Hear My Voice
December 2022 - September 2023
ISTANBUL, ADANA, GAZİANTEP
“Hear My Voice”, based on the healing, transforming and unifying power of music, opened a space for women whose “voices have been suppressed and silenced” due to the roles, responsibilities and behavioral expectations assigned to them by society, to express themselves freely. In order to raise and make their voices heard, within the scope of this project, music workshops were held with women from different age groups in neighborhoods with socio-economic difficulties in Istanbul, Adana and Gaziantep provinces before and after the earthquake, in cooperation with the Purple Solidarity and Empathy Social Responsibility and Education Association. The aim of the workshops was to ensure that women in our society discover their potential and the healing power within them, increase their self-confidence and quality of life, raise their voices safely through music and benefit from the power of unity by expressing their common problems through music, in other words, to ‘tune’ them.
The songs produced in the workshops were turned into an album under the sponsorship of KALAN music. The album titled “Hear My Voice” includes a total of eight works, the lyrics and compositions of which belong to Asena Akan and the arrangements of which belong to Tanju Eren. The income from the album released with the Z Music label will be transferred to women's work through digital platforms. The album received an award in the "Best Project Album" category at the 2024 Radio Boğaziçi Music Awards.
Asena Akan hopes that the "Hear My Voice" project, which exemplifies the "healthy communication, prevention and recovery" supporting aspect of music, will open up space for solidarity and 'getting stronger together' among women, and contribute to increasing social consciousness and awareness regarding gender inequality.
To listen:
https://open.spotify.com/album/38OT8KTtVjq5AcDjVjMIIY?si=FNYx5Q_5TYuf0jRW_EY6Qg
https://music.apple.com/us/album/duy-sesimi/1716064986
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6bWSO9itU1Uyf_fXckZ2S1tGhN9MXrOz&si=tV0OGheBxNfZf_YD
Asena Akan
https://www.instagram.com/asenaakan/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2X7jXuSsFrOi63aRXh1XqP
Born in Istanbul, Asena Akan started her music education with classical violin at the age of 5 at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory and continued her education in the Istanbul State Conservatory part-time Opera Department graduating in 1998. She did jazz vocal and theory studies with Randy Esen, Donovan Mixon and Aydın Esen. Akan, who has given many concerts since 2000, has released albums and singles of her own songs since 2013. The artist, who is in the bands of “ANDA”, “Flues”, “Serbest Bölge” and “Ahmet Beyler” in vocals and playing bass guitar, continues her musical journey with composition studies, music projects titled “Asena Akan&Tanju Eren” and “Asena Akan Contempo”. In addition to her passion for music, Akan, who has completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Psychological Counseling at Istanbul University, has been working with individuals and groups with different characteristics for 20 years with an interdisciplinary approach, and organizes seminars and workshops under the name of “Kendini Akort Et” (Tune Yourself) in order to disseminate the 'healing/transformative power of music'. She is the director of the "Music Therapy" Training Program at Bahçeşehir University Continuous Education Center (BAUSEM).
Affiliates:
Kalan Müzik
Kalan Müzik was founded in 1991 by Hasan Saltik. The purpose of its establishment is to collect lesser-known cultures and music genres as an archive and to create a market for such collections in the music market.
Mor Dayanışma
It is a women's charity organization that brings together women who fight against harassment, massacre of women, war, exploitation of the body and labour, looting of nature, homophobia, all forms of hierarchy, and all forms of violence against women. It started in 2015 when women from Antakya came together and established a neighbourhood association called Mor Dayanışma (Purple Solidarity). Currently, this organization has established women's councils in 10 provinces of Turkey and continues to expand their solidarity networks in other provinces. It prioritizes the development of feminist policies to prevent male violence and ensure gender equality. At the same time, it carries out various studies to put pressure on policy makers to take the necessary practices and measures to prevent violence. It organizes events, meetings, panels, and awareness raising activities and establishes solidarity networks in accordance with the needs of local women.
This page is published on 19 January 2023.
Last update: 16 November 2024
