Marieke Slovin Lewis

Biography

Marieke Slovin Lewis is the founder of Guiding Song and a participatory artist, composer, musician, and writer. She studied classical piano and performance for 14 years and began composing music in 2010. The focus of Marieke’s work is to bring the self into the sustainability movement. She believes that it is each person’s right to live a balanced, equitable life, and to create a path that honors their authentic self. The creative process can be a way in. Marieke works to create and hold the space for people to become the author of their own narrative and to step into the role of composer and artist. She uses a participatory method of songwriting called Story-to-Song (STS), which she co-created during her time studying for her doctorate in Sustainability Education. STS has its roots in the folk music tradition. Through STS, Marieke guides people through the creative process of shaping a story from their life into a song. She has worked with people of all ages from all over the world and in many languages, guiding in-person and virtual songwriting workshops. Marieke believes that every person is comprised of thousands of stories, just waiting to be born into song. Music and the creation of music belongs to everyone. The experience of writing a song from a story can be powerfully transformative, particularly for people whose voices have been marginalized. The finished songs can also create opportunities for empathy, understanding, and solidarity. Marieke has written music with women struggling with postpartum depression, with Holocaust and long term AIDS survivors, from the oral histories of factory workers, and with refugees and asylum seekers. The “Migration Songs Project,” which she developed with poet and writer Sarah Reader Harris and the residents of the Fedasil Arrival Centre in Brussels, Belgium, was shortlisted for the Amateo Award for Arts Participation Projects in Europe in October 2021. Her work has also been featured in museum exhibits, written publications, and podcasts. She currently lives in Seattle.