Mountain Music from Appalachia to China

me and my longlost cousin Zi-jah after rehearsal in Chengdu

Traveling to Liangshan, China, to meet and collaborate with Nuosu traditional musicians and actors was a life-changing experience. Working with composer and vocalist Martha Redbone to learn and perform Eastern Woodlands songs, and being introduced to Nuosu sounds as well, was an unexpected home-coming.

The highlight of my journey was finding true kinship with the folks I worked with from the Liangshan region, the Nuosu folks who reminded Martha of her Cherokee kin with echoes of dress and ritual reminiscent of the pow-wow. One of the song-keepers and I formed a bond based on our sense of being long-lost cousins, and our facial resemblance reminded me that we are truly one family of humanity. See us here together in the pic above! Meet my long lost sister-cousin, Zi-jah, master traditional song-teacher and one of the kindest souls I have ever known.

At the Famous Liangshan Torch Festival with new friends, beautiful young traditional dancers who welcomed us warmly.

The story we staged, Flood in the Valley,  was a tale of love between young people from feuding families, and involved a community in protest of a construction project that would ruin their ecosystem by building a dam.

So many parallels in the needs, visions, rooted cultural practices and desires for liberation among these mountain communities of Appalachia and Liangshan, though seemingly a world apart.

And I now have family in Western China, who keep in touch and with whom I hope to work again as soon as I can gather support for the next creative journey of exchange!