Voice Expressions cannot and will not condone violence of any kind. Every life is of equal value, every human life is precious. Everyone on this earth has a right to kindness, safety, respect, love, and freedom.

The world's cry must be for an end to all violence -  The cry must be for world peace. The brutal violence on all sides of all wars must stop - It is heartbreaking that innocent humans get caught in the middle of every war and die horrendous deaths. 

The families in Gaza do not have bomb shelters, they have nowhere to shelter, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide……….They are in desperate need of ( and must receive ) humanitarian aid. The call for a ceasefire needs to be heard by both sides………

Our world is in a state of emergency.

My heart bleeds for all innocent victims caught in the middle of all conflict. The mothers, the children, the premature babies…………. the young men, the hostages, all human beings!

Please take a little time to reflect on the quotes shared on this page. Please also note: When a quote is repeated it is intentional!

Martin Luther King said:

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” 

“There is enough in the world for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”   — Frank Buchman, Protestant evangelist

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”   — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States

“There is enough in the world for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”   — Frank Buchman, Protestant evangelist

“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”   — Confucius, Chinese teacher and philosopher

Nelson Mandela

"There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children."

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” – Desmond Tutu

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." Mandela

“As long as there is racial privilege, racism will never end.” – Wayne Gerard Trotman

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” Mandela

“The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.” – Ijoema Oluo

"You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.”Mandela

“Racism isn't just what you say, think, do, and feel. It is also what you allow.”
― DaShanne Stokes

As much as I may have resented it at times, the reality of racism meant that, if I cared about my own success, I had no choice but to seek the approval of whites and care what they thought of me.”
― Zachary Wood, Uncensored

“Privilege is the right to remain silent when others can’t.”
― Richie Norton

Mother Theresa

‘Go out into the world and love the people you meet, let your presence light new light in the hearts of people.

Let us make this the foundation of our lives:

The call is to go out into the world and love the people you meet. Smile, connect, give to those in need, be kind, show love, kindness and respect for all. ‘

Sound thoughts!

On Spartacus…..

Are people born leaders or are leaders created?

What kinds of leaders are created in the worlds’ systems that we live and breathe in?

Look at our world leaders…………

Which can you identify as being globally minded or Inspirational?

Which leaders, whether in music or other fields would you aspire to model yourself on or follow?

Who represents your way of thinking, being, doing?

Do you have what it takes to be a Global Inclusive Leader?

Are you a leader who already leads in a magnificent way?

Are you a parent leading a household? Or a person who works in the music community leading with holistic kindness? Are you someone who people respect and aspire to be like?

Have you seen the film Spartacus?

Written by Dalton Turbo and directed by Stanley Kubrick, it was an epic film, released in the 60’s, a historical drama based on a novel written in 1951 by Howard Fast.

The story is about a slave named Spartacus and as a child I watched Kirk Douglas who played a magnificent lead role in the film.The cast was amazing and included Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons and Tony Curtis. 

If you have never seen this film, I would encourage you to watch it.

Even as a child, this film brought tears to my eyes. The film is about a slave who is proud and gifted. Though a slave, he has certain values and a sense of self that makes him so uncooperative that he is sentenced to death. By chance his quality is noticed by a Roman businessman who purchases him for his gladiatorial school and he is trained to fight.

Spartacus is incredible. He fights his way to leadership, creating an army of slaves. An army so great that he poses a threat to the Roman Senate. Spartacus’ army of slaves are able to defeat the multiple armies that the senate send to defeat him.

There’s a part towards the end of the film where Spartacus and all the slaves have been captured and the Romans want the slaves to identify Spartacus, dead or alive.

When he hears this announcement, Spartacus is seated and chained to another slave. In order to save the lives of his men and their families, he begins to stand to identify himself, but as he stands the whole slave army stands with him screaming, ‘ I'm Spartacus!’

It’s incredibly powerful - Each slave wishes to die in his place!

What a story.

Spartacus is a slave who has a heart of compassion. He leads with wisdom and is strategic, he trains others to fight for their rights - there is no stopping them......... until they are captured. Their sole aim, freedom!

In my child mind Spartacus offered hope to the hopeless.

Are you a leader? What do you offer those that you lead? What are your qualities? What thoughts and feelings will you leave in the minds of those you have lead?

I am on a leadership quest. Can you share the names of leaders that have left an imprint on your mind? What qualities did they have?

Finally, if you are in leadership today, what feelings and memories would you like to leave in the minds and hearts of people that you have lead..........and how will you now do that?

The Elephant…..

Hi

From time to time, I gather my thoughts and write and article.

I will gather links and they will be on this page for those who are interested in what I think.

The Why…

In my role as guest curator at Sound Connections, I provided a deeper insight into my thinking for their training and events programme for the autumn term, and explained the thoughts, circumstances, and questions that led me to their curation.

The Elephant (introduction)

Many years ago, I read a story about a circus that tied a rope around the leg of an elephant with a chain nailed into the ground, to train the elephant to know its place and restrict its movements.

As the elephant grew in size, those that owned it could just leave the feeling of the chain around its leg without attaching it to any nail – the elephant was too big and strong to be restrained in that way – however, the mental damage had been done. The elephant had grown in size and stature, but the memory of the cruelty inflicted when it was chained as a young elephant stopped this animal from wondering far from its ’spot’.

Last week, As I thought about why I have organised the training this term for Sound Connections, I found myself in three situations that really got me thinking about that elephant!

The Elephant (part 1)

The first was a young person who comes to me for one to one singing lessons. She’s a young woman of mixed heritage, who has chosen to sing opera and music theatre, not my forte but she comes to me to challenge her in other vocal ways. Her mother is from the Caribbean and her father is Italian.

Recently she described a visit to the theatre, I watched how animated she became, her face lit up, her eyes were shining. She’d been to see the Phantom of the Opera and was describing how it felt for her to see a black female playing the lead – Lucy St. Louis.

Later, I read the following in an article.

‘St Louis hopes that by simply being in the role, others will see a door opening to them.’

She told ITV News: “I never saw women in lead roles that look like me, and I was always kind of told that you’re going to be playing certain roles. And they were roles that were made for black performers.”

She added: “I want everybody to know that they can be in this position because when you see it you believe it.”

My student’s description of what she saw, heard and physically experienced, both when she saw St Louis walk on to the stage and then watched her perform, and the added emotions that made this visit to the theatre one that she would never ever forget, was when she was invited backstage to have a conversation with St Louis!

“It was too much,” she told me, “The icing on the cake…I was incredibly emotional…”

“That is exactly what I wish to do,” she said. “My dream is to perform on a west end stage… Now, having seen St Louis doing it, I know I can.”

Are you a manager? Does the team that surrounds you look like you? Let’s think about your boss, and your bosses boss, or let’s just focus on the people in your team.

If there is an absence of black people, people of colour, differently abled people somewhere in close proximity, working alongside you, I might suggest that you are failing…You might think that you are doing the best you can, but the absence of difference, class, ability, and culture leaves children believing that certain positions in our society belong to white people… white men and white women. I am afraid that that harms children of colour, it harms differently abled people, it harms black people. Think about that elephant…

Power and the responsibility to change

In our Sound Connections training workshop on Thursday 10 November, ‘Power and the responsibility to change’ which will be wonderfully facilitated by Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan and Remi Fox Novak, you will hear from other delegates and be able to share your thoughts, challenges and wisdom on how to orchestrate change within your company. Suhaiymah will use tools, her expertise, and bright mind, to share with an honesty that will help you to put all the guilt away and take the necessary action towards lasting change.

We all need to change something, we all need to be sincere in the movement of change within our organisations, opening doors and giving others a chance to both lead and know their value and worth by humbly accepting that it takes a community of others in the workplace to create a society that reflects a new innovative culture, that accepts and celebrates the wonderful feelings and values that such changes bring!

Take a moment to breathe… look seriously at our world. We all need to change…

The Elephant (part 2)

Recently I witnessed the aftermath of two schoolgirls aged 14 who had attacked another 14 year old at a bus stop, whilst school children filmed the attack with their mobile phones. I ran to her aid and wondered all the while about violence. Why people harm others and where it stems from?

I considered the lack of representation in our society and the lies that black people and people of colour are told, from the beginnings of school education, to how they are reflected in the media that leave them without history and a sense of belonging which in turn can lead them to feel of less value in our society.

As a black female educator, I find myself feeling exhilarated when I can just show up and be all that I can be. I actively celebrate my freedom to express in the rare situations where whiteness affords me the privilege to do so. Isn’t that terrible – that my experience of freedom to express and authentically be myself is so rare that I have been unconsciously trained to celebrate it? Is that not in itself a form of violence?

Have you ever been silenced, undermined, harmed, or excluded, just because of the way you show up? What words would you use to describe that kind of treatment, and what if it becomes the norm? An institutionalised norm – so normal that your days are filled with unbiased, micro aggressions that become like paper cuts on your heart… paper cuts in your thinking… think about that elephant!

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Shahana Knight will be looking at mental health and wellbeing during her session on Tuesday 11 October! A course, that will explore violence in the home – how that can spill out on to our streets and into the school environment. She too will provide tools, thoughts, lived experiences of such challenges in the hope that, when we see children acting out in the school environment or out on the streets, we might think a little deeper about the messages that children receive on all layers in our society and take a moment to consider what might be going on for all children in their home environments. We might be encouraged not just to think but to act on the narratives in our society that leave certain people in our world feeling marginalised, of very little worth and broken.

Music and Domestic Violence

The third and final workshop this term to be held on Monday 5 December will look at data surrounding music and domestic violence. Rebecca and Nicole worked with women and children who suffer domestic violence during lockdown and will share their findings in terms of leadership, and what to do when you don’t know what to do in a workshop situation… They will share a variety of nuggets, lived, researched and workshop-based experiences, for those who wish to work in this area of expertise or understand, explore ideas around innovative leadership and set up music workshops in an area of violence and vulnerabilities that are ever increasing in our society!

If we are honest, we as adults will own that we all suffer in some way!! Has anyone received a gas or electricity bill recently and wondered where the extra money will come from to begin to negotiate the violence of such increases? There will be something in Shahana’s training course for you too! A moment to breathe and realise that, with a little help, we can all help each other to live in a world that considers the impact of decisions at the top of any organisation and how it filters down to harm those at the bottom.

Come join us in our training sessions. You will breathe, reflect and receive valuable tips. You will be supported through ideas on change, not just on change but also on how you can help yourselves and others who are secretly struggling with their mental health…

Brenda x

Other articles below!

Inclusive Practice In Action 2022 Reflections on curating this years IPIA conference for Sound Connections’ conference

https://sway.office.com/1rpm5cn9vGNN7PnD?loc=swsp

 Written for the organisation Sound Sence after the conference I curated for Sound Connections ‘Inclusive Practice in action!’

More to follow!