This week, we find our joy at the intersection of cross-cultural music and conversation. In Cambridge, Berklee College and New England Conservatory musicians will come together to harness community and show how music can inspire and transform society to something a little more peaceful. The director and founder of the Peace and Justice Arts Cafe, Linda Chase, joins GBH’s All Things Considered Host Arun Rath.
The Peace and Justice Concert will take place on Nov. 8 at 4 p.m. at the Old Cambridge Baptist Church (OCBC). What follows is a lightly edited transcript:
Arun Rath: Take us inside how the Peace and Justice Arts Cafe came to be. I know you work with both Berklee College and the New England Conservatory. Is that sort of where you saw the possibility to bring them together?
Linda Chase: Yes, that’s right. I teach at both schools, and I’ve been doing this work in the classroom. So, students are engaging as artists with what is happening around the world. I provide creative structures to explore different ways to use the art forms in which they communicate. I just felt like it needs to be getting out of the classroom a bit.
Even beyond the college and the conservatory, I felt like it is important for students to have the experience of really communicating with the community. Also, for the community to have the experience of being able to see and hear what these musicians are doing — musicians from around the world.
That is how I got the idea for it to not be the usual concert setup with the stage and the audience. We’re going to have a circular setup and we will have mini-sets. There will be four or five songs and then the audience can talk to the students and ask questions. Not just students, but graduates, alumni and faculty can be asked about their pieces, their creative process and really have a back-and-forth between the musicians and the audience.
This is a concept that I have thought about for a long time, kind of blending that border between the stage and the audience. This also has to do with my belief that, as we participate in movements for justice, that is empowering. This is a way we can have the audience to be part of the participation in the conversation. Also, some of the songs have a line that the audience will be invited to sing along. So, the audience will also be participating in making the music.
Rath: It is interesting hearing you talk about this. A lot of what you do focuses on the intersection of different musical cultures and with the students, improvisation, right?
Chase: I think improvisation is what we’re doing when we’re creating interdisciplinary connections. The interdisciplinary connection between music and environmental justice, for example. We have to improvise with this because there’s not exactly a form in which it can be figured out. It also really encourages collaboration.
So, the musicians are collaborating with one another as part of their creative process. One of the songs, I am excited about all of them but one in particular is by three first-semester freshmen. Their song is just from an assignment two weeks ago and they wrote this beautiful piece, “Soon We’ll Be Free.” That idea of improvising with what is going on in the world and creating — taking your feelings and making that into a piece of music is very inspiring and heartening to me.
Rath: The inspiration for this, did this really come from your students in the classroom and wanting to get them out studying performance with an audience?
Chase: Yes, absolutely. It did come from students in the classroom and wanting to share them and what we do. I would come out of a classroom just so inspired and cross the street, get on the bus and feel like these 20 people are the only ones that get to hear this. I really wanted to share what was going on.
Rath: Have there been moments that have surprised you with the students in these kind of musical conversations?
Chase: There are always surprises with students. I am often surprised by — well, I don’t know if surprise is really my reaction. I’m heartened and inspired by their deep caring, their caring for what is going on in the world and their caring for each other. When they present pieces in class, there is such a feeling of respect, appreciation and encouragement. That is what we need in the world.
Rath: When you are describing the audience interaction, it sounds like call-and-response. Your other work that we have talked about here, it seems like there’s a very strong spiritual component to this.
Chase: One of my courses is called “Music, Spirit and Transformation.” We look at different cultures of music and different faith traditions and how music is functioning in that capacity. This is related ... but another reason that this was important to me and continues to be important to me is sometimes we can really — especially in academics, college and conservatory — look at the virtuosity, the entertainment, dance, artistry and musicality.
This is all important and essential but how can engaging with what is going on in the world become more central in the education of artists? Sometimes, if we look historically, that has been a question of faith. I don’t think it has to be but I think certainly ... it often has been a question of faith.
Rath: It seems like faith or not, the social transformation aspect of it just seems inescapable.
Chase: How do people create community these days where there has been a great departure from organized faith traditions? People still need community and people still want to get together and people still want to be inspired. I think music can really create that community without having a requirement of a particular religious question.
Rath: So, if you had to boil it down to one thing, what would you want people to take away from their experience at the Peace and Justice Arts Cafe?
Chase: The intention is for cultural sharing and community building through music. Really, the takeaway would be for people to feel empowered and realize that we all have a part to play. We can all do some things. I think it can be easy to feel like somebody else should be doing something. ... We all do have a part to play and we can all make a difference.
With the artists, that is what we are doing. That is the part that we have to play. Really pushing back against despair and realizing it is amazing when we all get involved and play our part. That is when positive change really happens.
