India 2019
This was the first year that Talisman has toured in any part of Asia. In March of 2019, we flew to Mumbai, and then to Udaipur, India for our annual spring tour. Ram Sampath, a music composer we met with in Mumbai, said to us: “You don’t tolerate each other. You get along. ...You have to find what unites you and not what divides you.” This message is timely and important, at home for many of our members in the United States, but also in many regions abroad. There's an inherent value in working to understand the uniqueness around us, the differences between us fueling our unity when we push ourselves to empathize. This tour, and our subsequent Spring Show "Inseparable", was our attempt at finding that. It was an audacious exercise in which we imagine what it would be like if we were all a little more connected to history, to each other, to the strangers we ignore. It is an exploration of what it might look like if we dared to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, of what it means to do so and how to do so fully and respectfully. Lastly, we hope “Inseparable” is an affirmation that music, ultimately, brings us together and can help us navigate the way.
Hawai'i 2018
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In 2018, the group took a trip to Maui and Oahu as part of a year dedicated to learning and sharing narratives from the API experience, especially that of Native Hawaiians. As the only state with an Asian-American majority population, Hawai’i is an apt location for Talisman to examine issues in the API community. Hawai’i has a complicated history of colonialism, claims to sovereignty, struggles to preserve indigenous heritage, gentrification, and the commodification of culture - themes that are relevant to much of the music we sing and are also particularly salient in this time and age. Additionally, the modern Hawaiian population largely consists of not only Native Hawaiians, but also Asians, Asian Americans, Caucasians, and individuals of mixed ethnicities, which offers us a unique opportunity to engage with people of varied experiences from the islands and learn about their confluence.
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New Crossroads South Africa 2010 |
THe American SouthWest 2017 |
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