Activist, author Chloé Valdary is a diversity and anti-racism trainer with a refreshingly loving approach. This week, on Valentine’s Day, I am encouraging us to approach our ensembles, our classes, our colleagues and our neighbors with Agape.
In music education, we have a very popular, and important euphemism: “I want my students to see themselves in the music, or in the ensembles I have them watch” based on the finding people who look like them. And this representation does matter! But what I don’t hear enough is, “I want my students to learn to see themselves in everyone, and in ALL of the music we learn.” This introspective approach is echoed in Chloé’s fascinating brand of Anti-Racism.
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”
James BaldwinOne of the core premises that Chloé likes to communicate is that if you can’t apply the principle James Baldwin describes here to YOURSELF, then it will not have any value in healing the rifts between us. If you see it only as a principle that applies to others, we will never enter important conversations as equals. She trains, teaches and advocates for a type of conversation about diversity in schools, groups and organizations that starts with introspection and search for our common humanity.
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From Theory of Enchantment: One particular day, in a religious studies class, my professor, an agnostic, shows us a documentary called Jesus Camp. It follows a group of evangelical Christians at their summer camp for kids. The subjects are not portrayed in a positive light.
Suddenly, a student in our class starts to rail against the Christians in the movie, and I peg my agnostic professor as a person who won’t mind. How wrong I am. It becomes a shouting match between her and the student. My professor vigorously defends the Christians in the documentary, saying we all gravitate toward things that give us a feeling of meaning and significance, belonging, and community.
Then she says,
She defies the agnostic box I placed her in. The frameworks that I am using to find meaning in the world are no longer sufficient. I am desperate for one that is. Slowly but surely, I realize I am outgrowing
my religion.
I grew up in New Orleans with four sisters. We were an extremely atypical Christian family, and my parents deeply inculcated a strict religious philosophy. We didn’t observe Christian holidays, we observed Jewish holidays. Church was on Saturday instead of Sunday, and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur were celebrated instead of Christmas and Easter.
From my mother, a homemaker, I absorbed a deep inquisitiveness about human beings. From my dad, a banker, I gained a reverence for the numinous and the transcendent. But I also came out of childhood dogmatic in certain ways.
I went to a performing arts high school then to the University of New Orleans, where I became an activist.
Episode 66: “I Shine!” Music as Self Care with Sarah Quartel
Car Thoughts: How To Get Choirs to “Sing Louder”
Episode 65: The Art of Community with Dr. Iona Italia
How NOT to Write Your Cancellation Essay
Episode 63: “We Face People.” The Courage of the Choir with Bob Chilcott
Thoughts on What ‘Elitism” Means in Choral Music
Episode 62: Filling in the Gaps with Choir
Episode 61: Give Me Some Humanity! With Will Todd
Episode 60: Labels Won’t Stick to Isaac Cates
Motivational Message From Dr. Emily Williams Burch!
Episode 59: Married to the Choir with The Robison’s and the The Munces
Why You May Have Misunderstood Singers Masks and the Aerosol Study
Episode 58: Telling the Story of American Choral Singing
Episode 57: Working Between Worlds with Reena Esmail
Car Thoughts: I Think We Dis the Super Bowl Music Because We’re Jealous
Car Thoughts: Why Conversations Online End Badly
Episode 56: Sound Engineering for Dummies with Josh Williams
Car Thoughts: The Performance is still critical.
Episode 55: Music At the Intersection of Identities with Deborah Stephens
Episode 54: Choir Teacher TikTok and Tips for Social Media Use for Educators with Katherine Rosenfeld
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