Music Makes the World a Better Place

And I'm planning to document how...

Apologies faithful readers. If you're reading this, you must at least have some faith in me, especially since I've abandoned you since March, just slightly less time than I have not been going to the gym. I believe the two are related. Discipline is the name of the game, whether with writing or working out or with trying to accomplish anything. And, no surprise, sometimes discipline eludes me. For whole swaths of time. And then, almost magically, it reappears. I started going to the gym again and…here I am.

As do all things, I morph and change with time. The last of my writings were about my incredible trip to Senegal. And while I offered up many posts of my experience, I began to lose the thread the longer I was home and back in my life.

I loved writing the weekly calendar and keeping up with what all the incredible musicians I’ve gotten to know over the years are doing on New York City stages and beyond. And I ADORE telling you about my music-related travels, for sure. But/And…I need to offer something different than before, taking the theme of listening and music to another level, giving it its due not just as a mechanism for community and collaboration but as that community and collaboration in itself.

I want to write less about musicians on stages, not that I don’t still love and admire professional musicians and hope that you will go to see more live music, but because I feel like we should all engage more with making our own music, in whatever form that takes, singing in the shower or at karaoke, banging on your knees or the table to your fave tunes, taking up an instrument AND/OR joining me for a percussion circle or creating your own little jam. My morning chanting, just the vibration in my body repeating Om Namah Shivayah 108 times, has changed my life.

I know. I sound preachy. But I am everyday more convinced that the challenges we face in our personal lives, and the challenges that face the world in terms of dissension and division could be eradicated if music-making amongst everyday people made its way back into the social fabric—in the U.S. and everywhere that it seems to be getting lost. Maybe the next political election will see a musical note make its way onto the ballot like a marijuana leaf did for a while, or still might, signifying the platform of a particular candidate who Believes in music as The Way. This occurred to me during the recent NYC Mayoral primary and it made me laugh but then…why not?

So, ListenUpNYC will moving forward feature stories about people and places that revere music-making and believe in its healing and restorative powers, that push forward the agenda that when we tune in to a common underlying rhythm, we will thrive, all of us together, in harmony!!!

My Sacred Bloom Productions is in the midst of working on our first film, a documentary called Harmony Inside & Out, which features the beautiful work of Musicambia and other organizations to teach music inside prisons. We follow a number of folks who found healing and solace and intimate friendships through music inside, taking footage of those still at Sing Sing creating an incredible body of work, and a number who are now free and outside in the world playing their beautiful music (and that of their friends’ inside).

The film focuses on the making of a new album of Musicambia-inspired compositions by students and alumni called The Songbook that features compositions from many of these incarcerated and formerly incarcerated gentlemen, and how the creation of these songs, together with the amazing teaching artists dedicated to sharing their musical know-how and their humanity, is a how-to on global harmony. STAY TUNED! We’d love to involve you through an upcoming crowd-funding campaign so we can finish the film, and share with you the beautiful music so lovingly and life-savingly created. You can always go on to www.Musicambia.org and support them directly. Currently, there is a matching gift in play to help them make back funds lost with the termination of an NEA grant.

Here are some behind-the-scenes shots as a preview of the beautiful moments we’ve been able to capture in recent weeks…

I am also still working to build my sound-healing practice, SacredBloomTribe, and have been so blown away by my work with CAMBA’s homeless shelters as well as with a community drum circle I’ve started with Baltic Street Wellness Solutions. Every group I offer healing sound to in gardens, and at waterfronts, in yoga studios and in my home, further convinces me how crucial it is to gather together to listen deeply…Community percussion + sound meditations = joy in my book!!!

I will try to use this space to talk about the amazing work that musicians and educators and community activists are doing to help people live better happier healthier lives. And any and all feedback and support is appreciated!! Your donations will go toward offering more free music-making sessions at shelters and community centers and to finish making my film and other projects that promote important initiatives in the music world.

That’s all for now!! Follow me on IG at listenupnyc or sacredbloomtribe.

In peace and harmony,

Steph