Eden Alene looked at me, politely confused. “What is a pandemic hobby?”
“You know,” I said, thinking of all my failed sourdough starters. “A lot of people learned to do new things because they had so much time.”
“Ah, no.” She shook her head and smiled. Her Zoom background was decorated with all the paraphernalia of the conspicuously relatable celebrity: A number of suspiciously pristine houseplants in pastel pots and a Polaroid camera. But I doubt she’s been puttering around with a watering can; her pandemic year has been a busy one.
Alene, 20, is Israel’s emissary to the 2021 Eurovision contest, where she made it to the grand finale before Italian rock band Maneskin snagged first prize. She’s also the first singer of Ethiopian descent to represent the country. When we spoke, a few weeks before the festival began in Rotterdam, her schedule was filled with last minute preparations. That day was given over to interviews. On the next, she had dance rehearsals an
All Talk
This feature appears in our Spring 2021 issue. Subscribe now to receive a copy in your mailbox.
IN THE SUMMER OF 2014, as Israeli bombs rained down on Gaza during the military incursion known as Operation Protective Edge, Salma Faysal, a 17-year-old from Ramallah, was at sleepaway camp in rural Maine. Faysal was a second-year camper at Seeds of Peace Camp, a coexistence initiative that brings Israeli and Palestinian teenagers together each summer on the shores of Pleasant Lake, an hour northwest of Portland. Every day for a little under two hours, in facilitated dialogue sessions squeezed between regular camp activities like basketball and sailing, participants discuss their experiences on opposing sides of a geopolitical conflict; beyond those sessions, staffers discourage political conversation. But in 2014, as Palestinian campers struggled to reach family members back home cell phones are prohibited at camp something gave way.
EMU students join in a 2020 MLK Day drum circle led by Victor Parker, Rodrigue Makelele, and Jonas Masiya who host a drum circle in Harrisonburg called Drums for Community Inclusion and Wellness. Photo by Macson McGuigan/EMU.
A new concentration at Eastern Mennonite University combines the disciplines of music and peacebuilding to equip students to creatively transform conflict and promote intercultural intelligence.
This interdisciplinary program will serve those drawn to using music to build common ground in the contexts of global studies, nonprofit work, theology, worship, sociology, neuroscience, or business administration.
Professor Benjamin Bergey is the advisor for the program. This field was the focus of his doctor of musical arts dissertation, and a subject that he studied through trainings run by Musicians Without Borders.