Refining Voices Rising’s Mission and Vision Statements
Since our founding in 2004, Voices Rising has been committed to creating an affirming space for LGBTQIA+ and women’s communities. In recent years, we’ve seen the increased visibility of gender identities and expressions, apparent in the greater society, also reflected in our community and conversations. The relevance of gender in relation to our identity as a chorus has been an ongoing topic of discussion for our leadership and within our chorus.
In 2020, Voices Rising took a hiatus from performing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We continued to meet virtually, however, to maintain and sustain our community. Inspired by the New Harmony workbook from GALA Choruses, a LGBTQIA+ choral network of which we are a part, we used that time to undertake Equity, Access, and Belonging (EAB) work together. Ultimately, a small group, including interested members and Leadership Team representatives, formed to concentrate the focus of our EAB work on the exploration of our identity and history as a women’s chorus.
During our fall 2022 season, the EAB working group began to seriously consider what it means to be a women’s chorus in the current, expanding context of gender. We asked: How do we honor our roots and identity within the women’s choral movement and remain a welcoming LGBTQIA+ community? In our conversations, we kept returning to the metaphor of a tent that we strive to expand to reflect our membership. Caring for this tent is an ongoing process requiring the frequent revisitation of our mission, vision, and values.
As we considered this question of gender and our identity as a chorus, we wondered what language to use to refer to Voices Rising and its membership. The EAB group initially considered including the current terminology used to describe gender-expansive and gender non-conforming identities. Revised mission and vision statements and a brand-new values statement were drafted along these lines and brought to the chorus for feedback at our spring 2023 retreat. The chorus concluded that, instead of listing all identities, the language of gender should remain undefined, to continue to develop and expand. By changing the words of the chorus’ vision statement to “Voices Rising is a feminist chorus,” we chose to emphasize the values of our members, rather than any specific gendered identity. As such, we left deliberate space for the individuality of each singer and room for our evolution as a community.
Music, the art form at the heart of our mission, provides an apt metaphor not only for the choice of language in our vision statement, but also for the entire process of our EAB work. The repeat symbol is simply notated, with two dots and a double bar line, and calls for both review and recalibration 一 it tells musicians to go back and repeat the music, but often with a different stylistic variation or a new ending. The repeat symbol can facilitate elaboration on what has come before, bringing new possibilities that lend power to the music. Voices Rising aims to bring this persistence, self-reflection, and celebration of growth to our efforts as we continue to build community through song.