The SONG Project

The SONG Project introduces Songwriting to women who have been marginalized by poverty, homelessness, violence, or trauma, as a tool for empowering them to tell their stories of oppression, resilience and hope in a creative and transformative way. Often, formal music education is not accessible to women who are poor, homeless, or otherwise marginalized, yet music and songs play an influential role in many of their lives. People find songs that they connect with, and carry them through the day as companions, filling the individual with a sense of a wider community that she is connected to and supported by.

The Project was originally piloted in the Pader district of northern Uganda in 2009, with young women who were previously enslaved as child soldiers and child wives, and/or had been orphaned by HIV/Aids, poverty and war.

The struggles of marginalized women and girls in the U.S. are different, but the needs are similar, and there are many women and girls in the greater Philadelphia area who will benefit from the sustained presence of this creative program in their community.

Further Details on The SONG Project and Methods Used:

The SONG Project evolved after traveling to Uganda in 2009 and 2011 to teach former child-soldiers and child-wives songwriting and guitar. Following these experiences, Natalie returned home with a greater sense of purpose and call to use these gifts in her own community where many women and girls have also experienced various forms of trauma and oppression. She decided to give the project a name, “The SONG Project,” develop a curriculum based on a student-oriented approach, and start seeking funding and partnerships to enable the project to flourish and be sustained in the community. The project was approved for fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas in April of 2012, and Natalie offered the first SONG Project group in July of 2012.

““Songwriting is a way to tell my story without judgment… As a survivor I feel it is the best way to tell my story… Music is healing and takes my mind to another place.””

— Survivor of Commercial Sexual Exploitation and SONG Project Participant

Since beginning to operate in 2012, The SONG Project has reached roughly 135 women and girls who might otherwise not have the opportunity to express themselves through song and learn guitar.

“It makes me more aware that others can relate to my experience.” (Survivor of Commercial Sexual Exploitation and SONG Project Participant)

Many participants have expressed feeling empowered to create in a way they never thought possible and have felt less alone in their struggles as they’ve discovered their peers have similar experiences and struggles. “Writing a song together has improved our relationships with each other.” (Survivor of Commercial Sexual Exploitation and SONG Project Participant) The SONG Project has provided a unique opportunity for its participants to build community and strengthen interpersonal connections through the experience of sharing their stories and collaborating to write a song together.

Often, formal music education is not accessible to women and girls who are poor, homeless, or otherwise marginalized, yet music and songs play an influential role in many of their lives. People find songs that they connect with, and carry them through the day as companions, filling the individual with a sense of a wider community that she is connected to and supported by. It can be very difficult for women and girls who have been oppressed to feel safe in sharing their own stories, yet they need and deserve a supportive and nurturing space where their truth can be shared, believed, validated and respected. Songs can tackle human suffering in a way that feels safe and manageable, having some sort of resolve. The purpose of The SONG Project is to teach participants how to write their own song while engaging in other musical activities such as group singing, community songwriting and group guitar lessons. Through this process, participants build community, and each individual is empowered to tell, record, and perform her story in a secure and nurturing environment that allows for healing, growth and creative transformation

The SONG Project gets a feel for the student’s particular interest in the first week and uses a student-oriented approach, tailoring the materials being taught to the student’s favorite songs and artists. The fundamental skills of songwriting and guitar playing, which can be applied to all genres of music, are taught throughout weekly group sessions. Often the completed group songs are in a folk/pop or rap/hip-hop genre. The songwriting tools taught are song form, story-line development, productive repetition, rhyming and rhythm in lyrics, and syllable (weak and strong stress of words studies), are accessible to beginners and used by professionals. In guitar, basic finger-exercises, scales, chords, rhythms and theory are taught in the student’s genre of choice.

SONGS

Take the Time to Listen – Written by Women at Thea Bowman Women’s Center

Everyone has a past
Each different in many ways
Heart and mind free at last
To try new things in a new day

Please take the time to listen for life strength and cure
For the cure of life is knowing we’re not alone
We’re fighting for a reason
There’s hope faith and love
We know the road is tough but we’re not walking alone

You have to live to learn
Make mistakes to have what it takes
To fight the system that never gives us a break
I know it’s hard but we have what it takes

We’re fighting to free ourselves from madness
To not be empty shells
Fighting for our children
So that generations can prevail
We’re fighting to see another day
Fighting to get to a better place
We learn lessons along the way
We achieve greatness everyday

I Try So Hard – Written by Girls at Covenant House PA

Verse 1
Born on back roads and raised on city streets
Life was never easy for me
But I bandaged the cuts of lonliness
Iced the bruises from family
Covered the burns of lovelessness
An I gotta get back to bein’ free
Yeah gotta get back to bein’ free

CHORUS
I try so hard
But it takes time to heal the wounds of a brave heart
Pain was always inside of me
Never wanting to be silenced
I try so hard
But to let go of the memories is so unfair
I don’t want to give up so fast
Drowning in the voices of the past

VERSE 2
Reminiscing on time we used to share
Now just wonderin’ if you still even care
Proud whenever you would speak my name
Until you raised that sweet voice the wrong way
So excited when it was you and me
But your praises are insults that I believed
So I broke out n I’m getting back to me

Bridge
I broke out and now I’m free
I broke out and now I’m free
I’m getting back to being me
I’m getting back to being me
Look what you’ve done to me
I broke out and now I’m free

Past Projects

Further Details on The SONG Project and Methods Used:

SONGS

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