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LCC International University > News and Events > Peace Encounters: Folk Songs

Peace Encounters: Folk Songs

2024-10-18

Submitted by Yuliia Duleba, 4th year IRD peace intern

Peace Encounters is a series of events hosted by the Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation at LCC International University that aim to broaden perspective of peacebuilding in daily lives. “Peace Encounters: Folk Songs” happened on October 3rd and united a multi-cultural community by looking at the importance of folk songs from a peace perspective. Sofya Detkina, the event facilitator, shared her knowledge on how music can positively affect our nervous system and how folk songs resonate with people’s experiences.  

The event highlighted a Ukrainian-Polish song “Hey, Sokoly” that tells a story about a Cossack who leaves his beloved one for far-away travel.  Sofya shared her surprise by “how people of today could relate to the song which was written centuries ago. “We sang as a group in two languages - English and Ukrainian – which sparked many insightful conversations about what home is, how to feel home, and what it feels like to be separated from home”. Also, participants had a chance to share about their national folk songs with a similar topic.  Sofya shared her feelings of it being “a pure blessing to see people sharing their bits of home together in small groups”, and by doing so explored how some key figures in the narratives tend to change based on culture differences. 

Ana Maisuradze, a senior Georgian IRD student who participated says that “Folk songs are crucial in fostering sincere national identity. The event made a good point of it - through discussion our team played songs from each of our countries and provided stories about the songs.  Even though we all left a bit teary-eyed, the event ended with a last rendition of a beautiful Ukrainian-Polish song which we all sang and felt a certain connection to our homes (maybe) and to each other”.  

Valentyna Bober, a junior IRD students from Ukraine, shares that “folk songs event helped me to relax and reconnect with home. Sharing the original of the song with others was a beautiful experience that created some special depth of this event for me”.  “The power of folk songs was confirmed” says Sofya, as she “discovered that many people were uplifted and energized because of this short 2-hour event (during a busy week). Singing folk songs {together} gave the participants hope in this world. 

The evening was a time of recognizing that this peace encounter was all about creating connections, building community, and exploring how music through folksongs interacts with conflict, can build resilience, and recognizes needs we share with humanity regarding meaning-making, belonging and identity.  

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