Direct Action
Musical Workshops
Live participatory music elevates the energy of participants at non-violent direct actions like marches, rallies, and sit ins. Offering music takes preparation and teamwork. Well-planned musical action is well worth the effort, as it helps participants feel more powerful, captures the imagination of the public and people in positions of power, and deepens our connection to the cultural history of human resistance of oppression.
Alice offers musical workshops and community building events including direct action bucket drumming, chant workshopping, vocal hygiene/care, and group song-leading. They can also help connect organizations with local talent. Honoring the history and contributions of Black, Indigenous, frontline, working class, and queer relatives helps us stay grounded and is an integral part of the anti-racist and anti-oppression philosophy incorporated in these workshops and in events. Alice's journey and work incorporates feedback that increases the inclusiveness and elevates otherwise oppressed people in our shared spaces.
Previous Workshop Examples:
Alice personalizes each workshop to the needs and requests of the organization booking the workshop. This includes researching and incorporating songs specific to your movement's heritage, and ideally includes partnering with musicians within your organization so they feel uplifted and centered before, during, and after the workshop. If you're thinking long term, this also means creating a strategy to incorporate learnings from the workshops moving forward in your organization's action planning. Most of all, having fun and celebrating our voices remains a constant throughout our time together.
Bucket Drum playground at Open Streets DC 2021 (above). XRDC's Earth Day invitation to Mayor Bowser to Stop Project Pipes 2024 (below).
