RE-STORYING OUR FUTURE THROUGH COLLECTIVE SONGWRITING

The lyrics above were born out of the collective intelligence and embodied knowledge of the participants of Restorying Our Future. For four weeks in October and November, 2025 Quetzal Flores and Evolve Altadena’s Maya Jupiter facilitated weekly Collective Songwriting workshops with residents impacted by the Eaton Canyon fire. Eighteen unique individuals participated in at least one workshop, while twelve individuals repeated more than one workshop. Participants ranged from 3 to 75 years of age. The purpose of these workshops was to hold this community in a creative process (Collective Songwriting) that could provoke new imaginations about what was experienced, what currently exists and what is possible. Collective Songwriting (CS) is a Cultural Convening Method that uses music composition to inspire generative dialogue, foster deep and democratic participation, and drive transformative action for communities facing systemic oppression. Facilitated by trained musicians, CS is a process-centered participatory practice that guides people to explore collective struggles, analyze their historical and present circumstances, and then experiment with inventing a new future together. Rooted in the values and knowledge systems of indigenous communities as well as the real time embodied knowledge of communities in struggle, CS holds people through four curated, scaffolded steps leading to the collective sung narrative (song).

Each session began with a quote selected by the facilitators. These quotes are curated to generate an introduction of ones self as well as a guided reflection to help us “Arrive” together into the subject matter and into the first step of Collective Songwriting. For example, the first session began with a quote from James Baldwin.

“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.”

Through the first two phases we are creating what we call a “campo semantico” or a field of collective ideas. Coming in the form of singular words or short phrases written on large post it notes, the “campo semantico” allows participants to consistently visualize, recall, relate and affirm their and each other's ideas. Through a facilitated process, what began as ideas in the “campo semantico” then are facilitated into full phrases or verses. The verses became stanzas and choruses ending in what we call the sung narrative or the song. Though each session was unique in its nuances, the basic structure and sequence was as follows.

Testimonio

As one participant shared, “The fire laid bare to what was already there.”, Testimonio centers on the act of an individual from impacted communities bearing witness to collective experiences, often in a first-person, urgent narrative format. It functions as a decolonial and political practice, challenging Eurocentric perspectives and asserting multiple, subjective truths over claims of neutrality. A testimonio serves to empower the speaker, raise political consciousness, and advocate for social change and liberation by revealing the true nature of oppressive systems and reclaiming agency for marginalized groups. It also creates the conditions for ”being able to really be seen and heard by fellow community and survivors”, as described by another participant.

Generative Dialogue

The second phase of Collective Songwriting supports participants in finding each other through accompaniment and critical witnessing. “Watching people heal through music and recall the past as we vision the future.” as articulated by one participant, is part of an active process of affirming someone else's experience, stories or process and allowing yourself to connect and participate in it.

Radical Collective Vision

“Visions of our future, las calles con vida, alegria cotidiana, arroyo Espiritual”

In imagining the future of Altadena, participants imagined themselves on a spiritual river travelling through lively streets with diverse and inclusive populations experiencing joy as a daily routine. This joy would extend feelings of belonging to historically marginalized people including immigrants, queer and trans identified people, elders, youth and Black people. In this vision, the winds of change will blow an an “interdependent” sense of purpose that would bind and bond this community as ‘a soul nourishing place”, rising from the ashes.

Transformative Collective Action

is the process where a diverse group of people with shared goals collaborate to create fundamental, lasting changes in systems, norms, or values, moving beyond incremental adjustments to establish new, more sustainable or just structures. This form of action is a network-based approach that leverages collective power to reshape systems by challenging existing power structures and fostering a new understanding of relationships and values. Participants offered, “Being surrounded by so many Altadena and Pasadena friends who are vibrating on the same frequency of land and social/emotional repair was very impactful. I didn’t feel alone in my thoughts, and accessing these topics in a constructive, open way (among others) was medicine I didn’t know I needed”. Another shared, “It was amazing to ground ourselves first in the power of the town and then imagine the future we could co-create”. Part of this action was to begin a new relationship and understanding of fire.

Fire brings peace
Fire brings fear
Fire brings peace
Fire brings fear

This refrain created in the process of CS is a reminder that through our ancestral technologies, there exists a historic relationship with fire. This relationship has been fractured through modernity, development and harmful and toxic practices against nature. It is a reminder that in the collective action there is a need to repair our relationship to each other and to the earth. By doing this, we are preparing conditions of safety and care for ourselves as well. By grounding ourselves in a set of values that privileges this understanding, we are creating collective agency that affords us the ability to critically analyze what existed before that we don't need anymore, as well as what we want to carry forward.

Dena swag and aura, purple wig, cowboy rider
Defend the character of the people

The verses above articulate the vision and subsequent action for identifying diverse cultural experiences that need to be “defended” from speculative investment and “disaster capitalism”. Consciously, participants are actively committing to both the refusal of letting Altadena become the 9th Ward in New Orleans post Katrina, or Gaza. Instead, there is a path forward for rebuilding, reimagining while healing and learning together.

“Creating a fresh song that very night. Reaching that peak moment when we were singing and hearing our original song, was incredible. Each session held that magic. Living in the moment of discovery and collective performance was truly transformative.”

- A participant

Quetzal Flores, Maya Jupiter and participants after a workshop session.