Mini-workshops with instruments, flash choirs, movement, songwriting exercises, and an in-depth workshop—all at the NJEA Convention
By Todd Henkin
Todd Henkin is a professional musician, project manager, researcher and teaching artist. Learn more about him and his work at toddhenkin.com.
I used to play in a traveling band. We had a mid-90s white Dodge van called Tinkerbell and crisscrossed the country playing gigs night after night. This model of being an artist was incredible and exhausting. There was little time to meet the community, make lasting connections and reflect on our experiences as we traveled. This exhaustion and lack of intentional reflection cut the traveling experience from the process of writing songs.
I decided to retool our model. In a project titled Other Voices Other Rooms, we toured but spent meaningful time in classrooms co-writing songs, making music videos and heading to the studio with the students to record original songs. Our performances in these cities were for families, children and staff. I didn’t know it then, but in the alchemy of this tour, in classrooms and studios full of children writing, stomping and singing, I’d transformed into a teaching artist and fallen in love with participatory artmaking.
Fast forward 10 years, and we are living through a pandemic. I’d recorded more albums, lived in Nashville and Seattle, and worked as an educator. I moved back to Philadelphia. With synchronous timing, I discovered and began working with Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby project through World Café Live in Philadelphia. Among an incredible team of teaching artists, researchers and administrators, we created the framework for a thriving community project in a time when we couldn’t even meet each other in person.
These past few years in the UK, I’ve earned a master’s degree in creative health, built songwriting programs into a neonatal unit and a community for those with chronic mental illness, written songs with NHS staff fighting post-COVID burnout and have begun creating participatory songwriting programs across the UK in high-need neighborhoods. I’ve seen and researched how important reflective songwriting can be as an innovative intervention for families, health workers and refugees to connect with pride to their accomplishments while understanding their challenges. I’m excited to share this body of work and offer an opportunity to New Jersey educators.
At the NJEA Convention, with four of my favorite teaching artists, we will provide a unique opportunity to start writing, singing, reflecting and reaching the core of purpose that reminds us why we do what we do: our point.
At ¡The Point!, we’ll host mini-workshops with instruments, flash choirs, movement and songwriting exercises, and a booth for recording and beginning your song. I’ll also host a more extended workshop for in-depth learning.
Join your co-educators in creating the beginning of a community of practice where reflection is welcome, witnessed and sung. This year, we’ll also co-write and perform an original conference song.
Come by and join us!