NEW: Plant Yourself merch designed by my daughter, Yael Zivan.

Building Multi-Faith Community Through Music: James Pollard Jr. and Harold Messinger on PYP 486

YouTube player

James Pollard, Jr. and Harold Messinger are co-founders and musical directors of the Interfaith Music Project. They have brought together musicians from several of Philadelphia's houses of worship, and organize ongoing collaborations and performances.

I've known Harold since 1993, when he was my boss at a Jewish summer camp in the Poconos of Northeastern Pennsylvania. In the intervening years, he became a cantor, moved away from and back to Philly, and co-founded the Interfaith Music Project with James. He's now cantor at Beth Am Israel congregation in Penn Valley, PA.

James, who does IT as a day job, is no stranger to liturgical music. His father, James Pollard, Sr., has led the Zion Baptist Church of Ardmore since 1970. His mother, Virginia Pollard, has been known as first lady of the church for just as long, and has run programs to combat food insecurity in surrounding neighborhoods, among many other initiatives.

Together with a wide variety of musicians, James and Harold have produced two albums: These Songs of Freedom, their first collaboration in 2011, and the more recent Of Love and Protest, a 2018 collection of 8 songs ranging from classical to funk. They turned one of these songs, “We Rise,” written by Batya Levine, into a video montage of scenes of repression and heroism in response to the intense racial justice conversations that swept the nation in the spring and summer of 2020.

Faced with the question of “What are we going to do to meet this moment?”, they responded, “Let's make some music.”

And music, as they point out in our conversation, is a great equalizer. It moves people without them needing to speak the same language or share the same cultural assumptions. When the music comes from a place of love, it elicits feelings of love in its listeners.

And the love and respect – deep friendship – that James and Harold share allow them to talk freely and frankly about challenging and important issues that connect – and have at times divided – the Jewish and Black communities.

From Jewish to gospel to rock to soul to funk, the Interfaith Music Project gives voice to love, passion, hope, and faith that tomorrow can be better than yesterday.

Links

Interfaith Music Project Philadelphia

Of Love and Protest

Safe in His Arms: a recording from the “Live at Zion” track when, in Harold's words, “the heavens parted”

Beth Am Israel Congregation

Zion Baptist Church Ardmore

We Rise:

YouTube player

 

 

Dr Howie Jacobson

This podcast is a labor of love and a way to give back to the world that has given me so much. That's why there aren't any sponsors (except me :).

My day job is helping leaders and their teams master their mindsets to remove all obstacles to heart-centered high performance.

Here are three gigs that I do:

1. Executive and Senior Leadership Mentoring and Facilitation

I work with high performing executive teams in organizations — and executive teams that need to become high  performing. My focus is mindset mastery, because it’s our mindsets that either support high performance or get in the way.

At this level, everyone’s got the skills and experience to excel and contribute at the highest level. What holds people back is mindset stuff: specifically the triggers that get them out of creative engagement and into fight-or-flight defensiveness.

My practice is all about teaching people to respond differently to those triggers by updating old maps — essentially removing the glitches that the triggers grab onto.

2. Executive Coaching: Quick Wins for High Performance

I work with individual executives and leaders, one on one. The program is called Quick Wins for High Performance, and what we do is, we work strategically on one or two areas that are holding you back and keeping you from performing at your best.

We reverse engineer the presenting problems — too much work and not enough time, underperforming employees and teams, maddening organizational inefficiencies, etc — and identify and rewire the suboptimal mindsets that are behind those problems.

The work is all about updating your mental maps so your actions and responses are always appropriate, proportionate, and strategic.

3. High Stakes Conversations for Fast Growing Small Business Teams

I help small business teams have high stakes conversations with skill, humor, and grace. When people feel safe, they can do their best, most creative, most collaborative work.

So that's what I do. If you'd like any of those results, drop me a line and tell me about yourself.

You CAN Change Other People!

Well, that's what Peter Bregman and I claim in our provocative book of that title.

What we really mean is, you can bring out the best in the people around you. If you think you're powerless to help people change, it's because you've been going about it the wrong way.

Discover our straightforward, replicable process here: You Can Change Other People.

 

Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – Mischa Rosen – Michael Worobiec – AvIvA Lael – Alicia Lemus – Val Linnemann – Nick Harper – Bandana Chawla – Molly Levine – The Inscrutable Harry R – Susan Laverty the Panda Vegan – Craig Covic – Adam Scharf – Karen Bury – Heather Morgan – Nigel Davies – Marian Blum – Teresa Kopel – Julian Watkins – Brid O'Connell – Shannon Herschman – Linda Ayotte – Holm Hedegaard – Isa Tousignant – Connie Haneline – Erin Greer – Alicia Davis – Heather O'Connor – Carollynne Jensen – Sheri Orlekoski of Plant Powered for Health – Karen Smith – Scott Mirani – Karen and Joe Crabtree – Kirby Burton – Theresa Carrell – Kevin Macaulay – Elizabeth Rothschild – Ann Jesse – Sheryl Dwyer – Jenny Hazelton – Peter W Evans – Dennis Bird – Darby Kelly – Lori Fanney – Linnea Lundquist – Emily Iaconelli – Levi Wallach – Rosamonde McAtee – Dan Pokorney – Stephen Leinin – Patty DeMartino – Mike and Donna Kartz – Deanne Bishop – Bilberry Elf – Marjorie Lewis – Tricia Adams – Nancy Sheldon – Lindsey Bashore – Gunn Marit Hagen – Tracey Gulledge – Lara Hedin – Meg from Mamasezz – Stacey Stokes – Ben Savage – Michael K – David Hughes -Coni Rodgers – Claire England – Sally Robertson – Parham Ganchi – Amy Dailey – Brian Tourville – Mark Jeffrey Johnson – Josie Dempsey – Caryn Schmitt – Pamela Hayden – Emily Perryman – Allison Corbett – Richard Stone – Lauren Vaught of Edible Musings – Erin Hastey – Sean Owens – Sagar Naik – Erika Piedra – Danielle Roberts – Michael Leuchten – Sarah Johnson – Katharine Floyd – Meryl Fury – for your generous support of the podcast.

Disclosure

This post may contain amazon affiliate links. I may receive compensation from your actions on such links. It don't cost you a dime, tho.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *