INTRODUCING: DR HANNABIELL SANDERS

BY LAURA DAVISON

Laura Davison: Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your earliest musical memories?

Hannabiell Sanders: I’m originally from Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey. Like most, my earliest musical memories revolve around school. When I was 9 years old the high school came to our school to perform and showcase the different instruments. After the performance everyone went back to the band room and picked instruments. I remember telling my mom ‘I wanna play the long slidey thing!’.

LD: Did you continue playing in bands at university?

HS: I received a music scholarship from Norfolk State University (NSU) to study music education and to be a member of the Spartan Legion Marching Band. Studying at a Historically Black College (HBCU) was an amazing experience and taught me a lot about camaraderie. The marching band performed halftime shows during football games and would also compete with the opposing team’s band across the field. A big highlight for me was when the individual sections battled across the football field. Our trombone section consisted of 23 trombones, and we had the best fanfares. After a few years at NSU I transferred to Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University back home in New Jersey where I majored in music education and minored in music performance.

LD: Was it always a dream of yours to be involved in bands like these?

HS: In high school, my goal was to march with the Cadets of Bergen County (New Jersey), one of the top drum and bugle corps in the USA at the time. You go to camps, learn, and plot a show then tour around the country during the summer when school is out. I became a Cadet after auditioning with three of my band mates from NSU.

LD: What did you do after graduation?

HS: My first job was a music teacher. It was a very insightful experience that changed the trajectory of my career. In the beginning I struggled to connect with my students because all I could do was regurgitate western classical music and history, but I made major breakthroughs after researching and creating lessons that combined African American history and diverse music styles. Throughout that process I discovered the reality of my lopsided education and as an active member of the People’s Organisation for Progress, I became more aware about racism, economic inequality, and the lack of representation of our history in education.

I had a successful year teaching and developed a great relationship with the students, however, I felt like I needed to go and learn about different cultures and music to be a better music educator and musician. I moved to Durban, South Africa to study at the University of Kwazulu Natal (UKZN), learned about teaching for praxis and the power and potential musicians, artists, and teachers have to make positive impacts on people’s lives. I learned about some of the different music and instruments in that region, took up the mbira Nyunga Nyunga, taught at UKZN and a nearby school, created my own band and joined a ska punk band. After a year in Durban, I moved back to New Jersey for ten months and then moved to Newcastle

PHOTO CREDIT: ANNA MILLER

upon Tyne to study music at Newcastle University where I completed my MMus in Performance and PhD.

LD: What did you focus on in your PhD?

HS: My PhD, Protest Culture: Creative Practise As Socio-Political Engagement, explored how I use music, knowledge, and everything I do in service to social justice. It was a creative practise PhD that comprised a portfolio of performances, an album, and a thesis exploring the elements of my music, what politicised me, how I create Community Intimacy and how Harambee Pasadia became the site where I put my theories into practise.

LD: How would you describe the music you create, and what projects are you currently working on?

HS: My music is a mix of powerful and upbeat Latin & African percussion, brass, vocal chants, Blues, Jazz, Afro-beat, Funk, and Reggae. It’s dance music to free your soul!

I’m currently working on new music for my band, duet, and solo show. I’m an Artist in Residence at The Sage Gateshead where I am reworking, writing new music and creating a stage show. The residency will culminate in a performance in Hall 2 on June 16, 2022. I just completed a residency with Opera North where I built a stage set for both the duet, The Ladies of Midnight Blue, (LMB), and the larger band, Hannabiell & the Midnight Blue Collective (HMB). With the collective, the goal is to turn the show into a theatrical production with dancers, stage props, and projections. I’m rebranding both ensembles, writing and performing new music. We are also preparing for our Afro Fusion Music & Arts Festival Harambee Pasadia.

LD: How did you come up with the concept of a festival and then go about creating it?

HS: The festival was born from a desire to create more performance opportunities for artists from the African diaspora and to celebrate the diversity amongst them. When Yilis and I first moved to Newcastle upon Tyne to study at Newcastle University we performed as a duet LMB and started the UK version of our band HMB and there weren’t many performance opportunities or artists that looked like us in the region. It was difficult to get gigs so we started organising our own events,

hosting double bills and film screenings as a strategy to showcase our ensembles, share audiences, and to build our following. Harambee Pasadia was a grassroots initiative to create a platform for Afro-fusion music and arts. Haramabee in Swahili means ‘let’s get together’, and Pasadia in Spanish means ‘to spend the day’.

LD: When is the festival taking place and what’s on the agenda?

HS: The festival will take place 23 -26 June 2022 and will feature an amazing line-up of music, creative workshops, outdoor activities, water sports, food, along with talks, presentations, and panel discussions in our Speaker’s Corner conference. There will be lead up events including the Roots Rhythms All Tribes One Vibe Gathering at the ARC in Stockton-on-Tees on 28 May to celebrate diversity within the region and Afro-fusion music. Harambee Pasadia has been commissioned by Seascapes and the University of Sunderland to work with coastal communities in County Durham to explore people’s stories around the coastline through music. We also plan on running a consciousness raising reading group in May exploring the book Feminism is for Everybody by the American author and social activist bell hooks.

LD: Do you have any other projects that combine your passion for music and activism?

HS: It’s paused due to Covid but in the past my partner, Yilis Suriel, and I facilitated a series of creative practise workshops as part of a program ran by the University of York’s Centre for Applied Human Rights for several years. We worked with activists from across the globe, exploring activism through creative mediums such as music, drumming, singing, visual art, printing, painting etc. Many of the activists we worked with were lawyers and leaders in the communities and didn’t necessarily see themselves as creative. We created a safe place for them to focus on themselves, explore their creativity, find inner solace, and destress away from their normal and sometimes dangerous lives. We have a lot of pride working with Human Rights Defenders and are grateful for the privilege to be able to provide them with skills to approach activism in creative ways.

LD: What’s your outlook on life and music, what inspires you?

HS: I love creating and strengthening community through music, art, culture, and collaboration. I believe we need a united front and personally like making change from within while creating projects and events that bridge the gap between activism and academia. I believe in collaboration not competition or as Cornel West puts it, Antagonistic Cooperation. I believe that we have to manifest and create what we want rather than focusing too much of our time and energy on what does not exist or what someone else hasn’t thought about or created. I think we need to rethink and redefine what best practise is and looks like because previous models in all sectors don’t always have authentic good, where everyone benefits, at the core. I am a lifelong learner and a big advocate for continued professional development and self-care. I believe that leadership skills, social and emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and strategies for developing an abundant mindset should be an integral part of the education system. As a musician, activist, mentor, educator, and ambassador of fun, I use my platforms to create safe and inclusive spaces where joyful, thought-provoking, and meaningful experiences can take place. My favourite image and source of inspiration is the book Little Melba Liston and Her Big Trombone.

LD: Do you have any long-term goals?

HS: We would like to organise a UK and international tour for both my bands LMB & HMB; release two singles and work towards an album; consult on music, leadership, and making music education more whimsical and inspiring; continue to create events where artists, educators, activists and entrepreneurs come and try out new ways of working and collaborating.

LD: Who are your heroes, musical or otherwise?

HS: Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. I find their playing spiritual and inspiring. One of my favourite songs is Pharoah Sanders’ Love is Everywhere, along with Alice Coltranes’ album Journey in Satchidananda. The theorists bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins and their philosophies on critical thinking, Teaching to Transgress, and Black Feminist Thought, have informed and shaped my morals, values, leadership style, and goals on how to champion equality and abolish racism.

LD: What’s your favourite thing about playing the bass trombone?

HS: The depth and range of the instrument. As a soloist I find it beautiful.

LD: Do you have a favourite musical memory?

HS: I have three: dancing and making music with Bobby McFerrin, being invited to sit in the pit by my teacher John Rojak for Les Misérables on Broadway and getting to play with The Drifters.

LD: If you had to sum up your philosophy in one sentence?

HS: Add joy, play, enthusiasm, kindness, and whimsy in everything you do.

LD: Finally, outside of music what do you like to do?

HS: I love having fun, hosting parties, and being outdoors hiking, building fires, and skipping rocks. ◆