U.S. Fulbright students in  Brazil, France, India, Malawi, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, and Uganda are sharing their experiences as part of the Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships. Through a partnership with mtvU, MTV’s 24-hour college network, the Fulbright-mtvU program promotes “the power of music” as a global force for mutual understanding.  Recipients were chosen through a multi-tiered, merit-based selection process beginning with field and discipline merit review by U.S. and overseas academic leaders and area experts. mtvU and musical icons Serj Tankian, Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, Wyclef Jean, and Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (for the 2008 students) and Vampire Weekend, Santigold, Death Cab For Cutie and Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance (for the 2009 students) reviewed and nominated candidates. Final selection was made by the Presidentially appointed Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Winners are sharing their experiences during their Fulbright year via video reports, blogs and podcasts as showcased on mtvU and mtvU.com. See their lastest entries below.

2009-2010 Fellows:
        Andrew Magill, Malawi
        Michael Silvers, Brazil
        Rod Solaimani, Morocco
        Tina Wadhwa, India

2008-2009 Fellows:
       Alexis Tucker, France
       Katie Day Good, Mexico
       Spencer Orey, Mali
       Ainsley Breault, New Zealand
       Melissa Adams, Uganda

Andrew Magill, Malawi

New Year, New Country

Posted Tuesday, January 12, 2010 by Andrew Magill - in Malawi, Fulbright-mtvU Fellow

The long wait is over…..I am in Malawi. The rains have finally come and everyone is giddy and grateful. Flying in to Lilongwe I could see two distinct thunderstorms on the outskirts of the city separated only by a ray of sunlight and a patch of blue.

I met Peter Mawanga in person and feel like I have now formally snipped the red ribbon on the project. Peter is even more articulate in person and we’re both really excited about what this project is, could, and will be. Malawi is a warm country (in more than one way), in fact travel guides will refer to it as “the Warm Heart of Africa.”

I’d say they’re right. There is an incredible positive energy in the air considering the grinding poverty and deadly scourge of AIDS. AIDS is something everyone here is affected by. I actually live within a ten minute walk of Malawi’s National AIDS Commission and NAPHAM (National Alliance of People with HIV and AIDS in Malawi). Every day walking home I see the painted red ribbon on NAPHAM’s sign and am reminded of this virus’ pervasiveness and the urgency to remedy it.

Lilongwe is NGO central. There’s Madonna’s charity, Mother Teresa’s, Partners in Health, CARE, Worldcamp for Kids, USAID, Baylor’s pediatric program, and of course the UNC Malawi project….just to name a few. I remember planning my project last November when someone told me “you know UNC has a pretty big project in Malawi right?”
…Reeeeeally? I emailed them as soon as the semester started back and a year later I get to see the famous edifice that shelters UNC’s work. It was a great satisfaction to stumble upon signs for my alma mater in the middle of this florid African city.

Lilongwe is to quote Frank Sinatra “my kind of town.” It’s a city with access to all of the essentials that big cities offer but it has a laid back feel typical of more rural settings. They grow maize and crops in and around the city and traffic has been sparse giving me the illusion this place is tamer than it probably is (probably just the new year holiday). The markets swell with people in the hot afternoons but I haven’t felt an ounce of claustrophobia since I arrived.

One nice little cultural gem: they have “Obama” chewing gum here. They also have these bread rolls called Obamas. I suppose this is reflective of Africa’s excited affirmation of our president with his African roots, but I think the bread’s former name was losing its luster: the Bin Ladens. Evidently when they first introduced the Bin Laden rolls they “exploded” onto the grocery scene. Maybe the Bin Laden name is passé, but I can’t help but wonder if part of it is you’ll sell more bread in Africa by calling it Obama. Just something to chew on.

Comment on this post and read more of Andrew's blog posts on the Fulbright-mtvU website.

About Andrew

School: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Major: Cultural Studies
Country Visiting: Malawi
Email: Fulbright_Andrew@mtvu.com 

Andrew Magill, who graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) with a B.A. in Cultural Studies in May 2009, will travel to Malawi to work with the UNC Malawi Project and AIDS organizations to video-record narratives of Malawian families and communities affected by HIV/AIDS. These narratives will explore how issues such as stigma of infection, Western versus traditional medicine and other cultural factors define the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Malawi. He will collaborate with Peter Mawanga, a well-known musician and social activist, to develop a concept album whose sales will benefit AIDS social service networks. Each song’s lyrics will capture a pre-recorded narrative by using words inspired and quoted from the narratives. He will use the narrative film footage for a documentary about the process which will also serve as a means of fundraising.

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Michael Silvers, Brazil

Rain Prophets

Posted Monday, January 11, 2010 by Michael Silvers - in Brazil, Fulbright-mtvU Fellow

It drizzled as I drove to the annual meeting of the “rain prophets.” Farmers from around the northeast of Brazil gathered in Quixadá, a town in the interior of the state of Ceará. The prophets, who learn from the time they’re young how to predict when and how much it will rain each year, make their forecasts by observing nature. Some listen to birdsong, others measure honey inside dissected bees. The stars, the leaves, and the behavior of ants all suggest how much rain will fall, and the prophets share their predictions so farmers will know when to plant their seeds. The organizer of the meeting, João Soares, is the president of the Instituto de Pesquisa de Violas e Poesia Cultural Popular do Sertão Central (the Institute of Research of Ten-String Guitars and Cultural Popular Poetry of the Central Sertão), and he sees the two-day event as a way of preserving regional culture and traditional ways of knowing.

Check Out Those Shoelaces

The festivities began Friday night with a concert of improvised songs, a kind of music called cantoria or repente. Pairs of musicians took turns improvising verses to songs with predetermined rhyme schemes. The performers sang about rain prophets, about drought, farming, and life in the rural interior, about corruption and politics, about sex, love, and women. There was even a song about Barack Obama.

The next morning, around two hundred visitors, farmers, students, journalists, and politicians met at the base of the town’s reservoir, built at the end of the 19th century as an early effort to mitigate the impact of drought in the region. About thirty rain prophets explained their techniques and gave their predictions for the year. I’m told the best prophets are right 80% of the time. This year’s consensus? A good winter with lots of rain. I’d say it was a safe bet: It started raining in the middle of the meeting and poured in the afternoon.

Here’s a video of Guilherme Calixto, a repentista (a repente singer) improvising a song at the Meeting of the Rain Prophets. He says rain prophets are like poets, and asks for a year without too much rain, since floods devastated the northeast last year.

View the video

Comment on this post and read more of Michael's blog posts on the Fulbright-mtvU website.

About Michael

School: UCLA
Major: Ethnomusicology
Country Visiting: Brazil
Email: Fulbright_Michael@mtvu.com

Michael Silvers, a doctoral student in Ethnomusicology at UCLA, will travel to Brazil to study the relationship between the culture of forró, a kind of popular dance music, and the climate of northeastern Brazil. Working with Vila Estúdio, a recording studio in Fortaleza, Ceará; accordionists from around the state; and a quadrilha square dance ensemble, he will explore the ways in which climate change and drought have impacted how and why people make music. He will produce a doctoral dissertation and a documentary film based on his research.

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Rod Solaimani, Morocco

The Search for Abdellah Pt. Deux

Posted Friday, January 8, 2010 by Rod Solaimani - in Morocco, Fulbright-mtvU Fellow

9/20/2009- We spent almost all day looking for M’Alem Abdellah El-Gourd’s Dar Gnawa, which, believe it or not, turned out to be right next door to our hostel! Personal Legend! The universe conspiring! Need I say more? When he opened the bronze door to his home we inquired as to weather he was the “bearded one”, to which he shot back: “I know who I am, but who are you?” Already I felt like I was in the presence of a Yoda-like master. Tangier is my Dagobah.

After greeting each and every one of us, Abdellah led us through Dar Gnawa with his hands clasped together behind his back, motioning towards photos with Randy Weston with a nod of his head and raising an eyebrow at a Grammy nomination, high up on a dusty shelf littered with broken guitar strings. Throughout the tour he dodged questions from fellow Fulbrighters about the role of Jin (spirits/genies/demons- depending on the context) in Gnawa music. Finally, Abdellah whirled around, raised one palm as if he were taking an oath, and declared that his musical dealings pertained to the inhabitants of this world and not the next. “Why all the questions about Jin? I connect with humans!”

Moments later his grandchildren ran downstairs for a kiss goodnight and we took that as a cue to bid adieu as well. Just before leaving, Abdellah asked my age and poked at my heart. “Only 62,” I said jokingly. He leaned back as he laughed and sent it right back: “Well, I’m only 65! I want to jam with you…to let the tension between young and old play out.” And with that, we were invited back the next evening.

Intermission: HOW RANDY MET ABDELLAH

Before we continue, a quick bio: Abdellah “Boulkhair” El Gourd is a healer/Gnawa musician, and Master of the hejhuj (hag’houge), also called a Genbri, a three-stringed lute made of goat gut. He was born in 1947 in the Kasbah of Tangier. Since then, he’s transformed his home into a museum of sorts, as well as an institute for the instruction, practice and promotion of Gnawa culture. Among many, many other things, he’s renown for his collaborations with jazz pianist Randy Weston, most notably: THE SPLENDID MASTER GNAWA MUSICIANS OF MOROCCO, which was recorded in Marrakech and received a Grammy nomination for Best World Music Album in 1995.

Over the course of 3 rowdy days, Randy and Abdellah jammed with nine other Masters from Sale, Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangier, and Essouira. Some of which hadn’t seen each other in 40 years! Weston recalls that they “lined the 9 masters according to age…and it was a magic evening because, to their knowledge, never in the history of their culture have there ever been 9 hag’houges together with 2 percussionists…each master sang his own song; after each one finished another continued. It was a historic moment.” One month later, the eldest master passed away. 3 months after that, the second eldest died.

Randy Weston’s own connection to Gnawa music stems from a shared narrative that was best described by M’Alem Ahmed Boussou in 1987: “…Weston’s music is related to ours, by virtue of its African roots; the exodus of Black people during the age of slavery transported Gnawa ritual both to America and to the North African Maghreb. Such ritual, after its development in America, was lost in concentration on sheer rhythm, while the influence of the Church eventually gave rise to the Negro Spiritual.”

As for a quick take on Mr. Randy Weston (who was greatly influenced by the likes of Thelonius Monk), I’ll let a certain Mr. Hughes give you a taste:
When Randy Weston plays
a combination of strength and gentleness
virility and velvet emerges from the keys in an ebb and flow of sound
seemingly as natural as the waves of the sea
-Langston Hughes

Comment on this post and read more of Rod's blog posts on the Fulbright-mtvU website.

About Rod

School: Georgetown University
Major: Foreign Policy
Country Visiting: Morocco
Email: Fulbright_Rod@mtvu.com

Rod Solaimani, who graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Foreign Policy in 2008, will travel to Morocco to study and participate in the Afro-Arab-Gnawa-Western musical exchange. A skilled percussionist, he will research the impact of U.S.-Moroccan musical partnerships in 3 cities, use his findings in local high school music curricula and promote East-West collaboration with a student concert.

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Tina Wadhwa, India

What You Hear Is What You Read

Posted Tuesday, January 12, 2010 by Tina Wadhwa - in India, Fulbright-mtvU Fellow

I recently came across an organization called PlanetRead that completely captured my heart, and I am so excited about the work they are doing to improve literacy in India. There are 900 million illiterate people in the world, and 1/3 of those people, 300 million, live in India. According to UNICEF, 66% of India’s population is illiterate. I was acutely aware of India’s literacy problem and its implications for the socioeconomic development of the country, however I was still surprised to hear the explanation of Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director for Google.org, in reference to the undeniable urgency of a literate nation. He explained that if you do a multiple logistic regression analysis and you put all of the variables in trying to explain what is the single most important factor in determining whether a child will live or die past the age of 5, it isn’t water or vaccinations, but the literacy of that child’s mother.

PlanetRead came up with a novel way to improve literacy in the country by utilizing the passion of millions – Bollywood. PlanetRead recognizes that while quality educational materials are scarce, Bollywood films and videos are omnipresent in society. With the largest film industry in the world, India produces 1000 films per year and 5000 music videos per year. According to K.S. Sharma, former CEO of Prasar Bharati Broadcasting Corporation, there are 108 million homes in India with a T.V., each watched by an average of 5 people. This results in an audience of 540 million viewers. “When you’re very poor, there’s not much that you can do for entertainment,” explains Amisha Patel, Bollywood film star. “For people here, the cheapest form of entertainment is Bollywood.” She says that movie stars and films are on every channel and are idolized by every citizen in India.

I recently spoke with Mr. Nirav Shah, the Chief Operating Officer at PlanetRead who set up the Mumbai as well as Pondicherry offices and put the operations for the organization in place. He told me how Bollywood, “with all its exuding glamour and charm,” has always been an escape into another world for the underprivileged. He recognized that it has also proved to be “an inspiration to the poor, who dream to reach levels of comfort and riches that are protrayed in the movies.” The manager of Quality Assurance at PlanetRead, Parthibhan Amudhan, added that Bollywood takes up a major portion of India’s media and has a strong impact on all classes of people. He told me that once the crime rate in a particular city went up drastically when all the movie halls were shut down. According to Suneil Shetty, another film star, the influence of Bollywood in India “is like the influence of oxygen in one’s body. Bollywood is everything.”

PlanetRead uses the people’s love of Bollywood to fill the need for education through a technique called SLS, subtitling lyrics of existing film songs in the same language they are sung in. In this manner, popular Bollywood film songs appear on national television along with the lyrics—as PlanetRead calls it, a sort of “Bollywood Karaoke” for the masses. With SLS, viewers subconsciously associate the song with the text, so the familiar lyrics on screen reinforce their literacy skills. This provides automatic reading practice to 300 million early literates. According to the research organization A.C. Nielsen, three to five years of exposure to SLS enables a person with basic familiarity with the alphabet to become functionally literate. PlanetRead’s SLS technique was first broadcast in 1999 on a film song program in Gujarat, and it has since spread throughout the country in 10 regional languages. For only $1 US Dollar, SLS can reach 10,000 viewers for a full year. In 2005, the Google Foundation awarded PlanetRead a grant to increase the number of SLS programs available. Google is also supporting PlanetRead with free advertising through the Google Grants program and content hosting on Google Video.

Nirav explained to me that Bollywood used to be an inspirational world for the poor and underprivileged, but with the advent of PlanetRead’s SLS, Bollywood became a tool for spreading mass-literacy and reading skills. He said that “while it was hard to measure the contribution of Bollywood, as soon as SLS was added to the songs we could clearly see a leap in literacy in all viewers across all strata of society as well as different literacy levels.” The most interesting part of SLS is how it mixes education with entertainment, as many don’t even realize that SLS is helping them improve their reading skills. It also has a powerful complementary impact because it reinforces at home, the same day, any reading one might have picked up in school. “This is a simple innovation we have been using for over a decade,” explained Parthibhan. “With a solid track record of research, we know that SLS is a very easily scalable model that will work anywhere in the world.”

The real turning point will come when the top Indian bureaucrats in education and broadcast can come together to support programs like SLS, however getting them to talk on the same table proves difficult. PlanetRead is currently in the initial stages of expanding SLS to other countries in South Asia, Africa, and Latin America through an affiliation model with a local partner. In each country, the organization aims to design and implement a custom partnership agreement with a local organization. Preliminary dialogues are already in place with potential partners in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

I was really excited to learn about this organization as it is completely in line with my project exploring the impact of Bollywood music on underprivileged youth in the city. In my various visits to Mumbai’s slums, I always saw groups of children gathered around the television watching Bollywood film songs and music videos, often singing the words and dancing to the beat. What a novel way for this NGO to capture Bollywood’s popularity and use it for the greater good, revolutionizing the education system one film song at a time! Below, see a photo of children watching these SLS clips as well as a short video of an SLS clip from PlanetRead and 2 short videos of children mimicking the songs:

View the video

View the video

View the video

According to PlanetRead, SLS could very well be India’s contribution to the world for fighting illiteracy.

Comment on this post and read more of Tina's blog posts on the Fulbright-mtvU website.

About Tina

School: Columbia University
Major: Political Science and Economics
Country Visiting: India
Email: Fulbright_Tina@mtvu.com 

Tina Wadhwa, who graduated from Columbia University in 2007 with a BA in Political Science and Economics, has traveled to India to create a documentary exploring the impact and influence of Bollywood music on underprivileged youth in Mumbai. She is also developing the music and drama center of the Akanksha Foundation while focusing on the role of music as a vehicle for collective expression and understanding among the children. Exploring the paradoxes and interactions between the Indian film industry’s intentions and the perceptions of the people, she bridges these divides by coordinating with entertainment professionals at Rohit Roy Productions and the youth of the Akansha Foundation, culminating in a Bollywood performance by the youth, as well as a documentary film, CD recording and website depicting their journey. The documentary will be screened at a fundraising gala that marks the 20th anniversary of the Akanksha Foundation’s efforts.

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Alexis Tucker, France

France goes to Hip-Hop International World Championship + Interview with Vicelow

Posted Monday, July 27, 2009 by Alexis Tucker - in France, Fulbright-mtvU Fellow

View video "Hip-Hop International - Paris Interview"

At the end of July, France will be represented for the first time at the Hip-Hop International World Championship in Las Vegas. The three French dance crews to go to the U.S. (categorized by age group: Junior (7-12) Varsity (12-18) and Adult (18+)) were selected at the Hip-Hop International France Championship held at the Casino de Paris this past May. Despite being the first year for the French tournament, all of the competing crews were really strong and the event was a huge success thanks to passionate dancers, a great audience and a lot of hard work put in by the HHIF organizers Jean Pierre Chandler and Sabrina Bouhanik. During the competition, I interviewed J.P. and Sabrina backstage about the challenges of putting together the event and what lessons and opportunities HHIF has to offer young people in France. You can check out a portion of our interview above.

View video "Interview with Vicelow"

Vicelow (center in white hood) posing with his good friends from the R.A.F. Crew— winners of the Hip-Hop International France Championship (Adult category 2009)

In addition to the dance crews, well-known French hip-hop rappers also performed at the event including Freeman (formerly of IAM), Philemon, Vicelow (formerly of Saïan Supa Crew) and Pit Baccardi. Having interviewed dancer-turned-rapper Freeman the previous week (in fact, he was the one who first told me about HHIF), I was also interested in interviewing Vicelow about his decision to make dance a big part of his current solo project The Blue Tape. Above, you can watch a portion of our interview to learn why Vicelow considers it both “natural” and important for him to work closely with dancers and how he was first inspired by Michael Jackson to be a true performer.

Comment on this post and read more of Alexis' blog posts on the Fulbright-mtvU website.

About Alexis 

Alexis Tucker is in France to study how socially engaged French rap music and hip-hop culture have addressed the aftermath of the 2005 riots and the 2007 French Presidential election. She will produce a multimedia presentation and a documentary that reflect the political role of hip-hop in France. Alexis graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in French and African Studies in May 2008.
http://fulbright.mtvu.com/author/alexistucker/

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Katherine Good, Mexico 

The Grand Tour

Posted Wednesday, July 8, 2009 by Katie Day Good - in Mexico, Fulbright-mtvU Fellow

For my final post, I'll leave you with this audio flipbook that sums up my year. In previous posts, I tried to explore the diversity of Mexican music by zooming in on individual sounds and people. I wanted to compare a variety of styles (Mariachi, Son Jarocho, Danzón, Villancicos, La Chilena, Son Huasteco, and Tropical were just a few that I got hooked on), while also considering how this music has been affected by emerging issues in Mexico, like emigration, urbanization, and the cultural gap between generations.

This audio flipbook takes a wider view. I hope it lives up to its name—It's a “grand tour” of the School of Mexican Music, classroom by classroom, genre by genre. For the musician in me, traveling from one “room” of Mexican music to another over the course of this year was an awe-inspiring lesson in new sounds. But more importantly, it gave me a taste of the complexity of Mexican history. And every day, I'm happy to report, that history is still being sung and played out by young people who want to live in a 21st century Mexico that doesn't forget where it came from.

View and listen to the audio flipbook.

Sincere thanks to IIE, the State Department, COMEXUS, and mtvU for their continued support during this year. I also want to thank the School of Mexican Music in Mexico City, and the Centro de Documentación del Son Jarocho in Jáltipan, Veracruz for opening their doors to my research (and elementary music skills).

I also want to individually thank my mentors and music teachers, without whose patience and knowledge this project would not have been possible—Jorge Luís Aquino Gómez, José Luís Ceron Mireles, and Pedro Gutiérrez in Mexico City; Ramón Gutiérrez of Son de Madera in Xalapa; Benito Cortés Padua of Los Cojolites at Rancho Luna (….Negra!); my fellow Fulbright grantee Phillip Quercia; Thomas Stanford and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia; and Randall Kohl of the Universidad Veracruzana. A todos Uds., ¡Mil gracias!

Last but not least, if you like what you've heard on my blog, I urge you to check out some of these young Mexican musicians who have, at one point or another, knocked my socks off:

• Los Cojolites - Jálitpan, Veracruz
• Los Pájaros del Alba - Cosoleacaque, Veracruz
• Sonex - Xalapa, Veracruz
• Pasatono - Mexico City and Oaxaca
• Las Perlitas Tapatias - Guadalajara, Jalisco

Comment on this post and read more of Katherine's blog on the Fulbright-mtvU website.

About Katherine

Katherine Good is in Mexico to produce podcasts that anthropologically explore the Mexican youth renaissance of performing various pre-rock music styles. A folk musician and independent radio producer, Katherine works with the School of Mexican Music in Mexico City and the danzon and son jarocho circles of Veracruz to document this growing cultural trend.  Katherine graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Loyola University Chicago with a B.S. in Anthropology and B. A. in International Studies. http://fulbright.mtvu.com/author/katiegood/

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Spencer Orey, Mali

Sanuya

Posted Friday, June 12, 2009 by Spencer Orey - in Mali, Fulbright-mtvU Fellow

“Sanuya”, written and performed by Modibo “Bastin” Diabate featuring Mah Bara Soumano and Konté B, arranged by Lamine Soumano, produced by Studio Mali, and filmed by Spencer Orey.

View the video here.

“Sanuya” is a song about about cleaning up the trash in Bamako that draws attention to trash and pollution in the city. It’s mostly in Bambara with some French, and it’s around six minutes long. Usually in Bamako I do my best to see through the pollution into the underlying beauty of the city, and trust me, there is a lot there that is beautiful. However, this time, I got to focus directly on trash and make things into a giant chaotic trash party, shooting all but one scene without my tripod while riding around on motorcycles with a big group of rappers in the Bamako neighborhood of Djicoroni Para. Unfortunately, it’s the hot season right now, so it’s nearly 115 degrees F every day, and the light is always incredibly strong, making filming especially difficult. However, with help, we found some dirty places to film: trash piles, burning trash piles, open sewers, meat markets, and more.

But you know, this is not to say that all of Bamako is like that. You see, in presenting this video, I don’t want to misrepresent Bamako or Mali as entirely dirty places: there IS a big problem with trash and trash collection (most trash collection is done by donkey-driven carts), and nobody will deny there. But there are ALSO beautiful trash-free places in the city, and not everything is trash. It’s important to remember that in making the video, we sought out the dirtiest places possible, meaning that there were many places that we passed up as too clean.

Bastin told me he hopes that his song will help people realize that they’re going to have to be more careful about trash, about how much they consume and how much they throw away, not to mention WHERE they throw it! He wants people to stop burning trash, especially tires and plastic bags, and to work together to find a better waste management solution. He hopes that his song will help the city transform into an even more beautiful place.

For the editing, I worked with Lamine Soumano, who was an invaluable help in sync’ing the video and helping me to know which images should go with which verses. People I’ve shown it to have commented that the finished version looks exactly how a Malian music video should, which is something that I am proud of. It certainly was a great experience and a lot of fun to make!

I hope you enjoy the video!

Comment on this post and read more of Spencer's blog on the Fulbright-mtvU website.

About Spencer

Spencer Orey is in Mali to study the rich tradition of griot musicians, who are considered living embodiments of cultural knowledge. He is researching the roles musicians played in the Malian transition to democracy and what roles they play currently. From his findings, he will create a compilation CD of music.  Spencer graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Anthropology.
http://fulbright.mtvu.com/author/spencerorey/

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Ainsley Breault, New Zealand

Kommikal and Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori

Posted Friday, October 16, 2009 by Ainsley Breault - in New Zealand, Fulbright-mtvU Fellow

This is a bit of an overdue post, but at the end of July I flew to Christchurch, in the South Island of New Zealand, to meet and film one of my participants, Kommikal. I happened to catch him during Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, or Māori Language Week. This annual celebration of the Māori language started in 1975, and each year encompasses events all over New Zealand that support the use of Te Reo Māori. Even mainstream media outlets participate, as statements like “What’s next on TV2” were delivered solely in Māori, and New Zealand-made programming like the daily serial Shortland Street featured Māori language content. It’s an amazing achievement for proponents of the Māori language that the week has grown to such prominence, particularly when some older New Zealand residents can remember a time (the early 1900’s) when the Māori language was banned on playgrounds at schools and corporal punishment could be administered to children who disobeyed.

Here are some clips from Kommikal’s performance at the Māori Film and Music Festival held at the University of Canterbury as part of their week of classes, workshops, and celebrations held in the Māori language.

To learn more about Kommikal, check out his MySpace.

And to learn a bit of Māori, go on to Kōrero Māori, an awesome online resource developed by the Māori Language Commission for people interested in picking up the Māori language. Kia toa!

P.S. To file under “New Zealand is beautiful”, I can’t help but include a photo from a day trip to Kaikoura during my South Island journey, where I took a whale and dolphin tour and happened upon a group of travelling dusky dolphins. Enjoy!

Comment on this post and read more of Ainsley's blog posts on the Fulbright-mtvU website.

About Ainsley 

Ainsley Breault is in New Zealand to research the role of music in perpetuating Maori culture. She will conclude the project by obtaining a one-year certificate in Maori music at Auckland University of Technology, and will chronicle two significant Maori music events, sharing her findings through two 30-minute rockumentary-style digital videos. Ainsley graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Communication and a minor in Cinema-Television.
http://fulbright.mtvu.com/author/ainsleybreault/

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Melissa Adams, Uganda 

Breakdance for Peace and Positive Social Change

Posted Monday, November 30, 2009 by Melissa Adams - in Uganda, Fulbright-mtvU Fellow

For my final blog entry, I will provide an overview of the work I did while in Uganda, discuss project sustainability and future plans, and share a few lessons learned from my Fulbright experience.

The Overview

One Hand Stand

The goal of my Fulbright project was learn how the Hip Hop Therapy Project (HHTP) could be strengthened to better serve the young people participating in it. In this effort, I conducted a needs assessment exercise with the aim of using the findings to inform the project’s growth and development.

After speaking with over 30 young people and meeting with other project stakeholders I decided to focus my efforts on:

• Developing more training, performance, and competition opportunities for project members
• Increasing the number of youth benefiting from the project
• Increasing access to age-appropriate HIV-, sexual-, and reproductive health related information for project members

In order to accomplish the first objective I used some of the money I receive from Fulbright and mtvU to organize over 10 training workshops and a Back-to-School breakdance show and competition. I also established weekly breakdance classes that are youth-led and take place every Saturday from 2-4pm and arranged for some of the more experienced project members to teach breakdance lessons to adults once a week. These classes provide them with teaching and leadership experience as well as a source of income for paying their school fees and scholastic materials.

To accomplish the second and third objectives, I partnered with an organization called the Gulu Youth Center (GYC). The GYC provides youth-friendly age-appropriate information and services on sexual and reproductive health. Through this partnership, the HHTP project was able to benefit from a free practice space that is accessible to all youth (thereby increasing the number of project participants) and increase direct access to age-appropriate sexual- and reproductive health-related information and services for project members. Before I left Uganda there were over 100 registered members of the Hip Hop Therapy Project.
 
Project Sustainability and Post-Fulbright Plans

While in Uganda, I made it a point of telling the young people that I was working with that I wouldn’t be there forever and that it was important for them to take ownership of the project. We selected project leaders and established roles and responsibilities for other project members. Those with more dancing experience were given the responsibility of teaching the ones with less experience. Project members even took the initiative of designing and producing their own fliers in order to recruit more members. Thankfully, a friend named Josh Jones also agreed to assist me with coordinating the project after I left.

Before I left Uganda, some young people approached me and said that they weren’t so good at dancing but that they love to rap and would like trainers to be brought in to assist them with their rapping and performance skills. This is something that I would like to work on with Josh in the future as well as creating more performance and traveling opportunities for the HHTP members.

After the Fulbright, I will be pursuing a PhD in Global Women’s Studies at the National University of Ireland in Galway. I plan to do my research on gender and sexuality norms among adolescents in northern Uganda and the implications for HIV prevention. I will therefore be returning to Gulu most likely in the Spring of 2011 to do my PhD research. I plan to continue supporting the HHTP from Ireland and working on it again when I return to Uganda.

Lessons Learned

There are a couple of valuable lessons that I learned while working on my Fulbright project that could be useful to those who are just starting their Fulbright or those who are interesting in applying for a Fulbright in the future:

• Choose your host affiliation very carefully. Make sure that both of you have clearly described your expectations of the collaborative effort and what you each hope to gain out of it. Put your agreements in writing.
• Be flexible. Realize that things are not going to go exactly as you plan so have a Plan B (and a Plan C, and Plan D and so on).
• Have fun! Moving to a new country and adapting to a different culture can be very challenging but remember that your Fulbright year is a once in a lifetime experience so make the most of it and enjoy!
• Finally, I would like to thank mtvU and the State Department for their support and for making this experience possible. I feel that I have personally greatly benefited from this experience and so have the young people participating in the project. Thanks to Josh and the members of the Hip Hop Therapy Project, Breakdance Project Uganda, the Gulu Youth Center, and all the wonderful friends I made in Gulu.

In closing, I wanted to share with you a rap song that the youth from the HHTP secretly recorded and performed for me at the Breakdance for Peace and Positive Social Change Grand Finale show but unfortunately because it’s over a Dr. Dre beat and I don’t have the proper clearance to use that beat on this site I can’t. So, instead, here are the lyrics to the song and a slideshow of some memorable moments from my time working on this project. Enjoy!

“Hip Hop Therapy” Song Lyrics:

There was a time
when our land was full of crime
conflict n war
we wanted to write rhymes
we wanted to dance
we wanted love
and so we prayed to god above
In 2006… an angel came
…Melissa was her name
Introduction to hip hop
We started to dance
We got so good
Let’s raise our hands…
Melissa, you’re our sista/
You’re our Mama/
We’re gonna miss ya/
(Repeat)
Hip Hop Therapy
We’re one big family
We won’t stop
Til we reach the top
Hip Hop Therapy
(Repeat)
Melissa, you really inspire
We were down so low
And now we’re higher
So high, we see the clouds
When people see us dance
They’re like WOW
Gulu B Boys n Girls
We’re ready for the world
Gulu B Boys n Girls
We’re ready for the world
So these are some words of thanks
This isn’t bye bye
Let’s raise our hands
Melissa, you’re our sista/
You’re our Mama/
We’re gonna miss ya/
(Repeat)
Hip Hop Therapy
We’re one big family
We won’t stop
Til we reach the top
Hip Hop Therapy
(Repeat)

View Melissa's video

Comment on this post and read Melissa's other posts on the Fulbright-mtvU website.

About Melissa

Melissa Adams's Fulbright project in Uganda is working on a hip-hop therapy project in which youth affected by war and by AIDS in Northern Uganda learn to beatbox, break dance, compose positive rap songs and create hip-hop beats with local instruments. She is conducting an assessment of the children's needs and available resources and will use the data to determine how best to further meet their psychosocial needs through these therapeutic resources. Melissa graduated from Emory University with a Masters in Public Health. http://fulbright.mtvu.com/author/melissaadams/

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