4. Sowing

They say that whether you’re sowing a wildflower mixture or several kinds of vegetables, the first thing to be done is to prepare the soil. Remove weeds, loosen the soil, mix it in with a digging fork, removing any rocks, rake the area flat and moist the soil a few days before you intend to plant.

Then the next step is to choose the seeds you want to plant. That will naturally depend on the weather, the current season, the sun exposure, the rain, the wind and all those factors you won’t be able to control.

Once you’ve chosen the seeds, then you just wait for the right sowing time.

That’s generally how I started my staying here in Montserrat. Although I brought several different seed-shaped ideas in my bag, I had to give myself time to get to know the soil, the weather, the people, their customs and accents, the seasons and all the celebrations. Besides that, I had to look for the containers and pots that were already being used to avoid starting totally from scratch. Some talented gardeners have been here before, therefore I should continue with their work in releasing the potential of this lush green island.

In the pots I found – I mean, in the projects that were already set up – I decided to sow some seeds of curiosity. From there I decided to start teaching the choirs songs from all over the world. By bringing new melodies and languages to their ears, I’ve also used the opportunity to tell them a bit about those countries, the people and their different cultures. To water even more their curiosity, I started taking a world map to the class, letting their curious eyes spotting those new places. After a few seconds wandering with their little fingers over continents and oceans, they proudly shout “found it!” and then we’re ready to sing the song of that country once again.

Naturally this decision comes from the projects that have been shaping my artistic practice in the last years, mainly from all the songs I’ve been learning from some many people from all over the place, who have inspired me to explore more and more different music.

Additionally it made sense to me to introduce this project to the children and teenagers I’m now working with, considering this quite isolated island has always been their main cultural reference. So I guess this is just a way of expanding their knowledge of the other countless cultures that coexist overseas.

So far we’ve learned songs from Australia, Colombia, Portugal, Congo, USA and Cape Verde and half dozen more songs are yet to come. All this music will be gathered in a production dated for late February, which will tell the story of a young Montserratian who decides to travel the world. Apart from the participation of the two youngest sections of the National Youth Choir, we’ll also involve ReBeat, the Ukulele Club and possibly some other guests. Alongside with the songs, we’re planning to have a video-animation that will be created together with some of the children over the Christmas holidays.

Besides this ambitious project, we’ve been trying to recover another pot that has been abandoned for half a year, which is the adult division of the National Choir. After a few weeks wracking our brains to find ways to recruit new members, we restarted the rehearsals, although with way less people than expected. Montserratian adults are definitely more difficult to get involved in extra projects than the children – we’ll see if it gets any better soon.

With the evenings slightly cooling down, I’m now digging other bits of soil to get new projects growing up from January on.