Do you ever feel alone in the world? Let me be the first to assure you that you are not. I know this because while I have a tendency to feel blue and alone in my struggles, when I put these thoughts down on virtual paper and send them out into the world I often…
Category: folk music
Why share our stories?
Sharing our stories is important because it helps each of us to believe we have innate value just by virtue of existing. We live in a time where sharing vulnerability and authentic truth is not encouraged. It is better to avoid pain or suffering and to keep it inside in a hidden place. Many of the individuals…
It’s a long story
Sarah and I are very excited that our project, “On the Move: Poems and Songs of Migration” has been chosen as one of five finalists for the 2021 Amateo Award for arts participation projects across Europe. Even with the added stress of travel during the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, we are planning (in shallah) to travel…
Give me a chance
Sarah and I are thrilled to have been chosen as one of five finalists for the 2021 Amateo Award for volunteer projects promoting arts and participation in communities in Europe. We are so grateful to Amateo for recognizing our project, “On the Move: Poems and Songs of Migration.” We are honored to be among five…
Mondays On the Move: Habibi, Habibi
Since our last “Mondays on the Move” post, movement has become something of a distant memory and luxury. Since meeting for our Laugh at Life performance in Brussels center by the pissing dog statue, movement came to a standstill with the implementation of a second lockdown in both Belgium and France and across the EU….
Mondays On the Move: The hand that hurts
Now that I am living in France, Sarah and I are not able to visit in person with each other every week as we have been so lucky to do these past several years. In anticipation of this paradigm shift, we performed our migration songs in special places around Brussels so we could share them…
Mondays On the Move: Soyons unis
Today, Sarah and I met in Ypres, Belgium to visit The Menin Gate. Read on to hear about each of our accounts. From Marieke So far for our “Mondays On the Move” project, Sarah and I have been able to meet and discover hidden places in and around Brussels. Now that I am living just…
Mondays On the Move: Give me a chance
This week’s “Mondays On the Move” song is called “Give me a chance.” We wrote this song with a young man from Yemen, who told us he was so grateful to Belgium for welcoming him. All he wanted was to be given a chance to give something back in return. This year has been a…
Mondays On the Move: Let me be free
It’s Monday and time for another “Mondays On the Move!” This week, Sarah and I quite literally on the move in different corners of the same country. Sarah is on holiday in the south of France with her family. I have been driving around the northern Nord-Pas-de-Calais region with my husband and our big white…
Mondays On the Move: I am the change
For our fourth installment of our new “Mondays On the Move” project to promote freedom of movement for all people, Sarah and I share a song we wrote with an asylum seeker from Gaza, who we met at the Fedasil Arrival Centre in 2017. With him, we wrote many songs. This song is called “I…
Marieke is Guiding Song 