Stories and Updates

“…I put my three kids on the school bus one morning. I said I’d see them that night, but left for seven years…”

The best part about performing at Maltz was the opportunity to share stories that are so near and dear to my heart. Being able to accompany a powerful narrative, to premiere a song co-written with a new friend, and to perform live strings to a recorded hip hop track by a currently incarcerated artist was an absolute privilege.

“Thanks be to you for bearing a musical light into this dark place that gave sight to th blind so they could see a higher love and intelligence…”

As many of you know, we teach a weekly strings class at GCI. I wanted to share with you all a story from class a couple weeks ago, so buckle up for story time with Lalia once again. :)

It was not our first time back at the Northeast Reintegration Center (NERC) since lockdown, but our fourth. We tried something different…

We let our listeners choose from a stack of cards with instructions on them (i.e. fast or slow, happy or sad, etc.,). Our listeners get to choose a few of these cards that put both me and Rebecca on the spot to improvise based on these instructions. When it was my turn to be put on the spot, one of our students jumped up very eager to choose cards for me…

I went to prison today. Even from a ways down the road, you can see the fences - how tall they are and how much barbed wire is at the top. I braced myself as we walked in.