I’m delighted to have been selected to present about the Voices of Hope at the 17th bi-annual Conference of the Association for Justice-Involved Females and Organizations (AJFO) in Santa Clara, CA this coming December. Their theme this year is “Changing the Narrative for Justice-Involved Women and Girls: Journey from Reform to Transformation,” and I look forward to sharing what I’ve learned about incarcerated women embodying womanhood through choral music.
This weekend, I have the opportunity to speak about the Voices of Hope at a special “In Conversation” event, hosted by the University of Minnesota’s Robina Institute of Criminal Law & Justice. This event will focus on female incarceration, and I will be the first speaker of the day, followed by a panel of formerly incarcerated women and then another panel of experts in the field. It has been a challenge and an honor to put together a talk a bit different from my TEDx talk. Rather than a focus on music and restorative justice, this presentation aims to share the specific needs incarcerated women may have, and how music can help to celebrate and embody womanhood. The talk will be on Friday, June 9 at 1:30pm, and will open with members from the Twin Cities Women’s Choir singing my composition, “Voices of Hope.”
I am thrilled to be selected to serve on a panel with some of my greatest inspirations in the prison choir world – Mary Cohen, Andre de Quadros, and Cathy Roma. The four of us will be presenting at the College Music Society’s National Conference in San Antonio, TX this October. Our panel is titled, “Music-Making in U.S. Prisons: Reflecting on the Past, Innovations for the Future.” It is such an honor to talk about the Voices of Hope alongside so many other wonderful projects. I’m looking forward to all I will learn!
amanda kate weber 