(limited supplies for basket weaving, spinning, sewing and knitting will be on hand)

safe distancing will be assured in all of our rooms

A short presentation will be offered on the Mbira and its place in Zimbabwe's liberation movement. Participants in the day's instrument-making workshop (open to those previously incarcerated and their advocates) will share freshly composed pieces before joining guests in conversation circles.

Restorative justice advocates often look to the traditional African concept of ubuntu (which has varied translations related to human connectivity) to ground their movement toward nurturing inclusive and participatory communities, and to offer a community-based approach to repairing harm as an alternative to incarceration. Similarly, the mbira (pronounced em-BEE-ra), a family of musical instruments native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe, holds history and knowledge that can inspire us: Traditionally played to call the ancestors, mbiras became instruments of resistance to colonial rule and a source of sonic resilience during Zimbabwe’s liberation movements.

How might the mbira—building them, playing them, making music with them together and then sharing—help us find our own sounds of liberation?.

TOM HAMILTON has composed and performed electronic music for over 50 years. His music references the 1970s era of analog electronics, and contrasts structure with improvisation and textural electronics with acoustic instruments. He employs “aural scores” to connect performers to a changing context of electronic sound, prompting the use of “present-time listening” by both performer and listener. Hamilton is a Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and has received the Mike Zagorski Artist Award from the Sound Symposium festival in St. John’s NL.

Flutist JACQUELINE MARTELLE resides in New York City, where she has performed in diverse concert venues, including Experimental Intermedia, Symphony Space, Issue Project Room, Roulette, Le Poisson Rouge, Third Street Music School Settlement, Merkin Concert Hall, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Carnegie Hall. She has been a featured artist in the World Music Institute’s Interpretations series and has appeared with the Remarkable Theater Brigade’s Opera Shorts at Weill-Carnegie Hall. Martelle has presented concerts and recitals highlighting the flute in combination with electronic media and has premiered works written for her by Larry Austin, David Behrman, Tom Hamilton, Alvin Lucier, Al Margolis, and Robert Rowe.