For a long time, I used to think that musicians have the power to become the voice of the people and to speak for people; communicating messages of peace, pain, celebration, mourning, and more. Musicians, we have the power, honor and responsibility to paradigm shift the world; to radically transform it to make it mo’ better. We can add melody, harmony, and rhythm to already powerful words, and we can also add energy, vibe and the spirit of the ancestors when we orchestrate words, speeches and chants. Although I no longer think that musicians (or anyone else) can become the voice of someone else, or speak for another one person or group, I am in awe at our ability to bring a community together, to make them feel like they belong, and to amplify their message in the spirit of collective liberation.

THE PEACE POETS

In the summer of 2018, I got to connect with the hermanos from The Peace Poets while we worked together to do cultural work with communities in San Diego that have been affected by ICE and the current administration. For three days, we facilitated musicking circles with families and community members, listened to their narratives, shared “palabra” (words based in truth and power) and chanted, sung and drummed. The Peace Poets led song workshops, informally teaching the community songs that they had previously written about immigration, as well as co-writing new chants and songs with the community. I facilitated body percussion cyphers, bucket drumming beats and workshops on how to make percussion instruments from found objects; which we did with kids as young as three! Then we gathered at “Chicano Park” in San Diego, and marched, drummed, sung and chanted with the community; not for the community. After the march, we all went for chilaquiles and aguas de fruta and continued the music making at the place where we were staying. That day, my philosophy and praxis for music education changed for the better.  

INFORMAL MUSIC EDUCATION AS A MEANS TO BEING PRESENT IN THE MOMENT

During this four day musical and cultural exchange, nobody taught anyone any formal lessons, and there weren’t an “assessments”, lesson plans, or rubrics or even essential questions. Yet, everybody excelled at making music, being engaged, thinking critically about issues, working collaboratively, sharing vulnerability, singing in tune and celebrating how good it sounded, singing out of tune and helping each other hear the notes because skill doesn’t count as much as community. Folks worked together to over pronounce the words for each other so they wouldn’t forget the words of the chants, and to repeat the songs 50 times longer than they would have wanted or needed so that everyone in the community learned all the words, the melodies and song form. Brother Frankie, one of the Peace Poets says: “You have to trust the power of the people and their ability to hold each other and to keep the song going”, (paraphrase) as a way to calm the anxiety of people around not writing down the words. This kind of music making is what I yearn for, and what in my honest opinion, the system of music education must strive for; musical greatness, interpersonal interdependence, and critical consciousness through music making. 

SONG FOR TAMIR RICE - THE PEACE POETS: ORCHESTRATING SOCIAL JUSTICE CHANTS IN POPULAR MUSICAL ENSEMBLES AS A MEANS FOR COMPOSITION, ARRANGEMENT AND IMPROVISATION

I teach at a very diverse, fairly integrated, progressive, restorative justice-based high school in New York City. My after school music clubs start with a circle discussion. (actually, most of my classes begin with some sort of circle activity; discussion, singing, rapping, body percussion)

I started the circle/class by telling them that I had an activity that I wanted to share with them, and I asked them if it would be OK with them if we did my lesson, instead of working on the songs they had been working on (Beatles, Arctic Monkeys, and H.E.R.). 

They were hesitant and even annoyed but I pleaded, and told them that I had been deeply touched by a music video of a band of musicians who I am friends with, and that it would mean a lot to me if we could explore such topics together, knowing that it would also mean a lot to them. 

I asked: What do we know about Tamir Rice? 

Students said: “That he was very young when he was killed by police”, “Toy Gun”, and they made connections with them being older than he was when he was murdered. They made connections with Tamir’s experiences of being a young kid of color, and I listened and stayed attentive to the students’ feelings, and energies. 

I then played the music video for them, and gave them a post it note, so they would write down anything they wanted to:

The students googled what DOJ meant, and then we talked about the power of a multiracial, multigender community speaking together. Then we learned the chant along the video; which we must have played about 10-15 times.

Next, I framed learning song with the following question(s): “How are we bound to one another’s liberation/freedom and how can we come together to do so as musicians? 

One student immediately said, “We could make up chords to this chant”. He grabbed a guitar and his bandmate grabbed her bass and they began finding the beginner notes of the chant. 

The bass player interrupted, “This song should be sad but also powerful, like a war call”. Then another guitar player said he had been working on blues inspired riffs. The keyboard player decided to start the chord progression on D minor, and so the guitar player improvised (instantly composed) the riff: C-D-F-G-F-D). The singer played around with the melody while adding embellishments, and keeping a sad, yet hopeful texture to her voice; which she said was the most important part of the song’s message. I agreed with her. The only “formal” music instruction I did, was regarding the i-V7-i chord progression; so we talked about the i chord, in this case being D minor, being “home” or “Tamir”, and the v7 dominant chord being “A7” or “Redemption, Justice, no more Black Kids dying at the hands of the police”; somewhere we yearn to reach, and then bringing it back to D minor; i chord. 

The students and I worked for about two hours making this song, and talking about police brutality, teenagehood, racism, music, school and hope for a different kind of world. Then we made this video to document it:

In the spirit of how we learned this song, please check out the Peace Poets on Youtube,and if you and or your district can afford to, please hire them for a workshop and or performance. They are culture bearers and the keepers of the light in the rich and strong lineage of musician activists.