COMMUNITY SONGWRITING ON CAMPUS
In March 2022, The Same Thing Project held a community songwriting workshop at Dean College in Massachusetts under the direction of Mark Cutler, who is also a songwriter-in-residence with NMMHP. Over 20 students attended and co-wrote a song entitled “What’s Gonna Happen.” Michael Adamowicz, Director of the Morton Family Learning Center at Dean, observes, “Mark Cutler…is expert at working with students with learning differences; his gentle, encouraging approach allowed everyone to participate and feel included. Building community through music, is there anything better?”
The Same Thing Project has since held workshops at Clark University, Assumption Universtiy in Worcester, Mass, Lasell University in Newton, Mass and Johnson and Wales University in Providence, RI. All workshops were extremely successful with plenty of positive feed back.
The Same Thing Project is named to represent the same joy, laughter, and sense of belonging that are experienced by all in its workshops, with each contribution from each songwriter, however small, having the same importance.
Reflecting upon the positive impacts the tour can have at colleges, author Bill Flanagan, a Sirius XM host and former MTV executive says, “The Same Thing Project is a great idea. Helping people from all walks of life deal with all sorts of emotional problems by turning their thoughts, hopes, challenges and troubles into songs. It’s a sort of emotional alchemy.”