“Empowering Song uses music to reclaim our humanity in inhumane places. It smuggles imagination into dungeons; turns creativity from contraband into commissary. Under the envious eye of armed guards, it unlocks more knowledge on the prison yard than most scholars on Harvard Yard; runs rivers of refuge through deserts of despair; and liberates the spirit of community by any melody necessary... Empowering Song is to music what Pedagogy of the Oppressed is to education, and Theater of the Oppressed is to drama. Yet each of these share a key element with the others: they subvert the status quo by democratizing the school, the stage, and the studio – spaces too often reserved exclusively for those with special training. This work urges participation rather than exclusion, and remixes for the 21st century ancient practices of ancestors whose self-examination, song-making, and storytelling were communally expressed in the credo: We are and so I am.”

-Bryonn Bain

Empowering Song approach is an arts pedagogy focused on creating equitable and justice-centered artistic spaces, with the goal of fostering deep personal expression and honoring vulnerability within creative work. Its curators and co-creators are Emilie Amrein, Judy Braha, Andrew Clark, André de Quadros, Bradford Dumont, Michael Genese, Jamie Hillman, Emily Howe, Krystal Morin, Trey Pratt, Kinh Vu, and many others.