”, those who seem unlike “us”. Music of refugees recounts humanity’s suffering, while confirming suffering’s humanity. Such music reminds us that “us” is always the entire human family, while giving voice to hope, against all odds, in song.

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. As all refugees are soon to return, our goal is to establish an NGO deploying music for development.

Giving Voice to Hope Projects

For more information contact Michael Frishkopf.