In a room filled with beats, rhymes, and five different languages, music once again proved it has always and will always be there to connect people
This June, as a part of our Welcome Notes program in The Netherlands, we held a rap workshop aimed at people experiencing displacement. Our workshop leaders Manu, Guus, Hidde, and Kes ran the session, which was filmed and will be turned into a short documentary soon.
During the session, the participants wrote and recorded a collective song, as well as freestyle together. “It’s really cool that you can switch to actually just freestyling, and just see whatever comes up,” said Guus. “It doesn’t get more pure than that.”
Hidde remembered one particular highlight: “I think it was the fifth session where we had 5 different languages in the room, and somehow we managed to get all five languages on the track”
Kes was struck by the warmth of the participants from the moment they arrived. “One final thing that really stood out to us both is how welcoming everyone was to us. I think I expected people to be a little more guarded up because of the things that they went through, but the first moment we stepped in here, everybody was just dabbing us up and asking us who we were and so curious about what we came to do here”
Hearing on-the-ground feedback is always special, and reminds us all of the power of music, especially in times when the sounds of war and tension try to drown our songs out. But we are louder, and the more we use music together to express ourselves, tell our stories, and build communities, the more powerful we all become.
The short documentary will capture these moments – the laughter, the freestyles, the harmonies in five languages – and will be available soon. We can’t wait to share it with you!
