Bent but Not Broken Evolution

In the Fall of 2022, Jillian Harrison-Jones and Arreon Harley-Emerson, both passionate about bringing diversity to the choral field and celebrating music of the African diaspora were brought together. This set the foundation for their partnership in what is now Elevate Vocal Arts (EVA), the Elevation chorus, and the Bent But Not Broken Conference. These programs aim to celebrate and amplify Black music through education and community.

Chorus America connected with Associate Artistic Director of Elevate Vocal Arts, Jillian Harrison-Jones, to learn more about this project and what to expect from the Bent But Not Broken 3.0 conference happening October 23-26 of this year.
 

Let's start by hearing a little bit about your background, how you came to be involved in Elevate and Bent But Not Broken, and what your role is with the event.  

I met Arreon in the fall of 2022 in Cincinnati. I was serving as the music director for MUSE, Cincinnati's Women's Choir, and he and I were both participating in the We Are One festival, hosted by the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. The festival itself utilized music and artistic expression as a method to explore race and justice in America through open conversations and explorations of issues through artistic expression. After that, he and I just kept in touch and started exchanging what we wanted to get out of our artistic journeys. He called me one day and he was telling me about his vision for creating an actual ensemble, which we now know to be Elevation. I loved everything he was talking about regarding the choir in and of itself, but he had also expressed that the choir would be a part of a larger umbrella organization. So I said yes, I agreed to be a part of the choir. But tell me more about this umbrella organization. That's how the creation and evolution of what we now know as EVA and Elevation came about.
 

Within our first year, we hosted Bent but Not Broken 2.0. At the time, Bent but Not Broken 1.0 stood under the umbrella of Equity Sings and the Choir School of Delaware. We have established it now under the umbrella of EVA. As far as my particular role within Bent But Not Broken, it's multi-tiered. I’m the Associate Artistic Director of Elevate Vocal Arts, which is a four-person staff model. We are the four people that put on and do all of the planning that goes towards a conference. Anything from administratively to artistically—who we are inviting, how we are working the schedule, and how we are getting reading session materials, all of those things—it's the four of us that put our heads together to make that happen. This particular year, I'm serving as the Intergenerational Choir Director. Very excited about that. 

One of the things you mentioned about BBNB were Arreon’s words that when approaching the works of Black composers and artists, we need to be prepared for three things: self-work, homework, and hard work. What do each of these three terms mean to you? How does BBNB offer attendees an opportunity to explore each one? 

Self-work is the reflexive work that we do within our own understanding and our own position in the world to then make changes in our own practices. Self-work is that inner examination of your own biases and your own misconceptions surrounding Black culture. Self-work makes you look inward and ask, what do I value? And how does that show up in my actions?  We've all heard the term, "If they wanted to, they would." It's the same idea that you can find out what someone's really about, based on what they do, where they go, what they spend their time doing, or who they surround themselves with.  If you have misconceptions, or if you have biases, if you have unexamined prejudices, this conference, this movement is really the perfect opportunity for you to have that honest conversation within yourself, while we help you to debunk, reframe, and shed light on the true value of Black music and those who have contributed to it. 

Homework is activated by self-work and propels one into researching and gathering materials and repertoire to reimagine and recreate their practice. You cannot skip the step of self-work and think that you'll make significant strides in homework. 

The hard work then refers to the collection of actions that are necessary in order to bend the moral arc of the universe toward justice. How will my actions shift to ensure that I'm a part of the solution rather than perpetuating the problem? What does true advocacy look like coming specifically from me? Did I include music of the African diaspora in my choral music, literature, curriculum? Not just touch on it, but did I actually include it? Am I including it regularly in my widespread curriculum? How about my music history curriculum? Do I have a grasp on what tokenism and dog-whistle politics within the choral world actually look like? Am I willing to see it in myself or call it out in others? It's called hard work because it's difficult. It requires an elevated level of integrity and openness, and it requires vulnerability and confidence. It's the part that separates those who find true value in this work from those who don't, and it all is shown through their actions.