Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger is one of folk music’s greatest heroes. He is a radically inspiring idealist, lifelong revolutionary, and an extremely compassionate artist who has consistently utilized his musical talents to benefit the collective community. Pete was against segregation and wrote protest songs trying to spread awareness with a universal call to just action. He inspired Martin Luther King with his performance of ‘we shall overcome’, entertained his fellow troops in WW2, traveled and played with Woody Guthrie, and was a huge inspiration for artists like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. He taught music to many children throughout the years, and proclaims that his favorite experiences performing have been in elementary schools and summer camps. Recently I watched a great documentary about his life and highly recommend his extremely inspirational story. His “musical fight” has won many battles harnessing the power of song, and much like Woodie Guthrie, he has inscribed his musical intention on the face of his banjo with the words ‘this machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender’. He is truly a visionary, and is still very alive today at 92. You can watch the documentary titled ‘Pete Seeger & the Power of Song’ free on youtube here.

We each have an opportunity to inspire action by knowing ourselves and by using our individual gifts to benefit the collective that we either consciously or unconsciously represent. To me, music has been a very powerful tool that I have been able to harness to heal myself emotionally as well as attuning my spirit with my physical self. This intimate reflective process has allowed me to dive deep into my psyche to access my own personal truths as well as universal truths that are connected to those that interact with my experiences.

There are many levels of chaos in the world today, and with the mass flood of information at our fingertips comes an enormous need to help one another understand what is happening now. I personally feel a calling to help others navigate through this current matrix in a way that allows for the space and process necessary to bring about the fundamental changes that we are all in dire need of inventing and implementing into our current society framework. Unfortunately, it feels like there is so little music being made during this time to represent and confront these modern issues. I am aware of very few artists who have chosen to educate themselves and further choose to speak out in order to educate their followers. Much of the music being made now has somehow lost it’s intrinsic power to transmute ignorance and inspire evolutionary thought and action.

In my work with children I have had the great opportunity of sharing my passion for exploring and expressing emotions with music, and it is always a great honor to help facilitate the introduction and the awakening understanding of the spiritual healing power of music. There is so much unexplored space and desperate need for emotionally conscious and intentional music. If each one of us can learn anything from Pete Seeger, I would hope that it could be the lesson of knowing how powerful we are individually, and in that power, to discover the deep compassion that we can have for ourselves when we see ourselves in everyone else, and everyone else in ourselves. Imagine the music that can be made in that space! Something worth listening to because it gives you an honest insight into another piece of your mysterious soul.