Raise Your Voice: March Magic

This is the eighth post in a series: https://choralnet.org/archives/666904

How is it March already?
My students are giving their second trimester concert today and after that we will begin our themed music for our end of the year fundraiser. Our theme is Ocean Conservation. We’ll likely be performing lots of “water” songs, like “The Water is Wide,” “How Far I’ll Go,” “Under the Sea”. There will be some songs of an environmental nature. I’m going to scour my library and likely also order a couple of pieces.

In the meantime, we have started taking action. Students have begun contacting legislators and the President about enacting more protective measures to prevent oil spills and pollution in the ocean. We also found out that the school recycling program has come to an end, and they will be contacting the principal and school board to discuss the importance of recycling. Several students have made informative posters about conservation, overfishing, and protection of animals, and put them around the school. Some sixth graders made an amazing presentation to share with their classmates about the dangers of oil pollution. This all came out of one rehearsal period in which the students worked in groups. They built their ideas together and then were “set loose” to enact them. No further rehearsal time needs to be taken up for the awareness and action portion of our fundraiser until we are getting into the home stretch.

In addition, my organization now has a website! Solutionaryartsne.org
The website is pretty sparse right now, but it’s a start! We also have our first official event in the works. Solutionary Arts of New England will be putting together an event for Finding Our Voices (findingourvoices.net). Finding Our Voices is a domestic abuse prevention and resource group. We will be putting on a big event that includes multiple acts performing themed music and poetry. There may be a one-act play involved, if we are working in conjunction with the local theater festival. Survivors will likely speak, and there will likely be photos of survivors posted around the venue. We will raise funds to help more survivors.
This event is just in the very very very beginning planning stages (as of yesterday!) but I’m delighted to be getting started. The arts are such an effective vehicle for change and awareness.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you would like to have me help you with your own event, or even be involved. You can contact me through my website that I posted above.
Let’s raise our voices!