When I realized the magic of finding rhythm together as a group, it occurred to me that music could be and should be employed as a tool for healing the traumas people carry in their minds and bodies.

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In 2013, I started a nonprofit called InspireCorps to bring arts to children in an elementary school adjacent to the Eleanor Roosevelt Homes, a large housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. After years of bringing in artists of all kinds, including actors, dancers, painters and yoga teachers, I created my own percussion workshop called “Get in Tune.” I found that gathering the children in a circle and using drums and other percussion as a nonverbal communication tool was a  fun  metaphorical way of showing the necessity of building harmony through collaboration.

My bag of percussion has grown, and I have expanded my “percussion and discussion” workshop to offer it to other elementary, middle, and high schools as well as college campuses, and to multiple homeless shelters for men and women. My goal: to help people get in tune with themselves and others. My only rule: listen.

I have run retreats and events for the formerly incarcerated and continue to help fundraise and develop ideas as a board member
of The Jeptha Group, which brings music to the most mentally ill prisoners behind bars. Music is a light inside of a dark tunnel for
those who have lost their freedom as a result of crimes committed from a traumatized place.
 
I hope to bring my drum circles and sound baths inside prison walls soon to help those suffering the stress and shame of having
committed crimes, humans whose own development so often lacked what was necessary to thrive in life.
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Justice will only be served when we have helped children grow up with feelings of peace and harmony, when we help them see
adulthood without all the deprivation and disease that comes with childhood trauma and poverty. Finding a rhythm and a way of
deep listening to ourselves and others is a start.

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Email stephsthompson@gmail.com if you’d like to get involved or donate money or instruments to creating rhythm for the forsaken.

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