March 11, 2021 | 5:00-6:30pm
At this time in our society, we are teetering on the edge of monumental change. Our generation has the chance to redirect the patterns, hardships, and stigmas of our past and create a brighter future. Every individual is capable of making societal change, and too often it seems like there is only one way to make a difference. In the Creative Arts as Resistance program series, created by OJMCHE’s Student Advisory Board, youth in grades 6 – 12 will explore how creative arts can be used as a means of resistance while hearing from artists who are a part of increasing representation, telling often unheard or suppressed stories, and challenging societal norms and taboos. The series consists of three different webinars, highlighting music, visual arts, and writing and is open to middle and high school students across Oregon.
After each program, participants have the option of responding to the prompt below and having their work displayed as part of a virtual exhibition.
Prompt: While we are currently in a time of telling stories often left out of mainstream media, increasing representation is an ongoing process. Think about what stories you would like to see more of, and what parts of yourself you would like represented. Use any style of writing/art/music to express your story, identity, or thoughts about representation.
Music as Resistance with Amanda Greenbacker-Mitchell
Music has always been influential on society and has the power to move us whether through validation, healing, processing, or resisting. In the session, Amanda Greenbacker-Mitchell shares how Jewish people used music to resist during the Holocaust in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp.
Amanda Greenbacker-Mitchell is a passionate teacher of music and a budding scholar of music and the Holocaust. She has the honor to serve as a Raphael Schächter Teacher Ambassador for the Defiant Requiem Foundation and is currently working on developing their music performance curriculum module. She is an active guest conductor and lecturer on the repertoire, circumstances, and musicians affected by genocide, having taught the story of Verdi’s Requiem in Terezín in over fifty classrooms and educational series. She is currently researching the ways music was used as a tool by victims, perpetrators, and survivors of the Holocaust; the receptiveness of active band directors to interdisciplinary music education; as well as how to teach about the Holocaust and other human atrocities through music performance.
Ms. Greenbacker-Mitchell is a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the band program at Syracuse University where she is currently pursuing her Master of Music in Wind Conducting. She works directly with the “Pride of the Orange” Syracuse University Marching Band, “Sour Sitrus Society” University Pep Band, as well as the Syracuse University Wind Ensemble and Concert Band. Before her appointment at Syracuse University, she served as Director of Instrumental Music at Charlotte Valley Central School in upstate New York. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and a minor in Music History and Cultures from Syracuse University (2017).
Learn more about the Defiant Requiem here.
After RSVPing, you will receive an email 24 hours prior to the event with a zoom link. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this event, please contact education@ojmche.org.