ARTSAWONDER: Healing the Community and Peacebuilding Through the Arts [05/05/26]

Join us for an inspiring afternoon of music and conversation as we welcome musician, songwriter and community activist Tommy Sands to perform and speak about his experience of healing communities through conflict resolution and music. He will be joined by a panel of Irish artists and writers who will share their perspectives on embracing the arts in challenging times.

Program:

4:00 COUNTWAY CONCERT (L1 Atrium)

A special concert of Irish music featuring Tommy Sands, Bruce Victor, Lisa Wong, and musicians from HMS

5:30 DINNER (Lahey Room, 5th Floor)

6:00 PANEL DISCUSSION (Lahey Room, 5th Floor)

Guy Beiner, historian and writer
Kieran Jordan, dancer, movement teacher, Polarity Practitioner
Michael MacDonald, trauma-informed transformative storytelling
Tommy Sands, singer-songwriter, community activist
Dr. Bruce Victor, psychiatrist, guitarist
Dr. Lisa Wong, co-director of the Arts and Humanities Initiative at Harvard Medical School (Moderator)

Panelists:

Guy Beiner is the Sullivan Chair of Irish Studies at Boston College. He specializes in the historical study of remembering and forgetting and his publications include the prize-winning books Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory (University of Wisconsin Press), Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster (Oxford University Press), and the edited volume Pandemic Re-Awakenings: The Forgotten and Unforgotten ‘Spanish’ Flu of 1918–1919 (Oxford University Press).

Kieran Jordan, MA, BCPP, is a dancer, movement teacher, and Board Certified Polarity Practitioner. Whether she is working in dance, or energy healing, her work creates opportunities for embodiment, connection, and soul-expression. Named “Boston’s first lady of contemporary Irish dance” (Boston Globe), Kieran pioneered the teaching of sean-nós (old style) and “non-competitive” Irish dance for adults in Boston for more than two decades. Winner of two prestigious Massachusetts Artist Fellowships, Kieran holds an MA from the University of Limerick, Ireland, and a BA from Boston College. Her own journey through illness and healing led her to study Polarity Therapy, which she now practices in Dorchester, Massachusetts and Kennebunk, Maine.

Michael Patrick MacDonald is the author of the New York Times Bestselling memoir, All Souls: A Family Story From Southie and the acclaimed Easter Rising: A Memoir of Roots and Rebellion. Both are frequent selections for Campus Reads and First-Year Experience programs at high schools and universities throughout the U.S. He has been a guest speaker at over 300 campuses.

After losing four siblings and seeing his generation decimated by poverty, crime, addiction, and incarceration. MacDonald became a leading Boston organizer, helping to launch many anti violence initiatives, including gun-buyback programs and support networks for survivors. He continues to work with survivor families, educators, and organizers from Boston to Belfast using his trauma-informed transformative storytelling curriculum, The Rest of the Story.

In 2019 he received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to teach at Queens University, Belfast. He is Professor of the Practice in Northeastern University’s Honors Program, teaching writing and social justice issues, and at Harvard Summer School where he teaches about restorative and transformative justice movement

Tommy Sands is a renowned folk singer, songwriter, and community activist from Northern Ireland. Known internationally for weaving storytelling with music, Sands will offer an evening that blends culture, history, and reflection. Drawing on decades of work through the Northern Ireland peace process, Sands will share personal stories of how music became a bridge between divided communities. From village halls and cross-community gatherings to international stages, his songs have helped create spaces where people could meet beyond political and religious divisions. Through music and conversation, he will explore how artists and ordinary citizens contributed to building trust during difficult years. The event promises to be more than a traditional lecture. Students at the Harvard Kennedy School will have the opportunity to hear the songs that travelled through Northern Ireland during times of tension and hope, and to reflect on the role culture can play in peacebuilding. In an evening that connects history, diplomacy, and music, Tommy Sands will offer a powerful reminder that sometimes a song can open a path toward understanding where politics alone cannot.

Dr. Bruce Victor currently serves as the Director of Programmes for the Artsahealing Division of Artsawonder, a charitable organization started by Tommy Sands and Catherine Besconds-Sands dedicated to innovative approaches to conflict resolution and peacebuilding (www.artsawonder.com). In 2024, Bruce became the Global Academic Liaison for Music Mends Minds (www.musicmendsminds.org) and chaired a committee that created a 10-week academic curriculum on “Music and Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding” to be taught at UCLA. He was formerly Director of Psychiatric Research and Chief of Biological Psychiatry at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, California and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. He was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge where he studied the use of music in settings of both individual and social healing. Bruce and his wife, Marla Fibish play together as Noctambule (www.noctambulemusic.com). With Marla on mandolin and mandola, and Bruce on guitar and cittern, they play both traditional and original acoustic music. They have produced four albums and have toured throughout the United States and Ireland.

Dr. Lisa Wong is an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, a pediatrician at Milton Pediatric Associates and co-director of the Arts and Humanities Initiative at HMS dedicated to the integration of the arts and sciences. She served as president of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra for 21 years, where she co-designed the "Healing Art of Music Program." During the Covid-19 pandemic, she helped create Boston Hope Music, offering virtual music performances to patients and healthcare workers. Dr. Wong teaches interdisciplinary courses on creativity, arts, music, health, and education at Harvard College and co-leads a museum-based medical education fellowship through Harvard Macy institute. An arts education advocate, Lisa serves on the boards of Conservatory Lab Charter School, A Far Cry ensemble, and the Boston Public School Arts Expansion initiative. Nationally, she contributed to the NASEM committee on arts in STEMM education and serves on the Neuroarts Blueprint scientific committee. She lives in Newton Massachusetts and is the author of Scales to Scalpels: Doctors Who Practice the Healing Arts of Music and Medicine.

Artsawonder/Artsahealing The quiet power of music came to prominence, very publicly during the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland in 1998 when Peace Talks seemed to be faltering. Musicians from both sides of the warring communities arrived. “Carry on”, was the simple chorus of a quickly composed Tommy Sands’ song, and politicians and paramilitaries were suddenly singing along. Artsawonder is the name of the organisation that sprang from such moments.

ARTSAWONDER: Healing the Community and Peacebuilding Through the Arts

Climb to the Roof of Crane Estate & Explore Historic Ipswich | Save 15% with Code BOSCAL15

Comedy at Summer Shack ($15 + Free Parking!)

Atlantic Wharf's Summer Bash

Summer Concert Series & Beer Garden

ARTSAWONDER: Healing the Community and Peacebuilding Through the Arts

Share this event

Sponsored events

Climb to the Roof of Crane Estate & Explore Historic Ipswich | Save 15% with Code BOSCAL15

Comedy at Summer Shack ($15 + Free Parking!)

Atlantic Wharf's Summer Bash

Summer Concert Series & Beer Garden