Music students from the University of South Carolina are working with new mothers who are incarcerated to create compositions with heartfelt musical messages for their children. And the partnership has been given the most apt title, Lullaby Project.
Although these new moms at the Camille Graham Correctional Institution are separated from their babies by concrete and steel bars, the students are using music to break down these barriers, they share.
The hope of these musicians from the university is to help foster family intimacy regardless of the distances that separate mother and child, and this is all thanks to Carnegie Hall and its Weill Music Institute.
USC grad student, Alyssa Santivanez, who has been working to co-write original lullabies for the project, said, “No amount of training could truly prepare us for how impactful this project is.”
“It’s one thing to learn about how to create alone and how to put everything together, and another thing to really be there with the women and work with them—it just means so much,” she added.
According to Alexis, an inmate that happens to be benefitting from the Lullaby project, shares, “I get sad so much not being around him, so just knowing that he’s going to be able to hear something that I wrote word for word. It’s amazing.”
She also said, “It’s amazing because I just wish I was there, but this is something for him to hold onto me. It’s an amazing feeling. It kind of makes me feel accomplished…to be able to write a song and he is going to be able to hear it.”
USC Assistant Professor of Cello, Claire Bryant, said, “This is a very special project and process. I personally have worked in corrections for the past 10 years through music, and I think music can do a lot of good for all of us, no matter our circumstance but especially incarcerated people I think need the chance with some positive programming.”
And according to the Lullaby project participant featured in a new video below claims that it’s working.
Alexis adds, “It makes me want to try to write more songs or poetry. It just makes me want to do more positive things… This is like the opening door. I feel like I can do it. It’s very motivating how talented they are and I’m grateful for them.”
Moreover, USC Assistant Professor of Voice, Serena LaRoche, also shared, “It’s just so rewarding. We all come from different backgrounds, myself as faculty and the students who come in with their own tonal preferences and ideas about composition and music and songwriting and all their life experience…and how a song can be born out of that—how it can create a real musical moment that can connect on a very personal level to her, but really to all of us.”
“While we’re in the songwriting process and talking to the women, it really means a lot just for that one moment when we can tell that their eyes get that sparkle. It’s just it’s really emotional,” said Santivanez.
Eunice Koh, USC Music performance doctoral student said, “We are like the bridge between them right now and their kids and our families.”
Director of the state’s Department of Corrections, Bryan Stirling, said, “You can put as much metal and walls in the way as you want and you cannot break that connection and it will never be broken.”
He added, “I can’t thank USC South Carolina enough for what they’re doing— stepping up and helping these folks—and I hope they realize they’re not just helping the mothers. they’re helping the children and they’re helping the family and therefore they help their community and their state.”
See more about the Lullaby Project in the video below:
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