DEBORAH’S PLACE
Deborah’s Place opens doors of opportunity for women who are homeless in Chicago. Supportive housing and services offer women their key to healing, achieving their goals and moving on from the experience of homelessness.
We seek to fulfill our mission through the expression of our core values:
We believe that safe, clean and affordable housing is a right.
We believe that every woman has the potential to achieve her goals and determine her future.
We believe that women heal from life traumas through healthy relationships and a caring, supportive community.
We believe that we are stronger when we welcome and celebrate the diversities of the women we serve, our donors, volunteers and staff.
We believe in striving for continual growth, development and excellence in the supportive housing and services we provide.
We believe that our impact is greatest when we work in collaboration with individuals, organizations and the community at large.
OPPORTUNITIES
In planning conversations with Deborah’s Place staff and clients, we identified the residency as an opportunity to:
Facilitate music creation opportunities for participants without previous musical knowledge
Give residents opportunities to process trauma outside of the traditional therapeutic environment
Provide residents with the opportunity to experience agency and empowerment
Provide opportunities to cultivate their creative voice
Utilize the full capacities of performing and collaborating in a digital space
QUESTIONS EXPLORED
How does art make political/philosophical statements through different art forms?
How can we make music with our peers using Deep Listening techniques?
How can music foster a safe and supportive community, even in a digital space?
How can music and mindfulness empower us to process trauma?
THE OBJECTIVES
Participants will learn how to interact with sound in their daily environments and how text can influence the creation of sound.
Participants will learn how to redefine conceptions about what qualifies as music.
Participants will utilize a personal story to create the foundation for their art.
Participants will cultivate a supportive and healing creative environment
THE PROCESS
Fifth House Ensemble facilitated the performance of several Deep Listening activities such as Two Hands Push to Heaven, Own the Space, and Sonic Meditations, among others, with participants from Rebecca Johnson Apartments. By participating in these activities, women from Deborah’s Place fostered a creative community with women whom they may have known for many years but had never connected or collaborated with. Participants were then instructed to use personal narratives to craft their own text scores. Then learning to use their peers as a chamber ensemble, they instructed them to create sounds that brought their stories to life. This residency empowered participants to share their stories and process and create meaning from their personal histories.
THE FINAL PROJECT
Participants created text scores that are unique to their personal narrative. Each member presents their final project in front of the other participants, using public speaking techniques and musical knowledge developed throughout each workshop working with Fifth House Ensemble.
THE IMPACT
One of our participants came out of a Deep Listening exercise telling us how she was able to connect to her father. He had passed away two years ago and she still feels the emptiness today. In listening and sounding in the virtual space, she told us that "it was like he was right back here telling me stories and getting ready for the holidays". She also was able to hear his records that he would play from the other room and it brought her to a place she wasn't able to visit for some time.
“You will never find out until you open the door if it’s bad or good.”
THE NUMBERS
Dates: Session 1 at the Rebecca Johnson Apartments: September 29, 2020 - November 10, 2020
Session 2 at the Patty Crowley Apartments: Planned for late Spring/Summer 2021
Total Number of Visits: 8 (with another 8 possible before the end of the 2020-2021 season)
Total Participants: 10
Race and Ethnicities Present:
White: 50%
Black: 40%
Hispanic: 10%
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
Fifth House Ensemble’s educational programs and research initiatives are supported in part by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, the Albert Pick Jr. Fund, Chamber Music America, the Farny R. Wurlitzer Fund, and by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
