"Building Bridges with Music" with Austin Willacy
Austin Willacy is a musician, producer and musical mentor. Austin is a member of the Thrive Choir of Thrive East Bay and The House Jacks.
In this conversation we talk about finding your passion and then doing the work of growing into your best self. We talk about the role of mentorship and developing resilience through vulnerability. We talk about the power of music to connect our minds and hearts, and its power to build bridges across our differences. And we talk about the importance of slowing down, allowing space for long slow thoughts, creating space for our creativity to shine through and removing the barriers of shame and fear that hold back our highest expression.
Austin Willacy Resources
Learn more about Austin Willacy at austinwillacy.com.
Here are some of Austin's musical projects:
Austin is the director and mentor for the teen a capella group ‘Til Dawn, at Youth in Arts.
Long time member of the a capella group The House Jacks. Listen to them on Spotify.
Austin got his musical start as part of the Dartmouth Aires.
Austin is a member of and one of the Co-Artistic Directors for the Thrive Choir.
Thrive East Bay
Austin and I are both involved in Thrive East Bay. Thrive is a “new kind of community offering a relevant space for diverse people seeking meaning and connection in our rapidly changing world. Informed by modern science and ancient wisdom, our culture is both secular and spiritual, infused with a deep sense of purpose and interconnectedness, inspired by the arts, and focused on social change.”
Here is a collection of Fractal Friends episodes with guests that are related to Thrive East Bay.
Austin Willacy, Musician
Check out Duncan’s work as the Chief Transformation Officer at Spoke & Wheel:
Support Fractal Friends:
Listen to (watch) the episode on YouTube (with subtitles)
Other Resources
Here are resources about things that came up in this conversation.
Yes!
YES! is a vibrant and dynamic body of people on a learning journey, seeking to live and work more consciously in alignment with our values. Their organization and program principles focus on restoring balance and sustainability; means-to-end consistency; partnerships across historic divides; and intentional space for the role of love and spirit. YES! brings these core elements into social change movements worldwide by convening transformational gatherings called Jams and building lasting partnerships with diverse social entrepreneurs.
Check out the schedule of Yes! Jams here.
Carol Dweck
In the episode, Austin talks about the research of Carol Dweck into the “Growth Mindset,” the idea that we can grow our brain's capacity to learn and to solve problems. In the TED Talk, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it … or have you just not solved it yet?
Read more about Dweck's growth mindset research here: “Dr. Dweck’s research into growth mindset changed education forever.”
Kazu Haga
Here is an excerpt from Kazu Haga’s recent article, “Fighting injustice can trigger trauma — we need to learn how to process it and take healing action”
“When trauma is triggered, everything feels escalated even if it is not. The brain floods your body with adrenaline and cortisol, leading your muscles to tighten. You begin to feel that the next threat is around every corner. And that sort of hyper-vigilance goes against our natural resiliency.
A Black/white worldview. An inability to see nuance. Struggling to think about long-term strategy. Being unable to consider different pieces of information.
Sound familiar?” (read more)
Brené Brown
Brené Brown is full of wisdom. Here is her quotation about creativity:
“Unused creativity is not benign. It metastasizes. It turns into grief, rage, judgement, sorrow, shame. There’s no such thing as creative people, and non-creative people. There are only people who use their creativity and people who don’t. Unused creativity doesn’t just disappear. It lives within us until it’s expressed, neglected to death, or suffocated by resentment and fear.”
The Magic of the Quaran-Time
Listen to this episode of 99% Invisible, “The Natural Experiment” to hear about how COVID-19 is healing the world such as how the absence of cruise ships is allowing scientists to hear whale sounds like never before, and the how the lack of air pollution is changing how we see the world.
This is Dhauladhar mountain range of Himachal, visible after 30 yrs, from Jalandhar (Punjab) after pollution drops to its lowest level. Photo by Diksha Walia @Deewalia
View of West of Delhi (Pre-COVID). Photo by Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier
Related Fractal Friends episodes:
"Honoring Dignity & Leading in Polarization" with David Brubaker
"Power, Love and Nonviolence" with Kazu Haga
Music
We talk about so many great musicians in this episode. Here are some of the highlights:
Climbing PoeTree
Over the last 16 years the co-creators of Climbing PoeTree, Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman, have harnessed creativity as the antidote to destruction through their award-winning spoken word, hip hop infused world music, multimedia theater, and popular education models. Check out their new album Intrinsic.
MaMuse
Wholeheartedly fed by the folk and gospel traditions, MaMuse (Sarah Nutting and Karisha Longaker) create uplifting music to inspire the world into thriving. Interweaving brilliant and haunting harmony with lyrics born of honed emotional intelligence, MaMuse invokes a musical presence that inspires the opening of the heart. Check out their newest album, Prayers for Freedom.
Rising Appalachia
As world travelers for nearly two decades, Rising Appalachia have merged multiple global music influences with their own southern roots to create the inviting new folk album, Leylines. Founded by sisters Leah and Chloe Smith, the band established an international fan base due to relentless touring, tireless activism, and no small degree of stubborn independence.
Listen to Rising Appalachia's newest single “Bold Riley” and the rest of their music on all the platforms:
Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon | YouTube | Google Play | Pandora | Last.fm | ReverbNation
Thrive Choir
Check out the Thrive Choir singing Austin Willacy and Patricia Bahia's song featured in this episode: “We Are One Love.”
The Thrive Choir performing "We Are One" by Austin Willacy & Patricia Bahia at Thrive East Bay on Sunday, January 6, 2019. (Oakland, CA)
Patricia Bahia
An award-winning songwriter, singer, cancer survivor, and lover of life, Patricia Bahia is a multi-dimensional artist who lives her bucket list and inspires others to do the same.
Listen to her new single: “Be Here Now”
“Though I was always a singer, I didn’t write my first song until after receiving a cancer diagnosis in 2003. I’d spent my life doing what was expected of me, pursuing a career as a lawyer, living out someone else’s dream, while secretly harboring a dream of writing songs."