学生 in MU275 - Songwriting Creative Workshop walked into their Block 3 course this semester with varying levels of songwriting experience and diverse musical backgrounds. What instructor Iddo Aharony offered to all students was an enriching environment to grow not only as songwriters, 同时也是作为富有创造力的个体——一起.

"Songwriting is arguably impossible to 'teach'; however, a supportive environment that encourages students to both refine and find new ground within their practice, 同时成为更敏感的倾听者, 能有意义，有成效吗,阿哈罗恩说, 音乐系的助理教授. “一首歌曲没有流派或风格的限制, this class aims to support and help grow each student's individual creative expression, 通过一系列创造性和分析性的项目和练习. 然而, it is also designed for students to collaborate with each other along their creative process."

One of the main projects for this course called on students to create songs utilizing texts written by persons incarcerated at the Women's Ward at the El Paso County Jail. The texts were written at the Women's Ward as part of a workshop offered by Aharony and poet Alison Rollins, who guided participants through a series of creative prompts revolving around moments in their lives in which they felt most free.

“他们最终写出来的文字引人注目，而且很有个性, and their creators were clearly excited about the notion of having their words resonate outside the jail by having students transforming them into songs and performing them,阿哈罗恩说. “在这个项目的过去迭代中, pre-covid, 学生们还能在监狱里表演完成的歌曲, 给短信编写者和病房里的其他人. Those performances were some of the most moving moments I’ve ever experienced."

Eight individuals from the Women's Ward participated in the workshop and shared their work to be transformed by the CC students, who divided into four groups that each created two songs based on two different texts. Aharony said the students faced a few challenges in completing this project; besides collaborating with peers they had only just met at the beginning of the block, they had to create music around a given text that could not be adjusted or changed, 并考虑如何以尊重的态度对待这篇非常私人的文章, 护理, 和敏感.

"I could not have been more impressed with how the students found ways to work through all of these challenges,阿哈罗尼说. “每个学生团队都找到了一种独特的合作和创造方式, even if for some of the teams it took some time and effort to find the 'key' to how to make the collaboration work. 他们最终创作的歌曲真的很美, 每个人都遵循不同的音乐轨迹来赋予生命, 在声音, the words by the persons incarcerated: to bring to life a longing for freedom that feels simultaneously very personal — each of us might define and experience freedom differently, 正如这些文本所例证的那样——而且是普遍的."

The students received an additional tool to assist in their creative process: Hip-hop duo 的提醒 — Big Samir and Aja Black — were invited into the classroom to workshop with students on their songs during class sessions and for a joint performance at the end of the third week of the block, 感谢CC移动艺术的支持, 项目主管娜奥米·伍德, 南希·里奥斯.

Aharony said the timing of 的提醒' involvement with the class couldn't have been better.

“提醒者是很棒的沟通者, and have that relatively rare gift where they can provide meaningful feedback for someone else’s creative process, and you know that the feedback has nothing to do with their own aesthetic and everything to do with that someone’s musical goals and vision,他说. "I’ve learned a ton from witnessing that, and the students always seem to respond strongly to it. 然后是他们对音乐的纯粹的能量和激情. Most of us at CC are familiar with the energy slump that hovers over the block about midway through, and that can hit especially hard on Block 3 with accumulative exhaustion and the weather getting cold. I’ve never before seen a pretty tired group of students in 'one of those days' transform, 几分钟之内, 变成了歌声, 跳舞, 鼓掌groove-machine, huge smiles on everyone’s faces as 的提醒 reminded all of us of the sheer life-affirming joy of simply making music together."

萨米尔和阿贾对分享手艺并不陌生. 两人之前曾与CC学生合作过, 以及“提醒大学”,，他们提供有关美国种族研究的讲座和研讨会, 文化遗产的多样性, 讲故事, 创意写作, and more — all while continuing to create their own music and perform across the U.S. 与国际.

“他们带来了丰富的经验, 两人都在合作写歌(Aja和Big Samir经常一起写歌), and also sometimes collaborate creatively with others) and in regard to performing, something that many of the students had very little experience with before this block,阿哈罗尼说. “在创作过程中，他们每隔几天就会与每个团队会面, 从最初的阶段开始，所有的团队都只有一些想法, 去参加演出的彩排. 在那些会议上, they helped each team build on their ideas on their way to becoming actual songs, while helping the students work through and think through the vulnerable process of creating together as a team. 换句话说, they helped them realize the goal of amplifying the words written by the persons incarcerated, while also helping each student have a meaningful voice and role along this process."