Workshops

Taina Asili offers creative and engaging workshops pulling from her decades long history as a social change songwriter and community organizer. For over 15 years Taína has offered a variety workshops at conferences, schools and community organizations. She has experience working with both children and adults, and with marginalized populations including incarcerated women, refugees and union workers. Taina Asili holds an MA in Transformative Language Arts from Goddard College.

To book a workshop, class visit or speaking engagement email info[at]tainaasili.com

All workshops can be in presentation, discussion and/or creative art format. Approximate time is 1-2 hrs.:

Reclaim the Thunder: Songs For Social Change

This workshop shares methods Taina Asili has gathered from her long history writing poems and songs that seek to reclaim power, break barriers inspire, and unite. The workshop begins by looking at historical and contemporary examples of social change songs and songwriters. She then guides participants in a hands-on songwriting exercise, first turning our ideas into lyrics, and later, bringing these words to the music. This workshop is open to people of all ages and artistic levels, from beginner poets to experienced emcees and singers. Join us in this interactive radical music jam to reinvent our world!

Following The Rhythm of Rebellion: My Story

Taina tells the story of her twenty-two year career as a singer and songwriter for social change. Taina will share how her work as artivist is part of the artistic and cultural lineage of her Puerto Rican ancestry. Through slides, videos and songs shares her unique journey from her beginnings as the daughter of a Latin-jazz musician, to becoming the lead vocalist for the well-known punk band Antiproduct, to find her authentic voice with the music she makes today. She will discuss the challenges she has faced as a queer woman of color working becoming a social justice singer and songwriter, and the wisdom and tools she has gathered along the way.

Behind the Scenes: Media and Social Change

Taina Asili and Gaetano Vaccaro (la Banda Rebelde guitarist, co-songwriter, and director of photography/editor for their music videos), will take participants on a behind the scenes look at the making of their last music videos and documentaries. Taina will discuss her process in writing, directing and producing these videos and films, and Gaetano will talk about their role as a filmmaker with Sunangel Media, as well as their role as media educator with the award-winning youth film program YouthFX. Taina and Gaetano will discuss ways participants can offer meaningful contributions to social change through media creation.

 Press

The Daily Gazette “Writing Songs That Right Wrongs”

ALBANY — Simple songs or chants can often serve as a uniting force to provoke social change. One believer in that idea is Taina Asili. She conducted a workshop Sunday at the Albany Social Justice Center, where visitors were given an opportunity to analyze songs by artists such as Pete Seeger and Nina Simone. The group of eight then broke into four teams to craft their own songs about social change. Read more…

The Times Union “Raising Their Voices”

“As long as music has existed,” said Taina Asili, a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter based in Albany, “it’s responded to what’s been going on in the world. … Most good music, I would say, comes out of communities that have been oppressed, in some ways.” She noted flamenco music and gypsies in Spain. The music of Latin America. The salsa of Ruben Blades, the protest piano jazz of Nina Simone (“Mississippi Goddam”). Read more…