Emmanuel Jal is a former Sudanese child soldier who has gone through a massive transformation, transmuting his angst and pain into positivity through music. What follows is a testament to music's power to overcome the darkness and aid in true transformation.
Here are two excellent videos with Emmanuel - first his interview with CNN, followed by his talk to the TED audience.
LINKS: Emmanuel Jal's WARchild album on Amazon.com
"Music may achieve the highest of all missions: She may be a bond between nations, races and states, who are strangers to one another in many ways; She may unite what is disunited, and bring peace to what is hostile."
[Dr. Max Bendiner]
Today we're conducting an interview with one of the filmmakers of "Playing For Change" - a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. Using a mobile recording studio, the creators recorded musicians across the globe, collaborating for an amazing album and documentary and connecting people throughout the world.
RockOm's interview will be released next week, but in the meantime check out a few of the videos and trailers from this amazing project.
Trailer
Don't Worry
Stand By Me
Nagoya holds Global Drum Circle on Hiroshima Anniversary
From upbeatdrumcircles.com
Children danced while a balloon of the world floated about the rhythms of Japan, Iraq, Native America and India. Rhythm is about timing; taking a sad occasion and turning it into a beat of transformation.
At the recent Japanese Peace Drum Circle held in Nagoya, over one hundred Japanese, American, and invited guests from India and Nepal took the sadness and shock of the Hiroshima bombing in 1945 which killed 140,000 Japanese and transformed it into a celebration of Peace through drumming on the anniversary day!
According to Ms. Yasuyo, “it was beautiful to have families participate for the first time with everyone playing together. In the temples we pray alone, but through the drum circle we got to pray together.”
Christine Stevens of UpBeat Drum Circles brought rhythms from Native American to Iraq to be played in the intention of peace for the world. According to Stevens, “We practiced peace-building using a protocol developed in Iraq that wove drum circles with cultural sharing.”
The event was created by Ms. Yasuyo of Music Together of West Nagoya and Happy Beat Drum Circles and supported by Yamaha Music Trading, Drum Circle Facilitator Association of Japan, and REMO.
“We feel this is a global trend of cultural peace-building through drum circles. I look forward to seeing more and more in the world as we move towards peace, joy, and creativity!,” said Stevens.
As the US celebrates its Independence Day this weekend, we share with you these old church hymn lyrics as a sort of meditation. What a beautiful and balanced hymn - celebrating one's country of origin as well as recognizing the larger picture and world community. Words by Lloyd Stone.
"This is my song, O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my sacred shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating,
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine."My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight, too, and clover,
and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
Oh, hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
a song of peace for their land and for mine."May truth and freedom come to every nation;
may peace abound where strife has raged so long,
That each may seek to love and build together
a world united, righting every wrong --
A world united in its love for freedom,
proclaiming peace together in one song."
Larisa Stow and her band Shakti Tribe are dedicated to bringing people of different cultures and religions together in a spirit of peace. Through silky, gentle ballads, heartfelt kirtan-like songs and raging rock tracks, Larisa and company sing of the Divine and invite the listener to experience - and be - LOVE.
"Alive was inspired by my gratitude for life - the full spectrum of life - and the commitment to rise up and embrace the love and all that is good within each of us in the face of all that is broken. It is also the recognition that as suffering and pain exists out in the world, it also exists within me and it is my responsibility to heal that within myself so that I am able to have a greater compassion to help alleviate the suffering on the planet." (Larisa Stow)
Click to Play
EXCLUSIVE PROMOTION: The RockOm community can download Larisa's song "Alive" for one week only (February 24 - March 2nd) for FREE:
TIME'S UP! SORRY!
(Right-click, "Save As...")
Like what you hear? Hear and purchase other songs at LarisaStow.com or on iTunes.
More on Larisa Stow and Shakti Tribe:
- Larisa's INTERVIEW with RockOm.net (podcast)
- Promo / Montage (YouTube)
- "Amma" video (YouTube)
With Ram Dass, Odetta and Christine Stevens
It was while attending the Seva Foundation’s 30th Anniversary Concert in Oakland, CA on September 27, 2008 that the conversation began. The line-up for the evening included Ruthie Foster and Nina Gerber, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, David Crosby and Graham Nash, Elvis Costello, and Los Lobos. The night was filled with great music by some great artists, some of whom you could say have changed the world as we know it. Perched in our seats in Oakland's Paramount Theater at intermission, we began to discuss whether music does indeed have the power to change the world or if that is just a poetic, though inaccurate, perspective.
Then we remembered what the great folk singer Ms. Odetta said in an earlier interview with RockOm. When asked by Tom Crenshaw if she thought music still has the power to change the world, Odetta replied,
“Not the music, not the music… It’s people who are actually on the firing line that we’re supporting, that are doing the changing of the world. Person by person, there is some power there.”
The people Ms. Odetta were speaking of are the Seva workers and social activists in the field - the doctors, nurses, organizers, planners and support staff who are actually doing the changing. It’s really not about the music… or is it?
So we went to the top with this, asking Ram Dass, renowned author, spiritual teacher and board member of the Seva Foundation about the work of groups like Seva and music's transformational potential.
RockOm: Thinking back 30 years ago to the beginning of the Seva Foundation, what would you say was the driving force behind the founding members' aspirations and has Seva exceeded your expectations as to what the founders hoped to accomplish?
Ram Dass: The original purpose of Seva was two-fold: social action and using it for spiritual growth (Karma Yoga). Though the years the social action (relieving of suffering) has become more of the primary focus.
RockOm: What are your thoughts on how, year after year, music has helped Seva raise such awareness of its purpose and mission?
Ram Dass: Our music events led by Wavy Gravy have brought us money for our projects and publicity for the foundation.
RockOm: Do you believe music has the ability to heal and relieve suffering on a profound level as with other fields of service?
Ram Dass: I believe that the music itself at these events have healed the audiences, and we at Seva, who heal the blind, need music for our healing as well.
In our continued effort to explore this topic, we sought out Christine Stevens from UpBeat Drum Circles who, along with the UpBeat team’s Ashti Drum Project, recently returned from their second trip to Iraq. While there they served children with their music through Kurdistan Save the Children, as well as Iraqi women at two shelters in Suliyamania.
“There is only a one-letter difference between performer and reformer,” Christine commented. “Ashti Drum in Iraq has demonstrated that music and drum circles are successful models for transformation through cross-cultural collaboration.”
But what about music healing and serving profoundly, as with other fields of service such as the medical field? Christine went on to clarify,
“First of all, let’s define the term ‘heal.' Healing is restoring into one's life what is missing, becoming whole. Secondly, let’s define the term ‘healer.’ In indigenous history, the healer was both a musician and physician - the shaman. So, at its roots, music has been part of healing for centuries.”
Christine concluded,
“Let’s empower people to take an active role in their own healing and health. In our research, positive biological changes occur when people drum together (www.remo.com/health). Because of this research, we could go into Iraq with an evidence-based program that was accepted by all religious sects for the medicinal purposes of alleviating the suffering - both physical and psychological - of the survivors of the war in Iraq. Do I believe music can be healing? I literally bet my life on it going to Iraq... and it worked!”
So does music “change the world” or does it simply inspire the hands and feet of the change-makers? Like most questions, the answer is less “either-or” and more “both-and.” Or perhaps most likely, the question needs no answer at all. In the end, who really cares? It is all one process and one cycle. Perhaps a better lens in which to view such profound questions is best summed up by what Christine offered with regards to intention:
"As Krishna Das says, ‘If you want enlightenment; feed people.’ Music is food for the soul. Share your music. Let your gifts shine. Go to a shelter and sing. It is time for music to be unleashed as a powerful force of healing and cross-cultural peace-making. Music immediately removes barriers and creates dialogue and connections. Even the Dali Lama recommends music sharing festivals for peace-making in the Middle East.”
May the music-makers continue making their music, those in the field continue their work and each of us do what we can to make a positive impact. And, “person by person,” personally and publicly, alone and together, may we all work to, in Gandhi's words, “be the change we wish to see in the world.”
[By Trevor Harden (Trevor@RockOm.net) and Tom Crenshaw (Tom@RockOm.net)]
_________________
The Seva Foundation is a non-profit foundation in Berkeley California that was founded back in 1978 by some very compassionate individuals such as Drs. Larry and Girija Brilliant, Dr. Nicole Grasset, spiritual teacher Ram Dass, Berkeley activists Wavy Gravy and Jahanara Romney. The Seva Foundation currently is working to:
To find out more or to donate a one-time or reoccurring tax-deductible donation, please visit www.seva.org.
Info about Odetta: www.mc-records.com/html/odetta_landing.html
Info about Ram Dass and his album: www.ramdass.org
Info about Christine Stevens: www.upbeatdrumcircles.com
[Edited by Andrew Hoogheem]
Email Us!
RockOm RSS Feed
RockOm Facebook
RockOm MySpace
RockOm Twitter
RockOm YouTube
RockOm Viddler
