Episode 159 Kate Munger: Creating Community through Song

About this episode

Kate Munger discusses the impact of communal singing and her experiences in songwriting for various communities.

“Elation and connection” are two of the side effects of communal singing, and for over four decades, Kate Munger has been writing songs to be sung in tender and difficult moments–at the bedside of the dying, in prisons, and now at gatherings to repair democracy. We talk with Kate about what makes a good communal song, her writing process, how song can transform a negatively charged moment, and what are some of the challenges for communal singing in this moment. Kate Munger has been passionate about community singing since she was 8 years old at Girl Scout Camp and has led community singing now for over 45 years. In 2000 she founded the first of now 200 Threshold Choirs around the world, singing at the bedsides of people who are dying. Now retired from running the Threshold Choir, Kate has returned to her passions of writing songs for medicinal use and singing for people in coma and with folks who are incarcerated she is offering monthly free sessions to learn 60 new songs to sing on the way to, at and from protests to repair democracy, called “Hate Has No Home Here.” An email to Kate (kateamunger@gmail.com) will sign you up. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this…

People in this episode

Host: Christie Aschwanden

Guest: Kate Munger

Topics covered

• communal singing
• community building
• songwriting
• democracy
• Threshold Choirs

Keywords

• communal singing
• Kate Munger
• Threshold Choirs
• songwriting
• community

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Threshold Choirs, Hate Has No Home Here, Girl Scout Camp

Places: democracy

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