Re-member Your Roots 🌳

*New* Vocal Affirmation Song Released Today & Voice Doula Community Classes coming in 2026!! Registration open.

Join the first Voice Doula Community Class on January 15, 2026!

Enjoy this guided vocal affirmation song by KiERNAN x The Voice Doula & produced by ANDREWDAVIDV.

Returning to My Roots

I began my music educator journey in Fall 2010 when I enrolled in undergraduate studies at Millikin University in Decatur, IL. Throughout my 3.5 years at Millikin, I poured everything I could into my music education degree and the opportunities that were available to me.

Looking back, I know there was perfectionism & people-pleasing happening, but at the same time, I was really invested in becoming the best educator I could be. I spent hours writing my philosophy as an educator and reflecting on my purpose in wanting to create safe classrooms for students to explore their musicianship. There is so much of that time that still rings true & inspires me to keep growing every day.

As I earned my music education degrees over the span of a decade, I remained committed to the traditional educator path because I believed that I would make the most impact by working as a scholar & conductor. Once I began my decolonization journey, however, my values & beliefs started to come into focus and I realized that I didn’t feel comfortable gatekeeping knowledge in institutional settings any longer. Anything that I was learning and passionate about, I wanted to share directly with my community.

Over the past 4 years, I have navigated working part-time academic jobs and building my business to pay the bills, tend to my family responsibilities, and learn the hard skills of being an entrepreneur. After a decade of university training, I still had never had any music business classes or financial education, so I virtually had to start from scratch. It has been a hard pill to swallow that even with 3 degrees after my name that I had almost zero financial literacy. Thanks, colonizer.

But today, I am grateful that I am still here showing up. There have been so many times that I was ready to throw in the towel, and I can’t lie, I’m sure there will be more days ahead where that thought crosses my mind. However, now more than ever, I am seeing the many ways my journey has prepared me for this season of life.

Align With Your Soul’s Unique Frequency

While working on my dissertation in the spring semester of 2021, I had the privilege to incorporate everything I was learning about decolonization into my writing and reflect on my educational experiences from a decolonized lens. It was a powerful time with the pandemic still impacting us daily—we had no in-person choir rehearsals and we were continuing virtual learning 100% of the time. Although it was challenging, it also gave me the freedom to explore texts, scholarship, and learn from diverse sources of knowledge.

One of the scholars that has significantly influenced me and my work is Dr. Leny Mendoza Strobel. It is this quote from her book Coming Full Circle that has been a guide for me as I investigate more deeply my truths:

The project of decolonization for the colonized individual is a process of learning to love one’s self again, of seeing one’s self as important enough to think and write about, of learning to face the truth and learning to tell the truth.

In short, my biggest takeaways from Dr. Leny’s scholarship has been the importance of decolonial storytelling—telling our stories not from the colonizer’s perspective, but from our own. By telling my story from my point of view and placing myself as the main character of my own story,

I have aligned with my soul’s unique frequency.

Join me for my first Voice Doula Community Class to learn decolonial storytelling frameworks and create your artist manifesto!

An artist manifesto is a written document or presentation of your artistic intentions, motives, or views to guide artistic decisions & birth the creative life of your dreams.

Re-member your roots & Align with your soul’s unique frequency.