Rarely does a music project encompass so many moving elements than the soon-to-be-released album, ‘Always by your side’. Bringing together a diverse collection of songwriters, who took the time, energy, and compassion to hear the difficult traumatic stories of five courageous women, each of whom dared to rise and share their healing journey, serving as the basis for this important set of songs and performances.
On Friday, March 08, 2024, Chorus of Courage, will present the emotionally charged and deeply moving stories and song, in concert at the National Arts in Ottawa. Tickets: https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/35470
Cindy Doire, a registered psychotherapist, trauma-informed yoga teacher, somatic coach, gifted bilingual songwriter, and visionary creator of the project, explains. “I think the impetus (for the project) is definitely creating a space where these stories can exist, that they can be held and heard. There is a retreat that we created initially to create that sense of trust amongst the songwriters, and storytellers and we had different facilitators, so we are intentionally engaging with these stories. In the healing process, we had to also choose the storytellers—the survivors, ensuring that a lot of healing has to be done before we get to this place. And there were still layers, so many blind spots, it’s not how to avoid triggers but how we move through them. So, we really tried to create a space where we are welcoming the entire spectrum of emotion, and together as a collective, can we try to make meaning from these experiences? Can we sit in the dark together with this and try to articulate ways through music”.
In June 2023, songwriters Alysha Brilla, Joni NehRita, Marcia Chum-Gibbons, Lisa Iwanycki, and Cindy Doire gathered in retreat at Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve with five invited survivors of sexual abuse and trauma- Heather, Denyse, Jaene, Lita, Michelle (last names withheld for privacy).
“All of our survivors, all of our artists, all of our support people, we cover a range of gender identities and experiences and styles”, points out Heather, a participant survivor from Huntsville.
Coordinating with Muskoka and Parry Sound Sexual Assault Services and Timmins and Area Women and Crisis, survivors were selected who had the earned capacity not only to share their experiences but also the courage to participate in the publicity and further promotion of the project. These women who had endured unspeakable trauma specifically needed to be grounded in their own mental health and hard-won self-assurance to step forward to begin a process of acknowledgment for other women facing similar circumstances, inspiring them to find a healing power within themselves, in the steadfast recognition that they are not alone or forgotten.
Doire clarifies, “What we really want to do with this album and this whole collective is we want to reach other survivors. These experiences are lived in isolation and this is a huge problem, you feel so alone and it distorts your entire reality and I think when you hear a song that maybe holds an aspect of your story you feel seen, you feel validated”.
From the initial songs crafted during the retreat, all written by female songwriters, Doire reached out to “songwriting allies” to fashion a call-and-response scenario whereas the songwriting/storytellers’ call would be responded to by male counterparts as a continuum or ripple from the initial heartfelt understanding derived during the retreat.
“This is advocacy at the ground level”, reveals Heather. “It’s more than a music album, it’s about amplifying survivor’s voices, reaching out to survivors, and showing that collaboration and engagement can happen with our allies.”
With songs and responses composed, the team now includes five male songwriters—Brad Barr (the Barr brothers), Alex Millaire (Moonfruits), Mike Celia, Julian Taylor, and GR Gritt assembled at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Kingston. Produced by Sarah MacDougall with a host of session players, the songs were recorded and prepared for final release on Dare to Defy Records.
As Denyse, a survivor from Huntsville, movingly describes the process of the song crafting and recording, “Who am I”, ‘The Call’ written by Marcia Chum-Gibbons, and ‘The Response’ Sweet Little Hummingbird written by Julian Taylor, “it was wonderful because the shame, always comes into this, and when I was talking to her (songwriter Marcia Chum-Gibbons), I didn’t see disgust; she looked at me like I was strong, and I started to feel strong, seeing myself through her eyes”.
When Denyse heard the first single released from the album, ‘Sweet Little Hummingbird’, played to her from Taylor through a phone call, at the side of the road, “there’s a part in the song where he sings, it was never your fault, I just started sobbing, I guess I just never realized that I need to hear that and hear it from a man”.
Dear little hummingbird
Sweet little hummingbird
You are a lantern in this dim world
You’ve been through things that I cannot fathom
It was never your fault, what happened
You carried unbearable pain that was never yours to burden” – ©Julian Taylor 2023
Upon hearing the songs, Heather reiterates, “it was both empowering, to hear somebody actually speak those words, for somebody to say this is how I feel, to take my feelings and turn it into a song and terrifying”.
Statistically, sexual abuse impacts 30 per cent of Canadian women, “relatively few incidents of sexual assault are reported to the police and most sexual assaults are committed by someone close to the victim, not a stranger”.
Heather summarized ‘Chorus of Courage’ with a poignant and galvanizing remembrance. “One of our artists stumbled a bit when they started their song and got a little emotional. And all you heard, from all the survivors, all the other artists, all of the support people and facilitators, everybody started saying—I got you, we got you, we got you”.
Chorus of Courage is the beginning, like a pebble cast into calm waters, it ripples, guileless and unperturbed, purposefully permeating an unstoppable healing power.
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JANE HUNT says
What an amazing story. I sincerely hope the Chorus of Courage will come to Algonquin Theatre!