{"id":1159,"date":"2025-01-07T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/?p=1159"},"modified":"2025-01-07T15:49:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T15:49:48","slug":"the-case-for-support-voices-of-our-city-choir-uses-art-to-succeed-where-other-arts-organizations-fear-to-tread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2025\/01\/07\/the-case-for-support-voices-of-our-city-choir-uses-art-to-succeed-where-other-arts-organizations-fear-to-tread\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case for Support: Voices of Our City Choir Uses Art to Succeed Where Other Arts Organizations Fear to Tread"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In San Diego, one nonprofit arts organization has taken it upon itself to provide paths to success for a community whose lives exist below the sightline of typical arts audiences: the unhoused.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is a lazy maxim about unhoused people in San Diego, California. It is the idea that if people were to choose to be homeless, they might as well be homeless in San Diego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one chooses to be homeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dangerous myth of homelessness being a positive choice stems from a desire to refuse to acknowledge the issues involved. Unhoused individuals remain in the background of even the busiest of cities, haunted by the demons that led to their situation and exacerbated by a privileged class who would prefer they didn\u2019t exist at all. A right-wing pundit once said that the solution was to bulldoze entire neighborhoods and institutionalize people who are unhoused to eliminate what he called \u201cdrugged-out zombies chasing barefooted babies through piles of garbage with hypodermic needles and fire everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one chooses to be homeless.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unhoused people want to be housed. They want to be seen. They just want to get their footing to find a way to get to tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that, oftentimes in an area of town that might be construed as dangerous, maybe even one that has few that speak the same language as they do. In San Diego especially, they want to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to Voices of Our City Choir.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(L\u2013R: Steph Johnson and Lindsey Seegers)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cSteph [Johnson, the CEO and creative director], and I hear that San Diego thing all the time,\u201d said Lindsey Seegers, Voices of Our City Choir\u2019s executive director. \u201cI mean, all the time \u2013 \u2018this is a nice place to be homeless.\u2019 It\u2019s offensive, especially to those who are unhoused. One of our first choir members was a homeowner in Seattle and moved down here. He thought, \u2018You know what? I\u2019m going to enjoy San Diego for three months. I\u2019m going to hang out my van, live near the beach, then I\u2019ll get my place, and then I\u2019ll get all settled.\u2019 The cost of living and other factors forced him to stay in that van. So here\u2019s a professional, an educated homeowner in his late forties, finding himself homeless. When we hear that San Diego must be a nice place to be homeless, we respond directly. \u2018No, we haven\u2019t heard that from the people actually experiencing a housing crisis. Talk to anybody in this choir. That\u2019s not what we\u2019re hearing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Seegers told the story of a thirtysomething veteran who slept under a bush in Balboa Park for over two years. He\u2019d sung in a choir when he was in the military.
\u201cOne day, he told us that we\u2019d helped him discern the difference between his wants and his needs. He\u2019d come to believe that his basic needs were selfish wants and our program showed him that it was okay to ask for help because he was worth it. We see people through music and art, having these \u2018aha moments,\u2019 cracking open their own sense of agency through creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That young man, Michael, secured both a job and housing. He credits Voices of Our City Choir with the support, friendships, and motivation to rebuild his own life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At its core, Voice of Our City Choir is not a social service agency, but a nonprofit arts organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur intention is clear. We\u2019re here to use music and art to help people better their own lives, not to do it for them,\u201d summarized Seegers. \u201cWe struggled about the idea of putting housing into our mission statement, but we kept getting back to what we actually do: using music and arts to help people like launch to that next thing, which often includes housing. We use music and the arts as the tools to help people identify what they want. Some folks like to sum our work up by saying that we give people a voice. We\u2019re not saviors. We don\u2019t give anybody their voice. They\u2019ve always had the voice. We just give them the microphone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere are unique talents in each of us,\u201d said Johnson, \u201cand that is especially true for all of the people I have met experiencing homelessness. By providing a safe community space for art and music making, individuality positively thrives. The journey of self-expression is the root of awareness and healing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, Voices of Our City Choir advanced to the semifinals of the television competition program America\u2019s Got Talent.<\/em> You need to watch the performance for their talent and for the special \u201cgolden buzzer\u201d moment that only a select few performances receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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