S1 Ep008 How Music Makes a Different Public Space: Chelsie Henderson of Rural Soul Music Studio, Pt2
What can music teach us about economic development and kinder public space? In Part 2 of our 2-part interview, we continue our conversation with Chelsie Henderson (See Episode #007, Part 1 for her bio) , the owner of Rural Soul Music Studio and learn:
The experiences that led Chelsie to turn her career path from choral work to West African percussion.
The skills of music making that are a strong foundation for business.
How Chelsie co-founded a grassroots event that has become central to her business district’s development.
The key piece of advice for businesses seeking to center values while growing economically.
“Personal values are the core of my approach to business.”
-Chelsie Henderson
@ruralsoulearthbeatchelsie
Transcript
Season 1, Episode 8 (Part 2) : How Music Makes a Different Public Space: Chelsie Henderson of Rural Soul Music Studio
[Drumming track featuring master drummer and soloist MBemba Bangoura, Chelsie Henderson, and Wayne White, in background]
Chelsie Henderson, Guest:
Strengthening empathy, strengthening compassion for others and for one's self, strengthening cooperation and collaboration, strengthening inclusivity, these are all a natural part of making music to begin with. We talk about music making as being a team, like in athletics, but those values I just mentioned, I think are a very natural part of music making, and is what I'm building my business on.
[Drum track fades out]
[Rhythmic sounds of electric train pulling into station]
[Subway chimes arpeggio played on mandolin]
Cevan Castle, Host:
Welcome to ‘Towards a Kinderpublic’, a podcast exploring issues in public space, and ways to design kinder space that better meets our interconnected needs. I’m Cevan Castle, and along with Annie Chen, we are Kinderpublic.
Today’s episode is “How Music Makes a Different Public Space with Chelsie Henderson of Rural Soul Music Studio”
This episode opened with the music of master drummer MBemba Bangoura, who is playing alongside Chelsie Henderson and Wayne White. You’ll hear more about this later; the rest of the track will play at the end of this discussion.
In our last episode, Chelsie Henderson, the accomplished musician and amazing entrepreneur behind Rural Soul Music Studio, was sharing details of her business model, what services Rural Soul offers, and why Rural Soul is always out in the community. Chelsie shared with us that her music business grew out of a lot of organizing on a volunteer basis, bringing people into a shared creative experience.
She was moved to work in this way- focusing on collaboration and community- by early career experiences and a feeling of burnout.
If you have not accessed Episode #007 and our earlier conversation with Chelsie, we invite you to access the podcast and full transcript on your favorite podcast player, or on our website, kinderpublic.com.
In this episode, we begin our discussion with the last of three questions clarifying Rural Soul’s services and business model, and talk about one of the most impactful parts of her work, which is opening up a rural, upstate New York region to the contemporary master musicians, percussion instruments, and music traditions of multiple West African countries.
Chelsie also discusses how she brought the grassroots approach that she developed in her early community work, and further refined at Rural Soul Music Studio, into her surrounding business district.
You’ll hear about small businesses and organizations in and near Schuylerville, New York, that are in relationship with each other for reasons beyond their geography, and how they have built their foundations on skills like listening, collaboration, and empathy.
What’s happening here is that creative professionals and business owners are using the skills of their creative backgrounds to meaningfully impact the way that they conduct business, both individually and together. This is a very different condition from simply advertising that a business district is a creative hub in the effort to attract commercial activity.
It’s like the difference between dying the entire wool fiber or merely printing the color on top of already woven fabric. In Schuylerville, these values go all the way through the yarn. And this makes them durable.
But back to Rural Soul Music Studio: this is an approach to business and bolstering a Main St commercial district that is informed by a musician’s manner of working.
Or, as Chelsie referred to it in Episode #007, W.O.R.K. - because this skilled, highly impactful work really feels something more like playing.
Cevan, opening interview:
This is the last part of the question about your business activities. You have a music studio in a rural community, and you maintain a very clear focus on the business development of that community.
But Rural Soul simultaneously opens up the world to our rural community by providing access to education about West African music, access to accomplished musicians, by providing access to West African percussion instruments. In this way, the mission of Rural Soul expands to learning, deepening conversations, and ultimately building and repairing our human connections.
Who are some of the renowned percussionists and musicians that you work with? How did your relationships form and how did the djembe, a West African drum, and the others that you teach and sell, become an integral part of your professional background and business?
Chelsie Henderson:
So I'll start by saying, I mentioned Wayne, my partner, he's a very accomplished, sought after West African drum repair technician and skilled player. And he's taught in the Capital Region for twenty-ish years. He was my first djembe and dunduns teacher.
But before meeting Wayne, I would say even 10 years before that time, I was first introduced to traditional West African music in a very meaningful way in Burlington [Vermont]. I had the pleasure of seeing a performance of Jeh Kulu, which is a West African musical performance ensemble, and I was immediately swept away with the players and dancers, musicianship and grace, and the cultural contextual meaning that was the foundation of everything that they were doing. This was their version of musical theater, actually. And at the time I was studying classical music, so it was a very, very different feeling, um, and type of learning and experiencing music that I really hadn't had before.
And in that time, I had linked the Easton Library to that group, Jeh Kulu, 10 to 11 years ago. And Easton Library hosted the group with grant funding, for a special day of workshops and an evening performance. And it was at that evening event that I first heard about Wayne. I was all a-glow with this energy, and like, we really need to have this here on an ongoing level for so many reasons. But just on the musical side, you know, just all the benefits of drumming, I just could feel it all, just even that evening. And I saw the joy in people, people I never envisioned jumping up and dancing, were doing that at, during the Jeh Kulu performance. So I first heard about Wayne there and I jumped at meeting him so that I could pitch this idea of offering West African drumming classes for kids at the Greenwich Studio, because this is right when the Greenwich Studio was starting.
And then my hope was later connecting with the masters and forming partnerships with nonprofits such as libraries, the Dance Flurry Association, and other community-centered arts groups, to be able to host them with proper financial backing and promotion in our community. So little did I know that Wayne had a deep well of love and respect for this music and these instruments, which he had studied for countless hours years before and leading up to that time. And so much love and respect for the people who graciously share this music with our country, which for Wayne began with the Honorable Babatunde Olatunji from Nigeria, someone that Wayne met when he was younger and just had a huge impact on him. So, and Wayne was also well connected with the Wula Drum Company, having studied with the owner Michael Markus, as well as Michael's mentor, MBemba Bangoura, and other amazing musicians at Wula’s space in New York City, or at their yearly retreat in the Pocono Valley.
So in the last 10 years or so, we've hosted five different instructors from West Africa, several of whom return year after year. They love this community, they love coming here and seeing the same faces, and then also being introduced to different communities within the region. So, for example, Bolokada Conde, who's originally from Morebaya, Guinea, and he lives in the southern part of the United States full-time. He'll be in this area in June and he's doing a mini tour, which he did last year as well. And most notable is our dear friend and closest mentor-teacher MBemba Bangoura, who's originally from Conakry, Guinea, and he teaches in our area quite regularly and was the main inspiration behind the 100 Resilient Drummers, a remote drumming program that was held three winters ago and has continued since then.
And without sharing too much of his personal journey, you know, MBemba is an older adult musician, whose main income for years has been in the gig economy, so traveling all over the world to lead workshops and residencies, from colleges to professional ensembles and everything in between. And but during the pandemic, he lost all of his gigs, and was without work completely and completely without any creative outlets for that matter, for quite some time. So because of our community building and partnership efforts, we were able to organize classes to help sustain MBemba financially, and really, for all the drummers, emotionally in the thick of this questionable time. So, MBemba is a very important figure for us. And I'm just constantly learning from him, learning about life, learning about this music, learning about the technique of the instrument. So he truly is a mentor, and like family to us.
And then you had mentioned the djembe and the other instruments that we really focus on. I'll just say about the djembe, because it really has become a monumental percussion instrument that is found all over the world, but is originally from West Africa.
It's a goblet shaped wooden drum that's covered in goat skin and tied with very, very strong rope. And it's truly the premiere West African hand drum. It has a very old history and is hugely significant to traditional and more modern percussion music. It was invented anywhere from 400 to 800 years ago. There is no known story of where the first djembe came from, but there's of course all kinds of beautiful tales of where it could have come from, um, that I really enjoy learning about. But we do know it comes from the Mali Empire, pre-modern day countries such as Mali, Guinea, Senegal would be from that area.
But to me, the djembe symbolizes community building, just the sound of one can draw attention from far away. But then that collective force, that collective expression when you're drumming with a group of people, and synchronizing. And there is scientific evidence behind that, you know, when people are drumming together and your breath and your heart rate can start to synchronize. It’s building community to the highest extent.
Cevan:
I actually was going to ask about that while you were speaking about the story of Rural Soul contributing to the wellness of musicians through a very difficult time. The musicians were contributing to our wellness as well, and I felt such a kind of sustenance through the online drum courses that we were following in 100 Resilient Drummers. And every time I sat down with it, it was a very healing moment. And so you just touched on some of the background and the why of that relationship, between the music, and the drum, and wellness.
Chelsie Henderson:
Yeah. And thank you for saying that. And, I get chills when I think about it, but also that, you know, culmination at the end and we all gathered, you know, we're learning remotely together and we have that time together. But I remember that feeling and I will carry it with me always when we first all met at Hudson Crossing Park and we all have our drums and we're in this big circle, and MBemba is there in person. Just how- oh, I don't even know the words for it, but elevating- I always use the word elevating when I'm teaching drum class and such, because I do start to feel like I'm literally lifted off the ground when I'm teaching, performing, learning, whatever it is. Um, the vibrations just pull you right off the ground. So yeah. Thank you so much for speaking on that. It was a really big thing.
Cevan:
Thank you. Thank you for making that possible. Thank you to MBemba Bangoura for being there and for supporting us with his talents and expertise. It was a beautiful moment. So impactful.
Rural Soul seems to be very much animated by your personal values. One human family was one of the messages shared at 100 Resilient Drummers class and the drumming meetup, which was a huge event. Your business activities, though they are open and collaborative and fast movement, are pushing towards a vision.
Would you agree that personal values are the core of your approach to business? What are some of the underlying core values of Rural Soul Music Studio? And have these shifted or clarified over time?
Do you find challenges in continuing to center values as your business grows? Or do you find that your clear expression of values resonates with others and builds reinforcing layers in your community?
Chelsie Henderson:
Yeah, I would agree wholeheartedly that personal values are the core of my approach to business. And I believe I touched on some of those values in other answers. But to be really clear, strengthening empathy, strengthening compassion for others and for one's self, strengthening cooperation and collaboration, strengthening inclusivity, these are all a natural part of making music to begin with. We talk about music making as being a team like in athletics, but those, um, values I just mentioned, I think are a very natural part of music making and is what I'm building my business on.
There have been many challenges in upholding these core values. Um, mainly to my due to my own learning curve and how to run a business. When I went to college to become a Music Education major and then later a music teacher, I didn't even know that was an option to do this on my own. No one really directed me that way. It's just sort of- life did.
So, I had to learn all of that as I'm teaching and as I'm trying to support other music teachers, um, and performers. Another challenge I would say is just some of the discriminatory reactions I have received as a woman in the music profession, and as a community leader. Not to mention my tendency to overcommit to volunteer endeavors, which I've learned how to balance much better, and landing in community leadership situations where my role is to be an objective facilitator or contributor. So I have to sort of, you know, I have to stay in that objective role and just lead as gracefully as possible in those situations. But I'm happy to share that I'm able to overcome most of these obstacles with, you know, utilizing very clear communication and very clear boundary setting.
And these values, my gut values have definitely shifted over time relative to my own musical arts and social justice education enlightenment, I would say. My message is certainly getting clearer with time and experience. And as I am witnessing first hand with increased attendance and classes and workshops and events, um, people are along for the ride and even more so these values are resonating with them, and perhaps even giving them a voice.
Cevan:
One of the first things that I noticed about Rural Soul is that the studio has an incredible number of neighbors and partners, and brings music into the community in so many different venues and neighborhoods. We can find you hosting classes everywhere from your studio to the library to the park and more, but at the same time, Rural Soul maintains a very clear presence in and commitment to Schuylerville, and seems to draw people in to support that community. One of your business neighbor-collaborators, Kate Morse, the Executive Director of Hudson Crossing Park, mentioned the Community Conversations that you have been spearheading for the Schuylerville Business District.
You have an open, collaborative approach to building business and building value with your neighbors. Can you talk about the Community Conversations? What are they, and when did you start hosting them? And was there ever a time you weren't hosting them in some form <laugh>? And what is your vision for the business district that is served by the Community Conversations?
Chelsie Henderson:
The Schuylerville Community Conversations are near and dear to my heart. Thank you so much for asking about that. I am a Founder and the Volunteer Coordinator going on seven years. It's a very welcoming open forum for sharing positive news and announcements. And there are anywhere between 15 and 35 people who will participate, from small business owners to local government representatives. We meet on the first Wednesday of each month at 9:00-10:00am at rotating brick-and-mortar locations around town. Or sometimes we'll go outside to Hudson Crossing Park, for example.
I'm really protective of our one hour gathering, ever reminding attendees that we're dedicated to keeping it to just one hour in order to respect people's work schedules and the host's location's energy output. And people are very receptive and respectful.
So, yeah, seven years ago, actually this month, Eric Laffer and I started the initial group and it was called the Schuylerville Small Business Association, because we were really gearing it more toward outreach for the small business owners, in which there were more and more new businesses coming into town at the time.
And then it was later renamed Schuylerville Community Conversations. And, I want to say that was maybe four or five years ago that the name changed. And we did that within the conversation: “what do you think would be, um, you know, a feasible title for what we're doing?” And someone had come up with that name. So, um, I was listening and heard that many new business owners in Schuylerville weren't feeling connected or supported. So we created an opportunity for that connection and support that has really blossomed. I'm always just so blown away by the people who show up and what they share and how many amazing things, frankly, are happening around here that I don't know if we would know about otherwise.
So I'm always encouraging neighboring community movers and shakers, so anyone even outside of Schuylerville, you know, to visit our Community Convos. And in all honesty, for me, a big part of it is to help Schuylerville be less insular. And I don't mean to generalize in any way or disregard the efforts of all those people who came before me and who have started businesses or moved to the area since Rural Soul came to town. In my heart, I know that there can always be more sharing, more education, more listening. So my vision for the Schuylerville business district is that it's a growing creative economy to use a term that I learned a few years ago. And I just love that, it'll become more sustainably supported in such a way that continues to attract more unique businesses and that the flow of customers and clients is always robust.
With open minds and hearts, our businesses can feel like one local economic body that communicates and supports within itself. There can be this symbiosis with the people being drawn to Schuylerville for its rich heritage and natural recreation, while also supporting our local businesses and vice versa. Hudson Crossing Park is particularly adept at making this connection and is always doing so, and I'm just so grateful for their existence and mission and for all their participation by Kate, herself, and their amazing board. And they have a very dedicated volunteer force. So they actually set a very good example of what a creative economy village could look like working together.
And I would love to see more education and celebration around Native peoples of this region and fueling that to bring people to the area to then support our local businesses. I'd also love to see more accessibility to land for the next generation of farmers. There's a very strong foundation in agriculture in the Schuylerville area. And, you know, they're feeding us, and we have these wonderful restaurants that would support them as well.
Cevan:
Yeah!
Schuylerville’s business district has several levels of collective organization, as I understand it. There's the Conversations, the Schuylerville Community Council, and membership in the county level Chamber. Your grassroots conversational approach was so compelling that it was officially folded into the hierarchy of organizations that support the Schuylerville business district.
Can you talk about extending your grassroots approach to business to the identity of your business district? And what is the unique relationship and output that happens between the Community Conversations and the Community Council that isn't achieved in membership within larger regional business associations?
Chelsie Henderson:
Yeah. Schuylerville certainly has a grassroots vibe and the Community Conversations are a wonderful example of that. These Community Conversations fuel the agendas for the Community Council, which is a relatively new group that was basically born out of a release of the Schuylerville area Chamber of Commerce. And that group had existed for many years, in different iterations.
The Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce acts as the parent Chamber organization to the Community Council and supports with insurance and whole community promotional opportunities, the latter of which we have a lot of progress to make still, but the initiative and the drive is there.
But I just think I would say, basically, dots can get connected faster with this type of structure in a community. But having these connections and strengthening them is really the core of all of it.
Cevan:
And I think for listeners who have listened to our Hudson Crossing Park episodes, they'll find in some of the activities within the downtown Schuylerville business district, the same playfulness <laugh> that exists in the natural space that is adjacent to the business district, which is just such a charming relationship. And I'm absolutely in love with it. And I'm in love with Rural Soul Music Studio. I love the camaraderie there. And your joyful approach, which is such a special characteristic of small business.
Based on your approach, what is your key recommendation for businesses in Main Street business districts to develop a local identity and bring value to human relationships, and not lose sight of these principles while also working to grow economically?
Chelsie Henderson:
I would actually just summarize with one word, and that's, ‘listen’. And I've used that word a lot in this conversation. But listen with your heart, listen to your heart, listen to the existing business community and what the needs are, especially if you're a new business. And then find that balance.
The social media hashtag #CollaborationOverCompetition perfectly sums that up also. And I see some of our local businesses using that in their promotion. So, lead with compassion, but with strong boundaries, and businesses will go far.
Cevan:
Where did that hashtag come from, incidentally?
Chelsie Henderson:
The first time I saw it used, and I see it used very frequently, is with Bound by Fate Brewing Company. That is definitely… their foundation is collaboration.
Cevan:
Oh, I love it. And they're a neighbor of yours as well, right?
Chelsie Henderson:
They are.
Cevan:
Very nice. And how can people find your business online and support your work, and participate?
Chelsie Henderson:
Yes. Thanks for asking. We have a website, ruralsoul.com and also Facebook. Facebook and Instagram pages I'm pretty active on. And I have an e-newsletter called The Rural Soul Museletter that comes out well once or twice a month, but whenever we have a whole clump of activity going on, we'll make sure to get it out that way.
Cevan:
And you do have online classes too, so people outside of this geographic area can participate and see what you're doing and join in fun.
Chelsie Henderson:
Yes. Yeah, the online classes are typically just in their winter months. But the Resilient Drummers program, which you had participated in, I'm hoping will be ongoing every winter.
Cevan:
Great! I look forward to joining again. Chelsie, thank you so much for your time and for sharing all of these ideas with us. It was really a lovely conversation.
Chelsie Henderson:
Thank you so much, Cevan.
[Drumming track fades in to background]
Cevan:
Subscribe to Towards a Kinder Public on Apple Podcasts and leave us a rating and a review, we would love your feedback. To share information about issues in public space, and spaces that are doing things right, email podcast@kinderpublic.com.
Links to more information about the guests and topics mentioned, as well as a full transcript of the conversation, are available on the podcast section of our website, kinderpublic.com. Visit our website to learn more about our work.
I’m Cevan Castle, our guest has been Chelsie Henderson of Rural Soul Music Studio and EarthBeat Drum Shop.
Thanks for listening, I wish you a good week!
[Drumming track featuring master drummer and soloist MBemba Bangoura, Chelsie Henderson, and Wayne White]