Tacoma Refugee Choir: Healing through Love and Belonging
Session Abstract: This session will include performances of original songs by the Tacoma Refugee Choir linked by stories from members and a demonstration of community, including an invitation for attendees to singalong and be part of the sharing. As one of the few intercultural refugee choirs in the United States, the lessons of belonging learned from this unique community are applicable to all ensembles with members who feel othered by society.
The Tacoma Refugee Choir is founded upon the idea that it’s hard not to love people when you sing together. Though our members come from diverse communities and have even fought against one another in their countries of origin, members are united in hope and joy. In our weekly gatherings, we create time to acknowledge pain and then transcend concerns to celebrate in laughter and joy. While the energy, challenges, and participants can vary from week to week, we always leave uplifted by the sharing and vulnerability of singing together.
Attendees will learn how we cultivate this space that feels welcoming to so many, including exercises we utilize to acknowledge individual concerns and emotions people may feel upon entering the space, how improvisation and movement reduces judgment and improves tonal quality, our pedagogical practice of teaching without sheet music and why this can be a strength even for those classically trained. We will briefly share our communal songwriting process and how being part of the writing process is both healing and empowering. The original songs shared will include songs written by the full choir during rehearsals, through interviews with refugee elders, from lyrics and poems by individual members of the choir, and in small groups of members. In each of these cases, members are able to articulate their stories and hopes for the future in their own words and have them amplified by the larger ensemble. This is particularly powerful when their own words are shared in places of power where refugees and immigrants often feel unwelcomed.
Between songs, choir members will share their stories of loss and the transformative power of love and acceptance. The connection of story and song weaves a powerful thread reminding us that we are all deeply connected to one another and offers hope that the divisions that currently plague our society can be overcome as we love one another and unite our voices and hearts in song.
Attendees will learn strategies for creating spaces for authentic expression, interconnection, and healing through song. Most importantly, this emotional presentation will impact how we think of refugees and the potential we all have when we lift one another and come together.
Tacoma Refugee Choir
Tacoma Refugee Choir
Erin Guinup
Tacoma Refugee Choir
Erin Guinup is the founding Executive and Artistic Director of the Tacoma Refugee Choir. She has spoken at TEDxSeattle, Starbucks, national conferences for Chorus America, NATS, and ACDA and contributed to three books. Her compositions have been featured on PBS, network television, and with Symphony Tacoma, and she has performed her one-woman show internationally. A sought-after performer and clinician in classical and contemporary vocal technique, Erin’s voice students have found success on Broadway, regional theatre, operatic stages, and television. Most recently, Erin was recognized as one of five Women to Watch by South Sound Magazine.
