Synopsis:

Shaw Pong designed and led a neighborhood and oral history-based music project in collaboration with Community MusicWorks, a community music program, and local oral historians Micah Salkind and JoAnn Ayuso. She conducted 14 interviews with neighborhood residents, researched area history, and composed a 20-minute composition for students, faculty and audience members. The composition incorporated historical and contemporary history of residents of the Southside/West End Providence neighborhoods, including family interviews conducted by students. Shaw Pong curated the premiere performance with local artists: Native American drumming group Eastern Medicine Singers; Rudy Cabrera, poet/actor; Kia Yang, Hmong folk musician and member of local Hmong Church. 2017-2020 (with premiere delayed to May 2021).