Some of the place-based connections Engaged with…

Wales

Brithdir Mawr - intentional community on a farm in Pembrokeshire (Emma camped on the land here and attended a community meal and open mic event)

Coed Fest - a solstice gathering celebrating land, food, music, and healing (Emma performed here)

Green Gathering - fully off-grid music and arts festival (Emma volunteered on traffic crew)

Save the Teifi - initiative to raise awareness for river pollution in the River Teifi

-Watch a short film about the river walk that Emma got to attend in August 2023

England

Change in Nature - an organization facilitating music and story-based nature immersion experiences raising awareness for how to take purposeful action for the environment

-Emma attended Change in Nature’s week-long immersion into song and nature in Dartmoor National Park called Wild Songs

Chettle village - a small village in Dorset fostering a community ethos of regenerative living (Emma spent some time in the community)

-Learn about the revival of the wasailing tradition which you can watch in a short film here

Climate Live - a global youth led climate charity bridging the climate movement and the music industry and fans 

-Emma volunteered with the UK branch doing climate campaigning at a few festivals and performing on their solar-powered open-top double-decker bus

Good Chance Theatre - a theatre centering displaced artists and their stories, originally started by two British playwrights while visiting the Calais Jungle refugee camp 

-Emma watched the premiere of Good Chance Theatre’s Kyoto a riveting play about global climate policy leading up to the Kyoto Protocol of 1997

Just So Festival - a children’s festival full of magic, wonder, and nature connection (Emma volunteered on set-up crew and as an interactive performer in the woods…she was the fairy monarch - a dream role:)

Oxford Storytelling Festival - an intimate festival weaving magic with stories,

spoken word, poetry and song (Emma volunteered on set-up crew)

Red Hearth Gathering - held in a beautiful woodland in Stroud, the Red Hearth is a gathering for cis and trans women and non-binary folk that offers workshops, time to be on the land, rituals, music and creative spaces

Singing with Nightingales - an experience bringing people into the woods at night to listen to the singing nightingales and guest musicians who improvise with them (Emma got to volunteer on crew. Also. The SWN project was a big influence in helping her imagine her Watson year!)

St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace - a centre in London whose work focuses on the intersection of climate and peace

-Emma attended the Spiritual Ecology Conference hosted by St Ethelburga’s

The Nest Collective - a folk collective based in London hosting events that connect people to nature and community

-Nest Collective’s Fire Choir is a social justice choir that Emma participated in while in London

We Are Wild Sessions - a platform amplifying musicians‘ acoustic performances in the wild

Wild Wise - facilitating nature connection experiences for all ages in Devon to inspire deeper care and commitment to the environment

-Emma attended Wild Wise’s Songdreaming pilgrimage in Dartmoor

Scotland

Isle of Eigg - an island in the inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland that is community-owned. In 1997, they raised enough money as a community to buy the land after a series of absentee landlords. The island has its own renewable energy power grid which is the island’s sole energy source. (Emma went to the island to learn about the community buy-out and also learned many Gaelic songs from a local)

Stories of People and Trees - a project exploring the role that musicians can have in communicating the climate crisis in creative ways - this project commissioned seven pieces of new chamber music inspired by stories of people’s connection to trees around the world (Emma met with Jessica Kerr, the creator of the project, who gave her a tour of Glasgow which included some of the trees in the project)

Die Bunte Spunte - a community-building project for refugees and open to all (Emma participated in events such as the Singbar - a monthly evening of singing songs from around the world; and Voorigs (see below))

Pillow Song - a music venue based at the Chäslager in Stans organizing weekly music events focused on social change (Emma volunteered here for a month and came back later in her year to perform a solo concert and to be part of the Songs for our Future project - a workshop series and culminating concert featuring local musicians that explored the topic of climate change

-read about Emma’s time at Pillow Song here

Voorigs - a free weekly community meal using non-saleable food, often in collaboration with Die Bunte Spunte and hosted at the Chäslager in Stans (Emma helped cook for a few of these events)

Friends of Creation - an environmental organization empowering and educating people to care for the Earth and providing employment opportunities for the local community

-along with a group of incredible women from the Friends of Creation community, Emma helped to organize a benefit concert called “Under the Mugumo Tree” featuring local musicians and raising money for the organization. Under the Mugumo Tree is now a regular concert series hosted at Friends of Creation

Karichota - an artist retreat centre at the edge of Mt Kenya forest which hosts and is home to The Theatre Company of Kenya (I stayed at Karichota for a month on this beautiful land)

Kibera Creative Arts - (KiCA) - a creative arts organization based in the informal settlement of Kibera, Nairobi, helping empower youth to cultivate passion and skills in performing and visual arts, providing opportunities for them to build community and generate an income from their art

-Emma connected with KiCA throughout her time in Kenya, and with some talented KiCA musicians and writers, she got to be part of writing the song “Karibu Kenya.” She performed it with KiCA members for a video raising money for the new KiCA building 

Mt. Kenya Waldorf School - a pre K - 3rd grade school rooted in Waldorf education near Nanyuki (Emma volunteered here for a month)

Tafaria Castle and Center for the Arts - a childhood dream of the founder George Tafaria, this castle and arts center was built to provide local employment opportunities to help transform the village where he grew up and  to bring regional international artists and visitors to enjoy all that center has to offer (Emma visited here and met with George to learn more about his story and about the farm and the arts center)

Woodland Star School - a pre K - 12th grade school near Nairobi with a strong environmental education focus (Emma shadowed a music teacher here for a month)

COP28 - I attended this UN climate summit in Dubai. The many musicians and activists who I met and other projects that I learned about are included in the “People“ page

-Watch a short video from an afternoon at COP, where Emma was interviewed for an episode on PlucTV. The episode features a song written by her and Jesse David and Larry Dwayne which you can learn about on the “People” page

Serendipity Arts Festival - India’s largest multidisciplinary arts festival, based in Goa (Emma attended as part of the Listening Academy (see below)

The Listening Academy - hosted by the international project, Listening Biennial, this 10-day workshop brought together sound artists, musicians, and academics to discuss and create while investigating listening as a creative and critical practice. Facilitated by renowned scholars Budhaditya Chattopadhyay and Brandon LaBelle

Abira Music Shop - a small shop selling Sarangis - a traditional instrument of the Gandharva community (Emma went here to have a few Sarangi lessons and to make music with the owner, Amrit, and his daughter, Anu

-Listen to a song they created together here

Greenhood Nepal - a conservation organization bringing together government agencies, NGOs, scientists, lawyers, students, local communities, and decision-makers to secure a future for wildlife and people 

-Learn about the Greenhood Nepal project, ”Singing to Stop Poaching” that Emma interviewed the founder, Kumar Paudel, about

Project Sarangi - a project helping to preserve and celebrate the Sarangi, providing educational opportunities to the local Kathmandu community and around the world as well as selling locally-made Sarangis

The Geopolitics and Ecology of Himalayan Water - an interdisciplinary research project aiming to amplify the impacts of climate change on the Himalayas, a source of water for 2.5 billion people (Emma attended a Kathmandu-based J-term through NYU Abu Dhabi in collaboration with this project) 

-Listen to a Himalayan Water Project podcast episode featuring Emma as she discusses her experience of the J-term and plays a song she wrote with the group of students in the J-term

AIR Ubud -  an artist in residence centre in Bali located in a beautiful jungle (Emma stayed here for a few days while briefly passing through Bali)

Ubud Storywalks - guided walks led by locals to learn about an introduction to Balinese history and culture and the ways that the island has navigated colonialism and tourism

Hakea Gathering - a small gathering on a permaculture farm of the same name, centering community building and personal growth, creativity, and connection to Papatūānuku (Earth Mother) (Emma performed here)

Māoriland Film Festival - an Indigenous film festival bringing together Indigenous filmmakers, artists, and creatives from around the world, hosted by the charitable trust, Māoriland, which provides opportunities for Māori filmmakers to develop their talent and celebrate their culture through film

-Emma watched numerous short and feature films, documentaries, and experimental films at this event. See the “Further Learning” page for a list of them

NZ Spirit - a festival held in sacredness with the land and Māori traditions, Spirit cultivates a community of healing and holistic wellness through workshops, ceremonies, sound journeys, and concerts (Emma performed here)

Rhythm of the Soul - aproject created by videographer Cadby Kong to capture acoustic musicians and amplify their work (because of his videos on Instagram I was able to learn about numerous NZ-based musicians who ended up becoming contacts during my Watson year)

-Cadby filmed me singing my song “Wildflower” in a clothing store in Auckland, watch it here

Shiva Shakti Festival - a conscious gathering with workshops, sound healing, dance, group singing, and meditation, helping people to tap into their inner light (Emma performed here) 

Songwriters 4 Climate Action - an Auckland-based project bringing together community-based performers through a series of workshops and activities to help support and inspire them to develop songs that communicate and inspire conversation about the challenges and hopes of climate action

Whanganui River/Te Awa Tupua - a river that has acquired the legal status of a human, a step in protecting its waterways and the communities that live along it. The Māori people have been long-time guardians of the river, viewing Te Awa Tupua as a sacred being. After years of advocating for the river to have more rights, the law being passed in 2017 was a legal recognition of the sacredness that Māori culture has always understood (Emma went to the town of Whanganui to learn more about the river)

Kari Kari Cultural Ballet - a locally-run cultural performance group helping to preserve, celebrate, and share the Rapa Nui culture through music and dance

Rapa Music - the world’s most remote music store (but easily one of the most welcoming) 

-Watch Emma singing her song “Dawn Dance” in the store with one of the owners here

Rapa Nui Cultural Experience - Led by Rapa Nui native and internationally-aclaimed musician, Yoyo Tukl, this tour experience provides so many stories and insights into the Rapa Nui culture, the history of the island and the Moai, and the many ways that Easter Island has been misrepresented across research and literature

Toki Rapa Nui -  the first fully sustainable music school in Latin America, Toki provides music education to local children, giving them an opportunity to connect with the Rapa Nui culture through music. Founded by Rapa Nui native and world-renowned pianist Mahani Teave 

The New Theatre - an intimate hub of arts and culture, this Dublin-based theatre is helping develop new playwrights (Emma attended a Palestinian solidarity event here featuring Palestinian and Irish performing artists)

Annapurna House - a sanctuary for healing and returning to wholeness, offering yoga and other classes rooted in anti-racism, decolonization, and collective liberation