SOUNDSCAPES

(Introducción instrumental)

Lydia Platón (LP):  Itinerarios Sonoros, el Caribe de cerca y de lejos es un viaje por el mundo de los sonidos, su nacimiento y sus prácticas. Te invitamos a que nos acompañes a escuchar sobre proyectos artísticos, música, poesía, vida cotidiana y los debates de la escucha aquí y ahora en Puerto Rico, en el Caribe y más allá de nuestra geografía. 

El itinerario sonoro de hoy nos cuenta sobre las implicaciones del cambio climático y su relación con el potencial de la música en la voz de nuestra colaboradora Priya Parrotta. Su paisaje sonoro incluye su interpretación vocal en música de Cuba y de la India. Escuchemos. 

Priya Parrotta (PP): Hi. My name is Priya Parrotta. I'm a writer, singer and environmental activist. I was raised in Puerto Rico and I continued to work for the well-being of the islands I am the founder and director of Music & the Earth International. Music & the Earth is an interdisciplinary environmental education initiative. Its mission is to harness the power of the world's most universal language music to face the diverse challenges that are presented by climate change. We focus on the consciousness and the health of young people and with that in mind we organize programs for kids and university students, which utilize music to cultivate the colonial environmentalism and stewardship of tropical ecologies. Currently Music & the Earth consists of a network of musicians, researchers and activists around the world. We offer programs in Puerto Rico at the beginning of each year. 

(Música: Cuba, Isla Bella)

The days before a hurricane are spent in uneasy silence, a moment of impossible waiting which feels both long and compacted. Nature it seems so abundantly obvious now. It's  more powerful than we are ever told. I'm afraid of what I have not yet heard and I know for a fact that if I am afraid then the terror of countless people, not to mention plants and animals, were more vulnerable than I, well then the terror that they feel must take you beyond the line that separates life from death. 

The streets are empty this evening but for a few people who seem Brave to me nothing has begun but for the soundscapes that we ourselves allow for in that time of anticipation. Nature will have her way tonight and we have hushed our voices and silenced our opinions. I wish we could always live this way in observance. Why do we do so only when we fear we might die? Why do we only look at the skies with all and respect and humility in the moments when they're might is so obviously beyond us? Why don't we listen?

El día de:

The hurricane has her sounds. So far I've heard her whistle so forcefully that she could break our entire existences with it. I look out the windows and see nothing, only a smoky pill blue where there used to be a clear horizon between sea and sky. The sky is getting lighter now and I'm reminded that even during a hurricane the sun also rises. We listen even if we do not want to. We certainly cannot go out but I have an intrepid curiosity. What does the storm that I hear sound like in the wild? As I contemplate this I also understand do not mess with nature. My hands are trembling because right now I and many of my loved ones, not to mention the island, which has always been my home, reside in a universe beyond comprehension. The hurricane takes you into a void, into a space between beyond silence and noise, between life and death. It impresses upon us that we are quite literally next to nothing and that in the society that we live in we live hubristically  by default asserting that we are far more powerful than we actually are. You are during a hurricane at once in awe of infinity and also aware of the preciousness of our own lives. 

El día después: 

After the hurricane passes I listen for the music I have not yet heard. 

(Música)

Shortly after el huracán passed through Puerto Rico a second storm hit the island. The storm was not a meteorological phenomenon. It did not inspire awe, humility and primeval fear. Instead, it demonstrated with shocking clarity that natural disasters are not only environmental. They are also political. 

In the days after the storm I began to nurture hopes that the damages brought on by Maria would compel politicians in Puerto Rico and in the United States to respond wisely. I hoped that they would finally start to prioritize sustainable building by embracing renewable energy for instance. I also hoped that they would reverse the austerity measures that have threatened the island's public sector for years. But much of what has happened in a political and economic sense has ended up confirming the opposite. Under political regimes they can be terrifyingly efficient when they wish to be. The rebuild of Puerto Rico's infrastructure has taken place at an absurdly slow pace. Each day further confirms that the slowness is a deliberate act intended to pave the way for the privatization of the islands basic services, and we have seen the power of corrupt politicians to use even the most humanizing forms of devastation to their own advantage.

This process has exacerbated a variety of economic and social problems, which further impede recovery. Yet, we have also witnessed humanity at its best. People helping their neighbors, taking control of the rebuilding process themselves and doing so with patience and humor and song. This is a tradition that spans hundreds of years in the Caribbean and it's shared in some form or other throughout the world. 

After Maria people sang the joys and sorrows of their lives through plena, bomba and other forms of collective music and dance. They shared each other's experiences and triumphed over inner and outer darkness with drums and EROR  and refrains. Each and every day we see that music is far more than entertainment. In times of crisis and uncertainty it keeps us alive

(Music)

As human beings we are separated from each other in a myriad ways: by language, by nation, by religion or by the simple fact that the course of our lives is not the same. It is sometimes hard for us to comprehend what we have in common, yet the transformative power of music is something that we have all experienced. Music can therefore be a formidable tool in bringing people together to fight for social change. 

After experiences like Maria it is easy to feel alone. Puerto Rico's political situation seems unique in all the world and it is hard to imagine that millions of other people on the planet might be facing similar challenges, yet it is true. On tropical islands around the world for instance people grapple with both the joys and challenges of their environments. The brilliant blue waters of the ocean which surround them, the lush vegetation and the warm sunshine bring simple joys yet they also attract the interest of profit-seeking developers whose interest in profit causes beaches to be encroached upon and precious resources to be used in excess, so whether in the Atlantic or the Pacific many islands are vulnerable to hurricanes and typhoons which are difficult to recover from. Being small they are often underrepresented in the political EROR that make decisions that affect them the most, such as climate change. Yet, on the other side the world's tropical islands are home to rich musical traditions, which inspire and uplift people all around the world.

The genres of music and dance that have been born on the shores of tropical islands are numerous. Here a few: salsa, plena, merengue, calypso, soca,  bomba in the Caribbean; capa, mele, hula, ori ori in the Pacific; baila, sega, tara in Indian Ocean. .These diverse styles of music are often performed with instruments made from the surrounding environments and they create a context for a variety of personal and collective experiences. 

The forces of colonials and globalization too have brought other influences to the shores of these places, including Bollywood, reggae and rock. Some instruments are derived directly from nature and are revered around the world for their profound power. The conch shell for instance is commonly used in both religious and secular invocations in the Pacific Islands, southern Asia, South America and the Caribbean. For many its sound brings peace and a feeling of connectedness to something much deeper and older and greater than the petty political forces that often overwhelm us. In the aftermath of Maria there was song and song does something very important for the spirit and when our songs are linked we can convey messages that are much more powerful than the interests which threaten our well-being. Songs and albums, concerts and playlists can introduce us to such forms of solidarity, and practicing music in person can help us feel it directly. And this is only the beginning.

The spiritual and geopolitical potential of music can be unlocked in a myriad of ways. It can build morale and fuel a wide variety of activities in the service of the planet. From sea  turtles to whales to neighbors to friends on the other side of the globe that we've never met music can help us unlock our power as activists. artists and human beings in times of profound ecological change. At the moment climate change is often seen by those who are unaffected by it as an issue which can be placed in a compartment and addressed and turned. At the same time for those who are intimately affected by climate change it comes as a cataclysmic shock perhaps beyond healing, but throughout history music has been a way in which people have made sense of their lives and connected to others through a shared medium. It has risen to so many occasions serving as a vessel for dealing with slavery, with war, with many forms of irretrievable loss or seemingly irretrievable loss. 

(Music)

We need it now for the climate change. Pa' lante. 

LP:  We just heard Priya’s Soundscape, and I wanted to start by asking you, you are a singer and your practices as a musician came before music in the Earth so I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about how does being a musician factor into your decision to get into this project?

PP:  Well, Music & the Earth definitely its origins are in my lifelong experiences as a singer and specifically as singer in this... in this ecology by the sea. The rhythms of the waves have always been very important to me and I think some of the basic principles of music I learned by observing the natural world around me and so that connection has been very strong for me my whole life and then because it's... because music is such an intimate thing it's also very powerful and that's where the motivation for this comes from to a great degree.

LP: Could you tell us a little bit about you? Under what circumstances did you end up growing up in Puerto Rico?

PP: I ended up growing up here because of my parents. My mom is a professor at la UPR and my dad is a tropical forest ecologist who worked here for many years, and so they moved here for work and I was born here and feel very lucky to had that multi cultural upbringing based here. 

LP: Where are your parents from originally?

PP: My mother is from India and my father is Italian American. 

LP: So, in the song Cuba, Isla Bella, right, we have these different sonorities that come from the island, the beauty of the island life and also are the layers of the different sounds and rhythms, and your voice, which is a particular sonority, could you... the voice is so many powerful things. Do you think the voice in your idea of a soundscape factors into the story that nature is telling us through its sounds?

PP:  To a certain degree or at least certainly voice is one of the ways in which we can be in relationship to the natural world and it's also a very embodied instrument that exists within us and it is fueled by a... by the breath which is always already an environmental thing.

LP: You also have a project called Soundscapes After Hours. Could you explain to us a little bit? What's that...what is that about and I know it's part of the big umbrella that Music & the Earth is, but it would be interesting to know what is it specifically.

PP: Yes. Soundscapes After Hours is a program or a series that I'm organizing here in San Juan which is a discussion group on climate change for university students and for any other member of the community that's interested in participating and it takes place once a week for now and in the new year it's going to be taking place twice a week, and it's basically a setting in which we can discuss our concerns about the environment and  creatively consider ways in which we can be environmental change makers and have a positive impact on the public's sphere. The way that... a very important element of the conversation which is why I call it Soundscapes After Hours is that each week we listen to music from different parts of the world and we talk about that music, the context that it comes from, the way it makes us feel and in so doing sort of create an international dialogue really in which the issues that we are facing here become...we develop an understanding in how they're part of a global story as well. 

LP: Do you think there's going to be actual music making in these Soundscapes After Hours? 

PP: Absolutely. The more musicians join the group, the more able we will be to do that.

LP: So is thinking of music as many things as you explained to us, but I still have a question in my mind and I do believe in the power of the arts and I do believe in the power of change through listening more deeply and being able to make your music to mean something in the wider world, but because you're working on several fronts at the same time have... can you give us some examples of strategies that you've been looking at precisely in this whole idea of Music & the Earth, climate change, political change, different people coming together?

PP: Well, there are different ways in which music and environmental awareness and environmental action can come together. One is that music is a very therapeutic force and so it can be...it can be a real resource  to people in the aftermath of natural disaster to cope with what they're feeling and move through it. It can also... music has such a... it's such an incendiary thing. I mean, it can really... it can educate and it can promote awareness and that is something that is obviously a very important function of it. It is a universal language but at the same time it is very diverse so it is a window into its means by which we can learn about people throughout the world and also understand ourselves and perhaps communicate better across borders, which is an essential thing for climate politics, for improving climate politics that is. So there are many ways that it can be.  

LP: So, do you think that probably one of the ultimate objectives is similar to Itinerarios Sonoros? It's like mapping sounds and ideas around climate change and environmentalism through this great opportunity that we have in music because it is ancient as it is new, right?

PP: Absolutely, yeah.

LP: And that we can think creatively through a process that is very challenging for us. So toad’s soundscape that Priya has prepared for us is dedicated to the before, during and after our experience here in Puerto Rico around hurricane Maria which in 2017, I don't know if you would agree with me, Priya, it's an ever-changing moment in our lives and in our generations of having lived through the worst natural disaster at least in a hundred years here.

PP: Absolutely. One thing that I wanted to say was that you know one of the curious things about this subject in Music & the Earth is that on the one hand the connection between music and the earth is one of the most ancient things that we have as  human beings and music is from the very beginning of our evolution. It was connected... it has been connected to understanding the seasons, understanding the world around us like coping with what that is, what that experience is.

LP: Harvest, foods.

PP: Exactly, yeah.

LP: Ceremonies, celebration, death, life.

PP: Exactly, exactly, so it's such an essential part of being human on the one hand and on the other hand surprisingly few people make that connection between music and the environment and  that's... and that is for a number of reasons, perhaps part partly, you know how the music industry has evolved, what the subject of a lot of music, you know what a lot of contemporary music is, but that connection is still there and something that is very important to me is to affirm and reinforce that connection because if we do then I'm just very... I'm very excited by the potential power of that because every... almost everybody listens to music and loves music, and so many people are being affected by climate change so these two things are both very like all pervasive and very real and I'm just very curious to see what would happen if they... if the connection is more understood and affirmed and adopted by people. 

For more information and to be in touch please visit our webpage at www.musicandtheearth.com.  

LP: Nos despedimos escuchando a Priya interpretar la canción de una película de Bollywood, Jiya Jale del director musical A.R. Rahman.

(Música: Jiya Jale)

Itinerarios Sonoros es una producción de la Calle Loiza, Inc. y Radio San Juan con el auspicio de la Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades. Producido y dirigido por Lydia Platón y Mariana Reyes con la colaboración de Priya Parrotta, Nalini Natarajan y Juan Otero Garabís. La dirección técnica estuvo a cargo de Ambar Suárez Cubiyé y Julio Albino. Síguenos en Soundcloud, Facebook, Twitter e Instagram como Radio San Juan.