Music & Peacebuilding
Kevin Shorner-Johnson
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A professional development network at http://musicpeacebuilding.com exploring intersections of peacebuilding, culture, sacredness, relationship, community, creativity, and imagination through research and story. Thinking deeply, we reclaim space for connection and care.
Available episodes
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Apr 7, 2022
Constructing an Activist Music Education with Juliet Hess
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.
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Mar 19, 2022
Tajik Maddâh, Healing, and Flexible Framing with Dr. Benjamin Koen
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.
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Feb 19, 2022
Sounding Tuvan Hospitalities of Place with Theodore Levin
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.
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Jan 29, 2022
Loving Intimacies and Interconnected Being
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.
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Dec 31, 2021
Surrendering to Hope and Joy with Sandeep Das
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.
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Dec 9, 2021
Season 3 Trailer
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.
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Jun 6, 2021
Stress & Mindfulness
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.
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May 2, 2021
Narratives of Trauma and Transcendent Hope with Tyné Angela Freeman
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.
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Mar 31, 2021
Collaboration, Belonging, and Dignity in Choral Contexts with Renae Timbie, CMT Pt. 3
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.
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Mar 8, 2021
CMT Part 2 - Empathy, Joy and Samba Reggae with Marcus Santos
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.
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Feb 22, 2021
Compassionate Music Teaching with Karin Hendricks Part 1/3
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.
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Feb 3, 2021
Son Jarocho, Community, and Liberatory Imagination: An Interview with Martha Gonzalez
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.
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Jan 4, 2021
Season 2 Trailer
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!
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Jul 26, 2020
The Embodied Poetry of Ritual and Symbol in Transformative Space
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.
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Jul 5, 2020
Drumming Empowered Lives of Community with Hong Le
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.
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Jun 11, 2020
The Humanizing Project: Addressing Racism and White Supremacy within Systems and Structures
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.
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May 24, 2020
Lived Walks of Humility: Anabaptist Reflections on Peace
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.
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May 4, 2020
Indic Traditions: Restorying Women and Ethics of Care through Indian Dance
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.
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Apr 6, 2020
Indic Traditions: Yogic Values of Peace and Nonviolence with Dr. Jeff Long
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.
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Mar 23, 2020
Oliver Mtukudzi Part 2: Creative Zimbabwean Peacebuilding with Vurayai Pugeni
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.
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Feb 2, 2020
Peace Agency and the Centrality of Relationship: A Conversation with Bridget Moix
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.
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Jan 13, 2020
Musicking Ecological Care and Rootedness
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.
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Dec 10, 2019
Musical Embodiments of Weight, Sound, and Time with Josh Ryan
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.
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Nov 11, 2019
Sonia de los Santos: Children's Voices of Joy and Playfulness
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.
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Oct 21, 2019
Decolonizing the Music Room with Brandi Waller-Pace
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.
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Sep 30, 2019
The Musical Politics of Belonging in 1917: A Conversation with Douglas Bomberger
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.
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Sep 9, 2019
Singing Connected Relationships in Prison Contexts with Dr. Mary Cohen
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.
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Aug 12, 2019
Yoga, Mindfulness, and Music Education
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.
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Jun 19, 2019
Plumbing the Depths of Connectedness
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.
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May 29, 2019
Building life skills and embracing musical cultures with World Music Drumming
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.
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May 28, 2019
Singing songs of mattering, caring, and altruism: Lived experiences within choral contexts
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.**
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May 16, 2019
The Countercultural Peacebuilding of Mister Rogers
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.
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May 16, 2019
Season 1 Trailer
Introducing season 1 of the new Music & Peacebuilding Podcast.
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