In April 2017, Music in Detention delivered a Community Exchange project with a series of 12 participatory music-making workshops for detainees at CampsfieldHouse IRC and participants fromThe Mill, Oxfordshire MIND’s day centre for adults who have experienced mental health problems.
Sophia Ripley, from Bedford Music In Detention and Oliver Seager from Music for Change facilitated the workshops, bringing their respective skills in singing, song writing, rap, spoken word and production, to the project. Sophia and Oliver would spend the afternoon at the The Mill working with service users there before going on to the IRC in the evening, to work with the detainees. Musical and lyrical material produced at each location was taken between the two groups by the artists, allowing participants to share messages of compassion and gratitude, lyrics and beats without ever meeting face to face.
The diversity of musical styles and depth of spoken word pieces created manyinspiring songs sung and spoken in different languages over a variety of musical genres. One participant from The Mill shared her experience of being a refugee as a child which moved all of the detainees and really helped to open the dialogue between the groups and increase the level of emotional expression.Both groups expressed lyrics on themes such as hope, freedom, love, never giving up, anger, frustration and sadness tand were able to empathise with the different situations they found themselves in.
The project has encouraged and inspired participants from both groups to continue creating with lyrics and music. Many of the songs were performed live by participants at The Mill to an audience of family and friends. This performance was covered by The Oxford Mail which helped spread the word about this fantastic project.
This track was recorded at Campsfield House detention centre. Lyrics emerged from a discussion about what home means and what it feels like to miss home. A talented rapper named Williff contributed many wonderful raps throughout this project, some of which are featured in this song.
This song resonated with participants from The Mill , some of whom described how sometimes it feels like they don't have a home as they have been in and out of hospital so much.
agyei said: life not over,nice music...very happy to hear my voice 18th June 2017 at 2:51pm | Report
Katie said: So pleased you're happy with the track - you've got a great voice! 20th June 2017 at 5:29pm | Report
This song is a joint creation by detainees at Campsfield House and participants from Oxfordshire MIND's day centre, The Mill.
The song speaks about freedom and staying positive in the face of adversity.
"We developed this songs in the detention centre and it was lovely hearing the voices of the detainees and their songs being played and sung by new people. It feels as if thedetainees are actually a part of the outside environment as the songs are re visited and adapted. When the group at The Mill were singing "life not over", a song from the detention centre it gave them hope and made them feel that the struggle isn't singular (I feel this helped the group feel less isolated in their own journey and reminded them also that life is not over) - Oliver Seager, MID artist
“Music has a spiritual power, it edifies and inspires humanity”
The song features performance poetry created by participants at The Mill on the theme of the power of music. Detainees at Campsfield House provided musical interludes to sit between the extracts of poetry.
The song finishes with two recorded messages from detainees at Campsfield House.
This track was Highly Commended in the 2018 Koestler Trust Awards!
This song was recorded at Campsfield House. The gentleman who is singing attracted quite a crowd in the centre and everyone listened to him sing with great respect and emotion.
Condensation started life at The Mill with Marie contributing an initial set of lyrics. Condensation is used as a metaphor for tears.
The song then travelled to Campsfield House where the lyrics were discussed and detainees wrote a response and developed a Spanish-style guitar accompaniment & keyboard line. They also recorded a beautiful violin line.
"Money dream" was added as a vocal hook added by one of the detainees, the phrase refers to his dream of having money, which had never been realised and had caused him to shed many tears.
This song was written and performed by a group of young men at Campsfield House. They worked closely with Oliver on improving their beat boxing and free styling skills and came up with this catchy tune.
This song was one of the first to be recorded at The Mill. The track was passed to detainees at Campsfield House so they could hear the messages of hope being sent to them by people living just down the road. These messages helped lift spirits amongst the group.
Some detained then worked on writing a response whilst others came up with a vocal hook/loop which was recorded.
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