
Lydia Violet, M.A., has studied dedicatedly with deep ecology elder and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy for the past decade, learning how we can metabolize climate despair, eco-anxiety, and community traumas into energy for resilience, action, and community healing. She is an Iranian-American artist-scholar, who has also studied with author of "Emergent Strategy," adrienne maree brown, integrating systems wisdom and an equity lens in her work.
In 2018 she founded, The Music As Medicine Project, a organization dedicated to both carrying on and democratizing access to Joanna Macy's work. Music As Medicine also offers cultural events, community sings, and online classes as tools for cultivating resilient cultures in our communities. In 2021, MAM transitioned to the School for The Great Turning, embracing a larger bandwidth of programming! https://schoolforthegreatturning.com/
Lydia is also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist weaving together Southern blues, American roots, and Iranian folk music traditions. With her live band she combines fiddle, banjo, and luscious harmonies to offer a soul-folk revival experience, bringing in a fresh wave of protest music. In the past year she has collaborated with world-renowned artists Climbing PoeTree, Rising Appalachia, and Lyla June. ♬ www.lydiafiddle.com ♬
IG @lydiavioletmusic
@schoolforthegreatturning
Why I am called to facilitate the Work
From the moment I encountered the WTR, I experienced a deep recognition of a simultaneously vulnerable and fierce part of my being that cared deeply about what happens to my world and human family. I was able to reclaim a sense of dignity here, and for the last decade have been committed to sharing this with others, validating hearts that are breaking in solidarity with our planet-home. I believe the WTR is like an acupuncture needle for so much that challenges us in these times, transforming paralysis into action and grief into homecoming.
How I see the Work serving the Great Turning
- Moving people from paralysis to motion
- helping people re-inherit their belonging to the web of life
- experiencing the ecological self, breaking free from the anthropocentric capitalist human identity
- connecting with others who care deeply
- learning to be with empathic pain to empower our availability for solidarity
- many more...
Audiences I work with
English-speaking, both white majority and POC majority groups.



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