In a sweet turn of events for IoH's July calendar, we were asked to headline the closing ceremonies for the "Rock Star Youth Track" of the 2014 Georgetown University Training Institutes. Held at the Gaylord Hotel and Convention Center at the National Harbor, this massive conference ended on a high note for the youth involved, who hailed from all over the country. They displayed their multitude of talents for each other - supporting one another in their performances, showing spirit and camaraderie as the future of mental health consumer advocacy. It was so refreshing to see this young creativity at work, watching the evening unfold as more and more people signed up to perform. There ended up being such an abundance of people who wanted to perform that we had to extend the event past the original time to fit everyone in!
This was a real learning experience for IoH. The event was very different from others we have done before. Andy and Sabrina stayed hands-off as performers, and the whole program was performances by the youth. Most of them had songs in mind that they wanted to perform which were not on our list. Some had rap or original songs that they wanted to perform. Others wanted a dance number thrown in here or there (see the amazing Wobble Dance above!). These were almost all achieved by plugging cell phones in to our PA system and playing the music already on the phones or from youtube for the performances. While this was not completely new to us (we have done this for people who have rapped in our programs before), we have never used cell phones so heavily as a tool before. It becomes much like karaoke or DJing, which are other potential ways to expand on helping people through music. It definitely gives us some ideas of new ways and modalities of reaching people. Also, as IoH grows larger and larger, we are becoming much more of a hands-off program for us as facilitators. The program is more and more featuring and showcasing our participants, as people start feeling comfortable with the spotlight, knowing they are surrounded by the support of their peers.
Of course, as you can see, there were also people at this program who went classic IoH style, using our instruments - and used them beautifully. So much talent! We had folks singing memorized songs on guitar & piano - jamming together along with drums. And a few people sang their songs completely a capella. We were just endlessly impressed.
Please check out the full spread from this event on the website at:
http://www.instrumentsofhealing.org/georgetown-university-training-institutes-2014---rock-star-youth-track.html
This was a real learning experience for IoH. The event was very different from others we have done before. Andy and Sabrina stayed hands-off as performers, and the whole program was performances by the youth. Most of them had songs in mind that they wanted to perform which were not on our list. Some had rap or original songs that they wanted to perform. Others wanted a dance number thrown in here or there (see the amazing Wobble Dance above!). These were almost all achieved by plugging cell phones in to our PA system and playing the music already on the phones or from youtube for the performances. While this was not completely new to us (we have done this for people who have rapped in our programs before), we have never used cell phones so heavily as a tool before. It becomes much like karaoke or DJing, which are other potential ways to expand on helping people through music. It definitely gives us some ideas of new ways and modalities of reaching people. Also, as IoH grows larger and larger, we are becoming much more of a hands-off program for us as facilitators. The program is more and more featuring and showcasing our participants, as people start feeling comfortable with the spotlight, knowing they are surrounded by the support of their peers.
Of course, as you can see, there were also people at this program who went classic IoH style, using our instruments - and used them beautifully. So much talent! We had folks singing memorized songs on guitar & piano - jamming together along with drums. And a few people sang their songs completely a capella. We were just endlessly impressed.
Please check out the full spread from this event on the website at:
http://www.instrumentsofhealing.org/georgetown-university-training-institutes-2014---rock-star-youth-track.html
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