Read about the experience of our Artist Liaison, Kyra Shaughnessy, at this year’s Folk Alliance International conference in Montreal.
Imagine this: you’re in a big conference hall, hundreds of people milling around, conversations happening left and right. Everyone with coffee in hand, lanyard on neck – and eager to make connections.
“Hi, my name is *insert name here*. Where are you from?”
“*Insert hometown here*. You?”
“*Insert hometown here*. What kind of music do you make?”
“*Insert genre here*.”
“Cool.”
“Cool.”
It’s a conversation every musician has had, hundreds of times. Especially at a conference like Folk Alliance International, the largest gathering of folk and folk-adjacent musicians and music industry professionals in the world. With an overwhelming amount of people to meet, and the reminder to sell yourself well in the back of your head, it can become a frenzy of faces and 30-second surface connections.
But this year felt different. I’ve attended FAI many times as an artist, but this was my first time attending as a representative of Music to Life. One of the gifts of Music to Life as an organization is that simply by existing with the mission that we have, we give permission to artists to bring social change to the forefront of their self-descriptions. Almost every artist I spoke to would light up immediately when I described our mission and would inevitably tell me about some project they were involved in and extremely passionate about but not actively promoting, likely due to ‘activist’ artists often receiving less opportunities due to venues, agents and labels’ fear of controversy.
On the flip side, more than 20 Music to Life Juried Artists were attending the conference and they were all beacons of how social impact can be integral to one’s artistry– and should be talked about within the music industry. By talking about their work, they were creating intentional space for other artists to do the same- something the majority of artists we connected with expressed a need for.
Getting to discuss Music to Life’s mission with new artists felt like opening doors, creating opportunities for passionate artists to see themselves as something more- as leaders and culture-bearers. Conversations quickly went from, “where are you from,” to “I’m also working in the environmental justice space- how can we work together?” and “I didn’t know I could make that much impact with my music- where do I start?” Artists were connecting more meaningfully, both to each other and to their audiences, sharing common concerns and ideas for addressing them. There was something in the air at FAI this year, and it had to do with musicians owning their purpose and their capacity as leaders and culture-bearers.
As legendary author and civil rights activist James Baldwin said, “the role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.”
And there were artists around every corner making visible the issues that need our attention, that need our action. Music to Life’s Juried Artist, Gina Chavez delivered a showcase that reverberated with her characteristic energy, plus she pulled in another one of our Juried Artists, Enrique Chi for a spirit-driven musical experience that brought the crowd to its feet. The Archive Challenge featured 12 artists creating new arrangements of traditional music from around the world, including Juried Artists SaulPaul, Elexa Dawson, Amanda Pascali and Thea Hopkins. Juried Artist Sariyah Idan was featured on the Music in Times of War Panel, speaking about her work around the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
We went beyond small talk this year, to connect around big issues. I’m inspired to be in the company of such forward-thinking and community-minded musicians.