10 THE WINGÈD OX
CAMELLIA HARTMAN,
ASP Music Teacher & Substitute Teacher
This past August, I traveled to Emerald Isle in search
of the “Irish Session,” a cultural phenomena so
commonplace in Irish culture that citizens laughed
when I shared this as the subject of my intellectual/
spiritual pursuit. Irish sessions are informal,
sometimes impromptu, gatherings of musicians and
nonmusicians alike, with the shared goal of finding
“the Craic” (exuberant, life-giving spiritedness)
over a soundtrack of traditional and familiar tunes.
What these sessions illuminated for me was not just
a delectable dose of lively jigs, reels, waltzes, and
hornpipes, but also a profound connective thread
woven through differing regions, histories, and
ideologies.
My main goal was to observe the ways that Irish
culture and life supports this kind of unmediated,
creative mode of expression: a session can exist in
a restaurant, bar, or music hall, but it can also be a
spontaneous gathering of friends around a kitchen
table or in a backyard. There is no hierarchy of the
session; all are welcome, and all play an equally
important role – whether that be as a musician,
a listener, a clapper, hollerer, guest vocalist, or
requester of songs – in finding “the Craic.”
In my two weeks of travel, which spanned a
U-shaped driving tour of the island (Dublin
→ Kilkenny → Cork → Dingle → Doolin →
Ballyvaughan), I heard and watched hundreds of
songs performed, some of which were explained to
me for their historical significance, some of which
were so old and entrenched in the cultural memory
that they didn’t even have names. Each session
had a different instrumental configuration, some
with singers, some without; people of all ages were
present, from tiny babies and toddlers running
around to weathered, knowing faces singing
ancient songs.
I could share so much more about this special trip,
but for now, jumping back into this school year, I
am so excited to bring some of these songs back to
my music students, to encourage them to learn by
ear and find the joy, “the Craic,” in sharing music in
community. I will encourage my students to keep
journals of their thoughts and feelings and think of
how these personal stories can turn into creative
expression, inspired by the long musical history that
lives so vividly in everyday Irish life. I look forward
to finding more ways to activate the broader St.
Luke’s community in acts of music-making and
appreciation, building confidence and excitement
around performance and art!
ELON ROSENBERG, Grade 4 Teacher
This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to
visit South Africa with the support of a Parent
Association grant. I especially wanted to visit this
country since combining a study of Africa with
our Geography unit a couple of years ago. While
reading Nelson Mandela’s powerful autobiography
Long Walk to Freedom, I was able to visit many sights
connected to his life and South Africa’s inspirational
struggle to end apartheid. I was able to go on a tour
led by a former political prisoner of Robben Island
off the coast of Cape Town, where Mandela spent
the majority of the 27 years of his incarceration.
Later in my trip, I visited the empowering Apartheid
Museum in Johannesburg and the township of
Soweto where Nelson and Winnie Mandela lived
and where the Soweto Uprising took place in 1976.
One of the most amazing moments was meeting and
listening to stories from Antoinette Sithole, who was
one of the students who marched on this day and
is known for being in a photograph that shook the
world, in which she was pictured next to her dying
brother. When speaking to people about apartheid,
despite the sadness of the subject, there is pride for
what they were able to overcome.
PA Enrichment
Grants (Cont.)