4. Choose music from our current repertoire with each group to “de-stress” ourselves and focus on our students. Uniforms would be each choirs’ tee-shirt and jeans. Directors wear black because it is slimming on stage. (Ha ha!)
5. Invite both communities to the concert which will raise funds for Jackson-Olin to purchase needed uniforms.
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asked her if she would be interested in collaborating with me to help meet our goal of making an impact outside our community using music. She was delighted and excited. We spoke of the current state of our nation, race relations, and the uncertainty of our future. We talked about the power of music to bring healing. We discussed our desire to see our students overcome cultural stereotypes and develop a wider worldview and we laughed! At the beginning of the conversation we were a black woman and a white woman, an urban high school choir teacher and a suburban high school choir teacher, many differences apparent to the casual observer. By the end of the hour conversation, we were two choir teachers, two women, two human beings sharing our joys and struggles like old friends. Over the next months, we texted, met for coffee, talked by phone and over omelets to “flesh-out” the details of our joint project scratching them out on napkins, checking deposit tickets or whatever was handy and reveled in our shared experiences and mutual support of each other. Going out, not knowing, we eventually settled on the following details:
1. Produce a concert, each bringing our choirs to perform alone and jointly.
2. Chelsea travels to Jackson-Olin for the first installment. Leave the door open for future installments.
3. Focus on introducing our choirs to each other. Provide team-building time, eat together, and sing together.
AfterConcert Revelry ala breve
These were the first details. As ideas progressed, more details fell into place and after checking our choral and school calendars and with our respective administrators, November 17, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. was chosen and real preparations began. Repertoire was chosen, the order of the program was decided upon, not to have a written program for the audience was decided (one more key to the “no-stress” element of the project), the meal was planned, travel preparations were made, and support personnel were contracted or enlisted. Support personnel consisted of a bus driver, an accompanist and drummer, sound technician, videographer, decorator, and booster parents to serve as chaperones and at the ticket table. Harry Turner, community activist and motivational speaker from the JO community was enlisted to speak about unity. The planning process took approximately four months.
This event, without doubt, will be remembered well by directors, students, parents, and the communities. During six short hours, negative stereotypes were dispelled and fast friends were made. When asked to describe one thing that impacted them the most, the choir students’ responses contained one overwhelming theme; the breaking down of stereotypes. A working
definition of a stereotype is “a set idea that people have about what someone or something is like, especially an idea that is wrong” (
www.dictionary.cambridge.org). Both choirs had preconceived ideas about the other group. Students from each group thought they were very different from the students in the other group. They each had questions of the other group like “Will they like us? Are they nice people? Are they racist?” We, as directors, had encouraged our students to be friendly toward the other group and to take risks by breaking out of comfort zones by simply starting conversations with the students from the other choir. We both encouraged our students to go out, not knowing. Neither director knew if this would happen and we were both glad and relieved when it did. The breaking down of stereotypes visibly began during a few minutes of down time after the joint rehearsal when several Jackson-Olin students and Mrs. Hooper began a “rap-off ”.
Joint Rehearsal Warmups
Before long, students began to gather from both schools and took turns “free-styling”, laughing, and enjoying each other. That helped set the tone for the rest of the evening. The stale and clichéd stereotypes dissipated and the notion that we are more alike than different began to take hold and honestly, love grew between the groups. At the end of the concert, as Chelsea made their way to their bus for the 45-minute trip home, hugs abounded as did the exchanging of phone numbers, with the promise of future collaboration between the groups. This is largely because of the shared gift of music, but also because our students took risks, stepping outside their normal paths, celebrating their diversity and recognizing the universality of being human. Because of the
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