Sound Health Network: Renew/Remix Summit @Kennedy Center
It was an honor to join the National Endowment for the Arts, The Kennedy Center, National Institutes of Health, and Renee Fleming Foundation’s Sound Health Network: Renew/Remix Summit. Each year a community of dedicated music lovers, musicians, therapists, practitioners, researchers, scientists, and policymakers gather to deepen the understanding of music, health, and social impact. This year's gathering reflected this continued commitment. Thank you to the community for allowing me to set intentions of our collective placemaking, deepening our understanding of how we may cultivate "wellness" collectively and reduce inequities across music and health to truly commune together. Sharing the stage with phenomenal cultural workers, musicians, dancers, creative arts therapists, researchers, and scientists was an honor. Thanks to esperanza spalding, Renee Fleming, Dr. Francis Colins, Jeff Tang, and the Renew/Remix production team for making this event possible. Special thanks to Leo Genovese, Dayna Stephens, Marcus Gilmore, Dr. Gina Poe, Lora Robinson, Howard University music therapy and music education students and faculty, and all the participants of the Songwrights Apothecary Co-Labs for your generous spirits and the creative well-full that permeated our communal space.
Much love to Signal Boost co-panelists: Carlita Victoria (Darkness RISING Project), Stacie Aamon Yeldell, Mariagracia Rivas Berger (Latin American Music Therapy Network), Quetzal Flores (Alliance for California Traditional Arts), Dr. Rebecca Menza, and moderator Jeanette McCune (Director of DC School and Community Initiatives at the Kennedy Center) for centering our ancestral legacies and community wisdom.
As always, my deepest gratitude to the Black Music Therapy Network for showing up and showing out and for the continued inspiration, love and support.
Can’t wait for the next time!!