Kaya//music

In early 2017 I designed and implemented a six week songwriting workshop for homeless/disenfranchised women at Rosie’s Place as a tool for empowering them to tell their stories of oppression, resilience and hope in a creative and transformative way.

Under the supervision of the Art Director I encouraged students to tap into their personal experiences to write and perform original material, with an emphasis on collaboration and peer mentoring.

My greatest responsibility was to create a safe environment for students to share and experiment without fear of judgement, while being vigilant about maintaining boundaries. With permission I recorded the audio of each class. Upon completion of the course I edited the audio and created an album of students performing original material, woven in with segments of insightful discussions that arose during class. For individual students I created personalized albums of their work.

In March 2018 I was invited to Boston City Hall to present my work at Rosie’s Place and offer feedback on how the city could better implement arts programs into their ever developing social programs.

In order to respect confidentiality of the women who participated I do not share their work online.