Hear Me Out

This is the first of a short series of posts written by Hear Me Out’s new Programme and Evaluation Manager, Lizzie Fort. Across this short series, Lizzie introduces herself and shares some reflections from her observations of our work in asylum hotels and army barracks during her first three months with Hear Me Out. Using her wider experience as a dance artist and academic, across the series she makes some speculations about our practice and our impact.

My Heart is Full

I am three months into my role as Programme and Evaluation Manager, steered by Artistic Director Jo’s wonderful energy and vision, and Director John’s wisdom. I have had the great pleasure of spending time with Hear Me Out artists in asylum hotels and army barracks, witnessing the multi-faceted, multi-sensory, fluid and responsive nature of their work. There are many changing parts, comings and goings and shifting emotions and energies from chaos to calm, most recently demonstrated through the turbulence of the far-right riots, seeing racism, Islamophobia and hatred directed towards people seeking asylum in our country. Our artists skillfully craft a range of creative activities using their transdisciplinary practices in music, dance and visual arts, intuitively reading the room and responding with grace, humour and humility. What a privilege to have a job with artists whose practice has integrity, artistry and empathy, and demonstrates solidarity, joy and care in abundance, echoing Hear Me Out's commitment to co-creation and collaboration. The ethics - and the aesthetics, or how something feels - of this work are complex and carefully considered.

I arrive at Hear Me Out Music with a background in community dancei, which is a socially engaged arts practice that is notoriously hard to pin down, guided by a process-oriented and values-driven ethos that challenges stereotypes of who dances, what dance looks like, and where it takes place. I have managed projects and worked in community centres, care homes, day care centres and special educational needs schools. I dance and create with disabled people, children, families and Vietnamese elders who have diverse social, emotional, learning and communication needs. Each dancer brings vibrancy, vulnerability, and unique lived experience when we move together. I am also a university educator and academic (since 2011), currently working at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. I teach dance artists about inclusive and creative facilitation approaches. As a researcher, I have recently finished a PhDii that investigated the practice of care in community dance. In particular, how care ‘feels’ as a sensory, embodied and artful practice, and how artists care for the people and places they encounter.

Music, like dance, brings people together. It has the power to help people find joy and confidence in themselves and with others, seeking connection and common ground, celebrating and normalising difference, and telling stories. In short, being human.

Hear MeOut artists provide opportunities for people seeking asylum to make music together, tuning into not only the instruments and sounds, but to one another. Embrace music from all over the world, there are myriad opportunities for cultural exchange and celebration.

These are only my initial observations. Nonetheless, they are a starting point for me understanding the work in all its shapes and forms. As I get to grips with HMO’s monitoring and evaluation framework, I will better understand and develop how we capture, analyse and share the impact of our work with wider public audiences. There are many intangible, deeply felt and intimate aspects of this work. And these impacts are hard to quantify in numbers and percentages, or even put into words. There are also important ethical considerations to grapple with in how we evaluate our work, ensuring that we uphold our duty of care; our evaluation tools must be culturally sensitive, accessible and optional. That is the beauty and the challenge of this work.

Energised by the strong synergies between music and dance, I bring an open heart, body and mind to my new role. The Hear Me Out family has been welcoming and generous as I find my feet. One thing is for sure; my heart knows I am in the right place.

i For a more expansive overview of community dance see People Dancing’s website - https://www.communitydance.org...

ii https://woolwichwandering.com/...