Playing for Change

We had friends visiting over the weekend. They were amusing M with some videos on youtube – one of which was ‘Don’t Worry’ from the Playing for Change project. It shows musicians from around the world – France, the Congo, Nepal, India, Israel, the Netherlands, and South Africa – collaborating together. The video is filmed outdoors in these locations and it was beautiful to see all these different singers in so many places.

Soon I was looking for more videos. M has two ear infections so she is quite fragile and spending a whole lot of time just sitting on my lap these last few days, so together we watched artists from around the world singing other songs like Bob Marley’s ‘War/No more Trouble’ and ‘One Love’. She seems to like it well enough. I’m loving it.

And so, by the end of this long weekend, I’ve now purchased a ‘Playing for Change’ audio/video album off iTunes and have been learning more about the organization behind all this. Seems that what started as some documentary filmmakers making a film about street music turned into a “global sensation ... including musicians of every level of renown, that has touched the lives of millions of people around the world.”

Playing for Change not only continues to make very cool music, they also build programs which bring music education into the poorest corners of the world, motivated by “the fundamental idea that peace and change are possible through the universal language of music.”

I’m always a sucker for collective movements working for peace, but what makes this project resonate with me even more personally is that of the 7 programs up and running, 3 are in Nepal – the country of my childhood - and 1 is in Mali – a country I have worked in. Watching the videos of the programs set up in these countries is quite touching.

As Mahamadou Diabaté, a Malian griot who has spearheaded a project to build a music school for youth in Kirina, Mali, explains in one of the videos: the goal of project Playing for Change is to build a great family through music to bring peace. Here where politicians have failed, music will always advance.