Mission

C Side's creative process helps build self-esteem and gives people purpose and agency in their own healing.

The mission of C Side, Inc. is to use the spectrum of sound arts – music, spoken word, singing, and writing – to promote well-being, heal wounds, lift spirits, and lessen the distance between people of diverse points of view and experience. This newly-founded nonprofit arts education organization supports artists in creating songs, audio recording, and personal memoir. C Side’s co-founders are veterans of academia, music, media, and production. Together we explore the power of empathy to help people express their closely held experiences through music, lyrics, scripts, and prose.

Healing Feelings

CHALLENGE

YCEI has issued C Side a challenge: to raise the funds necessary to meet costs associated with bringing Healing Feelings to YCEI’s upcoming emotional intelligence training sessions. This work is urgent. As a result C Side is soliciting contributions from a small number of donors aligned with our goal to create and share original music in this context. Writing, recording, and live vocal performance will inspire healing hearts, both in teens and young adults who have lived through the unprecedented social-emotional experiences of today’s adolescents, as well as in the people who hear them live and in recordings. We aim to create a dedicated self-contained live sound unit and the personnel required to support our efforts in order for this work to become a part of YCEI’s emotional intelligence trainings.

going deeper

C Side’s creative process helps to build self-esteem and give students agency and purpose. Importantly we want to bring opportunities to students to become sources of their own well-being not simply by singing, but by composing their own songs. In addition to bringing live music, C Side will work with individual schools to create opportunities to write, record, and perform under the intuitive tutelage of songwriter, educator, and vocal coach SUSAN COLLINS in select locations coast to coast, and internationally, where YCEI will soon have the chance to bring educators together for training in emotional intelligence. We have plans to stream recordings via a dedicated website, document our process in film and digital experiences, write articles, and create a related book to be distributed free of charge. From feeling alone to standing tall in the face of toxic relationships Healing Feelings will give voice to a new generation of artists and thereby create the potential for positive connection through sound.

From feeling alone to standing tall, Healing Feelings will give a voice to a new generation of artists and thereby create the potential for positive connection through sound.

C Side’s first public project, Healing Feelings, creates recorded and live performances of original songs that convey young artists’ emotions in order to give voice to difficult feelings and move past pain. Each song is grown organically from collaborating with students who have experienced dramatic personal moments. We translate these experiences into song, combining the writer’s inner voice with the pedagogy of legendary singer-songwriter and educator SUSAN COLLINS. Because of the sensitive nature of the material the work has brought forth, we have consulted on content since the project’s inception with DR. ROBIN STERN of Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence (YCEI). C Side is currently working with Dr. Stern to create ways of infusing live music into emotional intelligence training sessions for leaders and teachers in the US and abroad, including participation in YCEI’s current initiative in New York City, the largest public school system in America.

CONTEXT

We are living in a time where most teens experience increasing stress at higher levels than ever. Current research indicates teenagers experience greater anxiety than their parents. We hear from professionals that depression among youth is approaching epidemic proportions. For decades C Side’s co-founders have witnessed the capacity of music to uplift people. In order to test this healing power and the viability of live performance as an added part of YCEI’s school-based training sessions, YCEI invited C Side to open a parent workshop (Emotionally Intelligent Parenting) in a Queens NY public school. The event garnered universal raves from attendees. According to DR. STERN, “The shift in emotions in the room was palpable. People were inspired and joyful.” The glowing feedback on the live performance generated requests for repeat opportunities.

PURPOSE

We believe that music is a healthy outlet to express feelings for teens – and adults – subjected to the uncertainties of today’s world, both in the US and globally. In keeping with C Side’s goal to make sonic connection more universally available to those who experience dramatic peaks and valleys in their inner lives, for those who may not have “permission” for emotional expression, we are committed to presenting original music – singing, playing, writing, hearing – to help “grow the positive” and heal sometimes hidden wounds. Creating and sharing their original songs gives writers, performers, and listeners the opportunity to realize they are not alone.

first performers

TUCKER

TUCKER is a Dean’s List graduate of Eugene Lang’s New School for Liberal Arts and a songwriter and singer who has performed on Saturday Night Live, iHeart Media, and with Carole King on The Today Show. TUCKER has participated in ASCAP’s Harry Chapin Songwriters Workshop and was chosen for the Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project for emerging professionals in 2019. A prolific composer, he has created several original musical comedy shows and writes and performs regularly in New York City and Los Angeles.

HELAINA BEARD

HELAINA BEARD, an 18-year old high school senior, is an emerging singer and songwriter who has worked as a model for Ralph Lauren, J Crew, and American Girl Doll. She is an avid equestrian who has traveled the third world and was recently named a Young Ambassador for the United Nations Women For Peace Association. Helaina plays on her school’s championship volleyball team in Brooklyn.

Key Personnel

CONTACT

Feel free to contact us with any questions

csidenyc@gmail.com