A Story in Every Song: Community Engagement through Lyrical Exploration

led by: Shanti Sanchez and Bridget Lyons

This session will be an interactive opportunity for participants to engage in both individual and collaborative creative expression through both lyrical composition and musical soundscaping. This experience will offer a diverse palette of activities to empower artists and educators for connecting and growing community in a variety of settings. Inspired by The Lullaby Project, a program of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute (WMI), session facilitators will present evidence-based strategies for supporting health and wellness, aiding childhood development, and strengthening the bond between adults and children. In New York City, the Lullaby Project reaches parents across health, social service, and justice settings. Extending across the country and around the world, the Lullaby Project enables partner organizations to support families in ways that are responsive to and shaped by their specific community needs and organizational goals. The activities introduced in this session have been used to encourage or initiate adult-child bonding for parents and caregivers affected by challenging circumstances, bolster participant self-confidence, promote communication between adults and children, nurture participants’ capacity to be loving parents and caregivers, establish collaborative relationships with partners across the country and globe to contribute to a growing conversation that promotes creative activity and song creation as part of a holistic approach to parent-child care. Additionally, these activities promote language nutrition and oral language development.


PRESENTER BIO:

Shanti Sanchez, Lullaby Project Manager, The Learning Alliance Inc
Bridget Lyons, Arts/Literacy Educator and the Manager of the Moonshot Reading Rocket, The Learning Alliance Inc

Shanti Sanchez and Bridget Lyons are arts literacy educators in Indian River County, serving as teachers and facilitators in both school and community settings with The Learning Alliance, an early literacy organization. Both presenters have participated in UF’s Arts in Medicine training programs, Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project, Music Together training, and Habla 2016 Arts Literacy Teacher Institute in Merida, Mexico. Additionally, both Shanti and Bridget have been recipients of the Cultural Council of Indian River County’s Willie C. Reagan Laurel Award for Educational Leadership.