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…
Tag: voice
The best is yet to come
In January 2016, I began volunteering at a refugee asylum center near the center of Brussels. I did a lot of research and contacted many places and organizations before happening upon one that gave a positive response to my request to offer songwriting from stories. When I participated in an entrepreneur accelerator program in Lowell,…
Artist or Busk
Do you ever feel like you are in limbo? In my post-doctorate life, I feel the weight of what comes next. It haunts me day in and day out. When I ponder the question, it is clear in my mind what I would like to be doing, but the desire is a daunting one to…
A need for sharing our stories
Time banks are on the rise, and a skill I am offering to my community is that of songwriting. I offered a songwriting demonstration at the Merrimack Valley Time Exchange Skills Showcase last night in downtown Lowell at the LTC. It was a work night, but many folks came out to participate. I played a…
Songwriting Step III: The painful part
The third step in a Story-to-Song is to sing. This is the part that is my least favorite. My inner critic tends to be at its most powerful and convincing at this early stage of the songwriting process. This is also the roughest of cuts. I gently tap the red record button on my ipod…
What’s in a song?
What makes a song a song? If a child is sitting in the bathtub singing away, is that a song? One of my favorite Pete Seeger songs is one of this very kind. Malcolm’s idea of a song: To me, a song is something that when you start to sing you are carried by each…
Marieke is Guiding Song 