Sounds of Healing, Genesis at the Crossroads’ multicultural musical experience for and about healing, touched diverse audiences this past month in its June 2022 live, in-person world premiere performance series.
Sounds of Healing is a collaboration between Saffron Caravan, Genesis’ professional world music ensemble and our Genesis Academy Summer Institute graduates. Using music and creative writing as the vehicles, Sounds of Healing opens up space to explore the ties that bind us, allowing us to find and honor our individual and collective humanity. It also addresses healing for our planet and the ways that Nature can help us more deeply heal ourselves.
Creating Sounds of Healing
The artists collaboratively created original lyrics and music for the Sounds of Healing program. Sounds of Healing shares the behind-the-scenes process as it traces the narrative of 37 people representing Chicago/US and 16 other countries during the pandemic working together across all divides, including culture, race, ethnicity, religion, language, and geography to create music and explore healing for both themselves and their communities.
The world premiere initially presented virtually in December 2020, and re-broadcast in May 2021 reached thousands around the world in over 33 countries.
Live, In-Person Programs
The live, in-person June 2022 Chicago programs included our artists from Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Morocco, the Middle East, Europe, Pakistan, and Chicago. Sounds of Healing programs in Chicago took place at:
- Jackson Park Yacht Club – for Chicago’s communities of color, especially youth and families deeply impacted by social inequities along with others from Chicago’s refugee communities.
- The Adler Planetarium – configured as our Genesis Peace Hub Gala
- SHURE studio – for the recording of our commemorative Sounds of Healing CD
Jackson Park Yacht Club
Adler Planetarium (Genesis Peace Hub Gala)
SHURE Studio
Sounds of Healing in Motion
Healing is a pre-condition to building peace anywhere and everywhere.
Without healing, peace is nothing more than a pipedream.
Our hearts go out to the victims of the July 4th tragedies in Chicago and the massacre in Highland Park, IL and all those shaken here and around the world by the recurring and senseless loss of life. In the face of this devastating news, may we find and create many more opportunities to reach across divides and come together to help one another heal. In doing so, may we source our strength to build even stronger, inclusive communities that enable all people to rise.
The Genesis Peace Hub, our physical legacy will convene, incubate, catalyze, and accelerate all of our work in peacebuilding and healing. It will enable us to grow our social impact business development and scale our arts/culture and innovative education initiatives locally and globally.
Building peaceful communities at the intersection of social justice, education, and the arts to foster healing since 1999
Photos by Dr. Wendy Sternberg / Genesis at the Crossroads and Sandra Zmuda / Mark Campbell Productions
