
NAfME CONVERENCE | May 21, 2021
Live Documentary Songwriting Session
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION for MUSIC EDUCATION | DocSong board members Drs. Jody Kerchner and Malcolm Brooks recorded this documentary songwriting session for their talk at the February 2021 conference of the National Association for Music Education. This video helped illustrate the documentary songwriting process to a national audience of music educators.
IDEASTREAM | October 21, 2019
Sharing #MeToo Stories Through Songs
CLEVELAND | Feelings about sexual harassment and assault often go unspoken, but Nora Willauer thought music could get people talking. The master’s student in cello performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music decided to embark on a documentary songwriting project sharing people’s #MeToo stories.
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The Latest from @DocumentarySongwriters
🎵 OUT NOW: “I Feel So Connected” 🐝
Today we’re thrilled to release the newest documentary song for the Music in Conversation project, featuring the powerful story of Lexx Davis from My Sistas Keeper, a Black female beekeeping collective in Cleveland, OH. The song was written in collaboration with @renovaremusic as a part of their A Hive Song project.
This collaboration explores how beekeeping creates unexpected connections that EXTEND between humans and nature, parents and children, and individuals and community.
Listen to the full song now and discover how stewardship of our natural world can enrich our lives and create a legacy for generations to come.
Visit our blog next week to join a conversation about the lessons we can take from Lexx’s story.
#EXTEND #DocumentarySongwriting #DocSong #MySistasKeeper #BlackBeekeepers #CommunityStories #MusicinConversation

🐝 “We had a hive in our backyard...”
Meet Lexx Davis, a passionate beekeeper and a member of My Sistas Keeper, a Black female beekeeping collective based in Cleveland, OH. Through caring for a backyard hive, she and her family discovered deeper connections with each other, their extended community, and the world around them. Lexx recently shared her story with Renovare, as a part of their annual documentary songwriting project, inspiring the newest documentary song in our Music in Conversation series.
We look forward to sharing Lexx’s song later this week, and—exploring how stewardship of our natural world can enrich our lives and extend a legacy for generations to come.
#EXTEND #DocumentarySongwriting #MySistasKeeper #Beekeeping #Community #MusicinConversation

This past week, executive director Caroline Rex-Waller and lead teaching artist @khalidantonio had the opportunity to travel to Honolulu, HI to speak to teachers at the Kakau Mea Nui Writing Matters conference and participants at the 2025 PACRIM conference, hosted by the University of Hawai’i Center on Disability Studies.
We talked about the power of deep listening to shape how we tell our stories, and modeled the documentary songwriting method for an incredible group of engaged community builders and change makers.
Documentary songwriting continues to bring together people across difference (and oceans!) We are so grateful for the opportunity! And we can’t wait to come back!
#DocSong #documentarysongwriting #universityofhawaiimanoa #pacrim2025

📝 The wisdom of fifteen years: Malcolm Brooks reflects on documentary songwriting 🎓
We’re proud to share Malcolm’s insightful new paper, “Innovation at the speed of music: Reflections on introducing a new composing method over fifteen years,” which explores the journey of documentary songwriting from its beginnings to today.
Check it out on the DocSong resources page!
In this thoughtful reflection, Malcolm traces how the method evolved, the obstacles faced when introducing innovation, and the surprising discovery that the method’s greatest impact has been in amplifying voices of marginalized communities.
As Malcolm shares in his paper: “Maybe an inductive songwriting method is less about discovering fresh topics to sing about and more about listening to people and honoring them by expressing their experiences through music.”
Fifteen years of connecting stories to songs. Fifteen years of building bridges through music. Fifteen years of a vision becoming reality.
#DocumentarySongwriting #MusicResearch #InnovationInMusic #DocSong

🎵 the man, the myth, the legend 🎵
Happy birthday to our incredible founder, Malcolm Brooks!
Thank you for the gift of documentary songwriting that has given so many people joy and purpose, and a renewed sense of inspiration and creativity! We wouldn’t be here without you.
Join DocSong in wishing Malcolm a happy birthday filled with good friends and good music!
#DocSong #documentarysongwriting #founder #happybirthday #gratitude

A dog named Lysette, ephemeral art, and everyday kindness — the connections might surprise you.
Our NEW blog “How Far Does Our Care Extend?” explores what happens when we stretch beyond our familiar boundaries and reach toward one another across distances.
Through Clara’s song “Go On Lysette,” we reflect on unexpected encounters, the beauty in impermanence, and how briefly crossing paths with a stranger can create meaning that lingers.
Visit the link in bio to discover how these three elements weave together and join a conversation about what it means to move through the world together.
#ExtendProject #DocumentarySongwriting #MusicInConversation #ArtAndReflection #UnexpectedConnections
