Project
DIALOGUES
REGISTER FOR NOV. 2021 DIALOGUES EVENTS HERE
Project Description
The DIALOGUES project promises engagement with a great diversity of audiences and researchers from across North America and around the world. It will facilitate significant intellectual, economic, social and cultural impact through engaging in three core components:
1. Knowledge Exchange and Outreach Events
2. Legacy Publications
3. Digital Resources
With the support of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connections Grant, the project is facilitated by the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) and its Canadian chapter, the Canadian Society for Traditional Music/ Société canadienne pour les traditions musicales (CSTM/SCTM), in collaboration with the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) and several Canadian university-based offices and research institutions, namely:
– The Centre for Sound Communities (CSC), Cape Breton University (Administrative Host Institution)
– Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media, and Place (MMaP), Memorial University
– Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology (CCE) and Music for Global Human Development (www.m4ghd.com), University of Alberta
– Justice4Reel, MacEwan University
Mission Statement
DIALOGUES is a collaborative, multi-faceted program of events and public outreach activities aimed at decolonizing sound, music and dance studies. It responds to urgent needs for change in the field of ethnomusicology as expressed by Black, Indigenous and racialized students, scholars, and community-based researchers — people whose daily challenges resulting from histories of racism and colonialism are now exponentially compounded by COVID-19.
‘Bala’ Album & Virtual Concert: Find out more
March 13, 2021 marked a watershed moment for global connection as internationally acclaimed virtuoso balafón musician Fodé Lassana Diabaté prémièred Bala — a unique CD recorded at The Centre for Sound Communities, Cape Breton University — in a virtual concert from Mali, West Africa. The Grammy-nominated musician/composer/culture-bearer and descendant of a griot family of balafón masters in Guinea has made several visits to Cape Breton, collaborating with CSC Director Dr. Marcia Ostashewski to present a program of ANSA-funded performances and workshops through ‘Songs and Stories in Celebration of the International Decade of People of African Descent.’
The recording of Bala at the CSC symbolizes an important shift in Canadian music production, representing an important bridge between two continents with so much of their history intertwined. The first African settlers in Nova Scotia can be traced to the 1700s, over time forming communities that today contribute to the cultural diversity of an area that is an ocean away from their antecedents. Lassana first came to Cape Breton in 2014 as part of a project connecting local residents with global scholars and performers; his return visits solidify the link between countries and cultural heritage and represent optimism and appreciation across a geographic divide somehow made narrower by similarities and shared experience.
Inviting widespread participation, Bala is part of a larger project focusing on Black and Indigenous lives and musics to develop a new model for global music education during the pandemic; it is funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Partnership Engage COVID-19 Special Initiative which will soon include a pilot project with Whitney Pier Boys and Girls Club, to be expanded across Nova Scotia. Partnerships with African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq community leaders, libraries and organizations are paving the way for upcoming lectures, workshops and instructional materials.
Details:
• Find out more about Bala and Lassana Diabaté, culture-bearer and founder of Association Foli-Lakana fostering the vitality of local musics, youth and communities in Mali — https://balafondiabate.ca
• Follow CSC posts (Sound Communities) on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or e-mail The Centre for Sound Communities at sound_communities@cbu.ca
‘Bala’ Album Release & Virtual Concert
March 13, 2021 marked a watershed moment for global connection as internationally acclaimed virtuoso balafón musician Fodé Lassana Diabaté prémièred Bala — a unique CD recorded at The Centre for Sound Communities, Cape Breton University — in a virtual concert from Mali, West Africa. The Grammy-nominated musician/composer/culture-bearer and descendant of a griot family of balafón masters in Guinea has made several visits to Cape Breton, collaborating with CSC Director Dr. Marcia Ostashewski to present a program of ANSA-funded performances and workshops through ‘Songs and Stories in Celebration of the International Decade of People of African Descent.’
The recording of Bala at the CSC symbolizes an important shift in Canadian music production, representing an important bridge between two continents with so much of their history intertwined. The first African settlers in Nova Scotia can be traced to the 1700s, over time forming communities that today contribute to the cultural diversity of an area that is an ocean away from their antecedents. Lassana first came to Cape Breton in 2014 as part of a project connecting local residents with global scholars and performers; his return visits solidify the link between countries and cultural heritage and represent optimism and appreciation across a geographic divide somehow made narrower by similarities and shared experience.
Inviting widespread participation, Bala is part of a larger project focusing on Black and Indigenous lives and musics to develop a new model for global music education during the pandemic; it is funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Partnership Engage COVID-19 Special Initiative which will soon include a pilot project with Whitney Pier Boys and Girls Club, to be expanded across Nova Scotia. Partnerships with African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq community leaders, libraries and organizations are paving the way for upcoming lectures, workshops and instructional materials.
Find out more:
• Find out more about Bala and Lassana Diabaté, culture-bearer and founder of Association Foli-Lakana fostering the vitality of local musics, youth and communities in Mali — https://balafondiabate.ca
• Follow CSC posts (Sound Communities) on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or e-mail The Centre for Sound Communities at sound_communities@cbu.ca
Songs, Stories, and Sacred Fire: Ktapekiaqnn, Atukwaqnn, aqq Kepme’k Pukto
Songs, Stories, and Sacred Fire: Ktapekiaqnn, Atukwaqnn, aqq Kepme’k Pukto
Songs and Stories of Migration and Encounter
Date: September 11, 2017 – October 22, 2017
Venue: Locations across Cape Breton Island – Locations TBA
Project Information:
For youth ages 12 to 18 – Join us at one of our in-community locations for 5 weeks of creative arts, multimedia, songwriting and performance workshops where youth will be working with artists, elders and facilitators to converse, collaborate and create a piece about migration and encounter. Workshops will begin the week of September 11, 2017.
For more information please call Kathleen: (902)561-1121 or send us an email at sound_communites@cbu.ca
