ABA & GLP | Innovation Field Notes
In the cities of Camden, New Jersey; Baltimore, Maryland; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the landscape of youth choir is changing. The Sister Cities Girlchoir, founded by Alysia Lee, has a primary focus on girls inspired by the girl effect. The girl effect is the philosophy that describes the positive impact that investing in girls has on a community. Sister Cities Girlchoir embraces this further by having a teaching artist staff that is solely women. In a patriarchal society and choral field, this allows both the singers and teaching artists to grow in a safe affinity space.
Not only does the choir focus on the singers’ processes of learning and composing music, but it also gathers participants in a program called “sister circle”, where they are able to have conversations about life, and experiences in society as women and girls of colour. Choristers, both girls and gender non-conforming students aged 6-18, have voices that are underrepresented within the field and society. Through the universal power of music, choristers are empowered to create and sing music as well as partake in discussions that are representative of their own experiences. Lee and the other teaching artists lead the choir in a way that empowers the choristers to take ownership of their experiences within and outside of the choral space. In its impending tenth year, the choir has managed to surpass its 2024 goal of having 50% of its repertoire be original works. Founder and CEO, Alysia Lee, hopes to one day let the girls run the choir themselves.
“I began to find myself thinking like what’s the purpose of all of this music if it’s not building community and connecting people, and I wasn’t convinced that just attending a concert really created connections that were really impactful and transformative.”
Alysia Lee.
Authored by GLP 2022 Cohort Members
Angie Joseph (United States), Julian Camilo Bernal (Colombia), Karen Rodriguez (Venezuela), Natalie Fasheh (Historic Palestine).
