Held on Friday, March 9, 2018
Led by Dr. Azadeh Aalai, Associate Professor of Psychology at Queensborough Community College, CUNY, and in partnership with the Center for Ethnic, Racial, & Religious Understanding (CERRU) at Queens College, this workshop facilitates skill building for students and other participants by asking them to reflect on difficult questions, such as: what does it take to become an engaged and civic-minded citizen, and how can we develop skills to be more likely to be active (rather than passive) bystanders? The workshop explores the theme of complicity and collaboration in a modern context, by reflecting on how we feel pressure today to remain passive in the face of injustice, and through exploration of ways we can feel comfortable taking action when others need help.
(Top) CERRU's Yael Rosenstock engages with students regarding different facets of their identity; (Bottom) Students engage in 'improv' to practice how they would handle different forms of conflict as active bystanders.
(Top) Students explore what aspects of their identity make them more or less likely to be active bystanders; (Bottom) Rosenstock introduces concepts to students with input from Dr. Aalai to demonstrate the inherent interconnectedness of individuals in social situations.
(Top) Rosenstock offers instruction as students get into their groups for 'improv'; (Bottom) Dr. Aalai expands on the significance of dialogue in helping to facilitate understanding of different perspectives and experiences.
(Top) Students fill out their identity wheels, reflecting on important aspects of how they define themselves and others. (Bottom) Students share parts of their identity with the rest of the group, reflecting on issues such as privilege and intersectionality in defining the self.
(Top) Students are front and center in sharing with facilitators their narratives; (Bottom) A close up of one of the identity wheels students were asked to complete and reflect on.
Songs of Syrian Refugees - https://www.songlines.co.uk/features/songs-of-the-syrian-refugees
Music and the Holocaust - http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/
Refugee Orchestra Project - http://www.refugeeorchestraproject.org/
Music Therapy and Refugees - https://voices.no/index.php/voices/article/view/1715/1475
Music of the Ghettos and Camps (A Teacher’s Guide) https://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/arts/MUSVICTI.htm
The CD liner notes assignment, completed by the students enrolled in Dr. Lekic's Introduction to Music course was designed as a complement to the "Echoes of Exile" program, with the aim of building on the content of the concert and enlarging the relevant repertoire through the multicultural lens of the QCC community. Each student was asked to contribute two compositions dealing with exile, displacement, and the refugees, and to write accompanying liner notes. Putting to use music’s particular power to recognize individual stories, this assignment also served as a means of unifying many diverse styles, languages, and perspectives, across time and through a common theme. The resulting class playlist, featured below, includes music addressing the Holocaust, conflicts and mass displacement in India/Pakistan (during the partition), Iran (after the 1979 Revolution), Ireland, Cuba, Colombia, and Syria, as well as exile experienced by African Americans and the Roma in their home countries. We hope that this archive will prove a valuable resource for course enrichment and further exploration of multiple musical traditions.