Music Column: The Inside Singers Film Screening and Inside Voices book reading

Imagine moving to a new community, drawn there for a professional opportunity, with no family nearby.

You begin a choir as part of your job, and it grows into a community you care deeply about. Members write original songs where they share personal stories about their families—a father sent to Germany to serve during World War II, an abusive childhood with alcoholic parents, a choir member describing his long absence from his children’s lives, and funny songs like “The Trouble with the Tribbles on the Treble Clef.”

One song, “May the Stars Remember Your Name," was performed by Yo-Yo Ma with female youth in conflict with the law through the Storycatchers Fabulous Females program in Illinois.

I’m describing the Oakdale Community Choir, which I founded in 2009 and facilitated for over 11 years until COVID-19 shut it down. The choir included both incarcerated or “inside singers” and community members or “outside singers.” We gathered weekly inside the Oakdale Prison (Iowa Medical and Classification Center) and built a community of caring.

Our choir members connected by singing together. We shared weekly rehearsals, exchanged reflective writing, attended special events including a Musical Learning Exchange with the Soweto Gospel Choir, met with international guests who visited Iowa City to learn about promoting social change through the arts, and presented 25 themed concerts, performed twice each season—once for an incarcerated audience and once for people from the community. Concerts were opportunities for reuniting family members, some of whom had not seen one another in over six years.

Choral singing in prisons promotes well-being, fosters a positive environment, develops self-esteem as defined by worthiness and competence, enables emotional expression and communication, improves attitudes toward incarcerated individuals, and supports development of positive relationships within and beyond prison. Nevertheless, current Oakdale Prison leadership wrote me stating they were not “able or willing” to allow the choir to restart. My family of singers, suspended during the pandemic, was terminated.

Now the legacy of the choir exists in a new film, “The Inside Singers” and in two books: a new memoir by outside singer Amy Kolen, Inside Voices: A Prison Choir, My Mother, and Me , about how the choir helped her care for her dying mother at the end of her life. The other, Andy Douglas’s Redemption Songs: A Year in the Life of a Community Prison Choir, was published in 2019.

Chicago filmmaker Daniel Kolen (Amy’s son), directed “The Inside Singers.” Dan has produced true crime documentaries and decided to attend an Oakdale concert because his mom joined the choir, and he was concerned about her safety.

Daniel’s stereotype of a prisoner was shattered after he attended a concert. He was so moved by the experience that he directed this film for people who could not attend concerts. “The Inside Singers” won best documentary short at the Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival earlier this year.

At 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28, Amy Kolen will read from Inside Voices at Prairie Lights Bookstore. At 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29, FilmScene at the Chauncy will show “The Inside Singers” as part of its Community Collaborations program.

One of four initiatives I have started since the choir ended is a monthly singing circle which we invite formerly incarcerated individuals to join.

We meet the first Saturday of the month from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Faith United Church of Christ, 1609 Deforest Ave, Iowa City. Contact me at mary-cohen@uiowa.edu to get on the email list. All are welcome to join. We gather next on Oct. 5.

Mary Cohen is an Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Iowa.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Music Column: The Inside Singers Film Screening and Inside Voices book reading