Birch, Catherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1944-7334 (2023) The Use of Trauma-Informed Community Music Practice in Enabling Narrative Through Song Writing. In: Griffin, Shelley and Niknafs, Nasim, (eds.) Traumas Resisted and (Re)Engaged: Inquiring into Lost and Found Narratives in Music Education. Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education (36). Springer, pp. 181-201

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Abstract

This chapter investigates approaches to trauma-informed community music practice that enable narrative through songwriting. The York St. John University Prison Partnership Project forms the locus of the explorations, where the Emerging Voices singing and songwriting project occurs weekly at a maximum-security women’s prison in the UK. Using the three strands of narrative inquiry as a framework for exploration of this complex community setting, this chapter considers approaches to practice through the lenses of temporality, sociality, and place, enabling a deepening understanding of both the participants, the context, and the creative process. The women’s stories are explored through the text of their songs as a way of engaging in both individual and collective narratives. The Five Values of Trauma-Informed Care (safety, trust, collaboration, empowerment, and choice) are unpacked both theoretically (as philosophical and ideological foundations for music making) and practically (as core values embedded in the weekly singing sessions). Considerations of the conditions of practice to support the women sharing their stories through song, point to the facilitators’ willingness to be open, reflexive, listen intently, and validate the individuals’ experiences by bearing witness, enabling an ethic of care to flourish, where individual voices can begin to emerge and be heard.

Item Type:	Book Section
Status:	Published
DOI:	10.1007/978-981-99-6277-8_10
Subjects:	M Music and Books on Music > M Music
School/Department:	School of the Arts
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/5756

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