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ASHLEY ON
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ASHLEY ON
Ashley On - The Koolulam Project with Founder & CEO Michal Shahaf
Singing is Believing! Koolulam is a "social musical initiative" that is changing the world by putting out what I like to call "Fast Waves" or ripples of positivity in our world that physically must overcome the low vibration waves of war. Though it may not feel like that to founder and CEO, Michal Shahaf now due to the horrible war that is ravaging Israel at the time of our recording, she and all involved in Koolulam are undoubtedly slowly changing our world for the better and we owe them a large debt of gratitude as such. This is a fantastic interview with Michal who is trying to keep her light shining bright during these trying times. In fact, a new Koolulam song/video will soon be released which is a collaborative effort by music directors all over the world performing Madonna's "Like a Prayer" in the spirit of Peace.
#koolulam #peace #oneday #likeaprayer #ashleyon #fastwaves #love
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Welcome to Ashley On, your one-stop podcast where we talk about health and wellness, spirituality and all things new. Stick around as we delve deep into innovations to support a better world.
SPEAKER_04:Hello and welcome to the show. Today's show is with Mikhail Shahaf. who is a co-founder and CEO of Kululam. Kululam is a social musical initiative aimed at empowering communities and strengthening the fabric of society. I'm going to read a bit about Kululam from their website, and then I'm going to play their wonderful, beautiful song they did where they recruited 3,000 people off the streets in Jerusalem, Christians, Jews, and Muslims, And I'll have them come together and sing this beautiful song, which I'll play for you, and you'll get why what Kululam is doing is so important. And then, of course, we're going to talk to Mikal, who is actually in Israel right now. Kululam specializes in bringing together large groups of people in person or online in a unique artistic collaboration. For a few hours, participants step out of their comfort zone, awaken their senses, and set their voices free. We teach everyone to listen. to themselves and to one another, and then create something powerful together. Each of the Kululam events promotes an important social message, such as inclusion, coexistence, or women's empowerment. The message is woven throughout the entire process from song selection to the musical arrangement, to teaching each vocal selection, and finally performing together. Kululam curates an experience that enables anyone, no matter his or her musical talents, to contribute to an inspiring production. We embrace every voice, find harmony and diversity, and demonstrate the incredible strength and possibilities of community united in purpose. An academic study conducted by Dr. Weiss, based at David Yellen College of Education, found that participants find meaning in Kululam events because they connect to others and create something more powerful and beautiful than any individual can create alone. The result is that participants feel a sense of belonging to a community where they are seen and heard. Over 350,000 people have already taken place in part or more than 250 Kulalam events around the world. Videos from the Kulalam events have garnered more than 140 million views and found their way to global leaders, social influencers, and celebrities. And inspired by Kulalam's breast cancer awareness video, Let's Get Loud, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira incorporated Kululam's arrangement into their 2020 Super Bowl halftime show. Kululam has repeatedly been recognized for its positive social impact. And in 2018, Asia Society awarded Kululam its esteemed Game Changer Award in recognition of building bridges through song. So this is what Kululam is all about. And it's a fantastic interview with Mikal. Obviously, the specter of war hanging dark over this conversation, which is in direct conflict with what Kulam is trying to achieve. So I look forward to someday having another conversation with Mikal under more positive circumstances. But this show is very interesting. So I hope you enjoy the show. Thank you. Did I get it right?
SPEAKER_01:You get it. Almost, almost. Almost right. All
SPEAKER_03:right, darn it.
SPEAKER_04:Welcome to the show. Thank you so much. It's such an honor to meet you. Thank you for everything that you do.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much for inviting me,
SPEAKER_04:Ashley. So, Kululam. Did I say that right? This
SPEAKER_01:one, you said it amazing.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. So I'm, I'm fascinated and I've got so many questions for you. I was really touched recently. My son showed, I mean, obviously all the turmoil that's going on and you're part of the world. And my son showed me one day and I'd never seen it before. And I was just like blown away, totally blown away. I've shared it with everyone that I know. And I'm just so honored that you accepted the invitation to come on the show. Yeah. talk about that so before we get into that are you what's going on where you are you say for you like what what's what are things what's happening
SPEAKER_01:i'm safe so far um other than heartbroken um it's one of the worst timing and the most hurtful timing that I ever experienced in my life and everyone around me. But we're trying to be strong and put ourselves together so we can overcome this as fast as we can. As we speak, we're still in the middle of a war, but but it's less hurt than the month that we've been through so far.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I can't even imagine. Obviously, God bless you and your family and everything. All the best. It's ironic that we're talking about this in the context of Kululam, because it's the opposite of this, right? It's the exact opposite. It's what you're working to.
SPEAKER_01:I'm always saying during this month that I feel that someone tried to turn off our music, but we won't let it happen. No one will turn off our music.
SPEAKER_04:No, don't let that happen. And I want to I want to talk to you later about how I can even help and if there's any possible way, like I want to stay on the line after the end of this and, um, talk about that. But, um, tell us what, what, what is, you know, your, your motto is singing is believing. Um, you know, my son shares that with me. He texted me today that just a few minutes ago, uh, cause I told him I was getting ready to talk to you. Um, tell us what you're, what you're trying to do and what you are doing because you are having an impact i know you don't feel like you are sitting there where you are right now but you have an amazing impact um tell us what you're trying to do
SPEAKER_01:well um we're three founders in kululam we created this initiative seven years ago from the thought and the will to connect between people and to bridge the gaps between people and to remind people things that connect us other than the things that separate us. And in Israel, it's I don't actually I don't think I think it's a worldwide need. But it came from the from the need in Israel. Since we initiated Kul Ulam from time to time, we got bigger and with a bigger exposure and with approaches from all over the world. And today I can say that this is an international need. And I understand today that first off that music is an international language and it cross borders and it cross nationals. and cross languages. And music is a great tool to put a lot of different people that are not alike, that are very different, and take only the tool of the music to show the alignment that we can be together. And this is exactly what we do in our events. We take the participants, we invite sometimes hundreds, sometimes thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of people that has no background in music. And in less than an hour, we walk the participants a journey where we transform them from individuals into a group with a new co-creation. And since we're talking about people that are non-musicians and people that are not used to sing in public, so this kind of activity for this kind of people, and I'm talking about myself, I'm not a musician, it makes people step out of their comfort zone for this evening and for this event. And for when so many people get together in one place, and stepping together out of their comfort zone, I think this is where the magic happens. This is where we need to lean on each other and to lead each other and to be aligned with each other and to listen to one another. Things that we're not used to do, unfortunately, in our day-to-day life. So this is exactly what we're doing in Kurulam. We do a lot of very different and special events where we sometimes dedicate each event for any social cause that we want to bring to awareness. We bring different communities together that not used to come together, like the one-day video that you saw, which is one of the most monumental events of Kurulan, where we invited 3,000 Muslim Jews and Christians to sing together in Hebrew, English, and Arabic. We understood that other than bringing the participants to the event and effect on them, we also wanted to inspire people around the world. And this is why we invest a lot of resources and energies in the videos that we make. We think it's important to see this kind of footage around the world and to make this impact that you're talking about.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, for those folks that haven't seen this, I'm going to try to embed it somehow into the podcast or provide a link or something so people that are listening can view this as well. But it's just amazing. I just can't even imagine. What was it like to be there? What did you feel like?
SPEAKER_01:It feels unreal. It feels unreal when you're there. And I think that it takes time to understand that it was real and to see it, you know, only when you see the final video. When you're in the event, you know, you feel so many things and so many things happening around you and so many people and they're singing together and you're like, It's hard to even realize what's going on there. I think that the video at the end of it is the one that gives you the full picture. But in the event itself, it feels like unreal. You're in this and you're getting excited. and you're getting emotional, and you're singing, and you're laughing, and you're crying, and you're everything. But today, I can tell you that I even don't think that in the event itself, I thought this event will be like it was, like the effect of it and the impact of it. And I'm really, really glad that it was like it was. It wasn't the only time we did it. We did another very monumental event with 1,000 Muslim Jews and Christians in Jerusalem, the Tower of David. We sang the song One Love by Bob Marley. So that one as
SPEAKER_02:well, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, those events, I think, are very much important. Even though it's really, really hard to talk about those events today, in those hard days, but like I told you, we won't let anyone turn off our music and the togetherness that we feel that needs to be in the world, even in the most complicated areas and communities. And it's hurtful, it's hurtful, especially when you work so hard on doing those connections And then it blows away. I'm
SPEAKER_04:a big believer in the power of vibration and what you guys are bringing. That's why it feels, as you describe, unreal. That's the way I feel watching it. I can only imagine the amplification of that feeling, actually being there with those other people. and feeling the oneness that you're creating. But that vibration that you're creating out of that is unstoppable. I believe that the physics of science actually prove that because low vibration, if you think about if you're in a pool of water with a few people if people are making just very slow waves in the water, what that's like. And if someone gets in and just one person, even if there's hundreds of people in the water, if one person gets in and starts making really fast vibrations, what happens to the pool? It becomes full of fast waves. And that's the way that the energy that you're creating works. So you can't let... something like this uh get in the way of that vibration it because it's you and physically at the end um you will win regardless right i know it's not about winning necessarily but now it is right it's uh we will win because it's about goodness and um
SPEAKER_01:love the winning here is just not stopping doing it and not stopping believing in it I think this is the real winning. I can tell you that in the first few days of the war, I couldn't see anything. I couldn't think about anything. I couldn't see any future. It was everything like black. I felt that there is nothing in the world anymore. I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah. As the days are passing, one of the things that really helps me personally to get some air and to continue doing what we're doing is because I feel the need in Kululam right now. we're doing a lot of projects right now because uh first off we did uh we're doing an international project to bring back the hostages you know there are 240 israeli hostages right now in gaza babies kids women children men and elders and currently this is the most delicate and the most hurtful thing that we're going through. And we're doing an international project. We called out for music teachers and the conductors from all around the world that want to cooperate with us. We got over 400 approaches from countries like china and japan and australia and panama and 50 different locations in the us and all europe and what we did we took the song like a prayer by madonna and we built a new arrangement for it and we filmed a tutorial of our conductors teaching how to teach this new arrangement and we also gave them instructions how to film themselves And we are getting hundreds of different videos from around the world of this version of Like a Prayer. We are going to put it all together to one video. We did the Israeli location here two days ago, together with the families of the hostages. And I happened to meet one of the mothers. Her name is Iris Chaim. She's the mother of one of the hostages in Gaza. And I told her, are you okay to be in this event today? Do you need any support? Are you okay? And she told me, I was amazed. She said it to me. She said, for me, this is the hope. To be together here, to sing together. This is my language. This is what we do in our family. I can go and yell and argue and fight, but it won't change anything. It won't bring my son back. We believe in singing. We believe in being together. We believe in being together and praying together. And hearing those words from her, you know, it gave me lots of energy to understand that we're doing something important. So this is one main thing that we're doing. And the other main thing that we're doing those days is that we're doing like a pivot of all of our content of our events to healing. Because all of the countries pretty much traumatized. And we're getting hundreds of different approaches from different communities, by the way, in Israel and outside of Israel. for people that feeling that this is what they need right now. So we do a lot of change in all of our content. We even involve psychologists and psychiatrists and all kind of healing people that can consult us and see the content and see the lineup of our events and tell us what we think we need to do better and where to put more energy and what kind of activities and content to insert. so currently this is the main things that we're doing today and actually for me personally dealing with this this is what gives me the option to get up from bed in the morning
SPEAKER_04:a great purpose it's a great purpose that you have um how does it feel to to know that you're changing lives like you are I mean how do you feel I mean without the war I mean but I know it's hard to even comprehend and talk about that as a silly way to say it, but I just am intrigued to know how that feels because I'm envious.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'm not sure that as a person I'm built in a way that I can feel that what you're talking about changing people's lives. It's very big for me. I'm concentrating on small things that I see that are doing good to people, like specific stories, specific people, specific things that I concentrate just on them and they give me enough energy to keep working. I can't think about those big things changing people's lives. I even don't really... I cannot say that. I do understand that we are inspiring people for good. I do understand that we bring a lot of joy and comfort. And it's enough for me.
SPEAKER_04:How many events have you done in total so far?
SPEAKER_01:Hundreds. Hundreds of events. I don't know the exact number. So that's my point,
SPEAKER_04:right? Every one of those events that you conduct, there's hundreds or thousands of people there. And I'm assuming the people there report the same sort of feelings that you've reported about attending, right? I mean, so then they go and they tell people about that. And it's creating that fast, positive ripple in society that I was alluding to earlier. And I admire that you don't, think of it that way. But, but it's, that's what's happening. Right. I want to give you that. I mean that in a positive way, because I want to give you more energy to keep going because I know it's hard right now. But that's why I wanted to talk to you to begin with. Right. And I think when I reached out, you know, it was, it was early on and, you know, a lot of folks have continued to, to share, you know, one day and one love and, you know, it's, it's, Those are older projects that you worked on, but they're obviously quite relevant today.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, they are. They are very relevant today. I think it's very delicate days to analyze those events according to the current reality. You know, the conflict here and the war, it's such complicated and old conflict that it's not something that we can, you know, like talk about it on one foot and talk about our events and compare. It's just the only thing I can tell you that it's very, very, very much sad, very much sad. as individual, as a country. I think it's one of the worst timing Israel ever had. I can tell you personally that for me, the first two weeks, I was waking up every day. This moment, I had this moment from the sleeping to the waking and like this few seconds and then I every morning this few seconds from the sleeping to the waking I suddenly realized the reality and then I just couldn't stop crying in bed every morning the same thing I'm waking I'm waking up I remember in the reality and I start crying, I can't get up from bed like sometimes, just crying about this horrible, horrible situation we're at and the huge price that we paid here. But if I'm talking about this price that we paid and we're still paying, I can tell you one optimistic thing. that we paid such such a hard and high price so we don't have any other option other make this reality to a better one um so this is the only thing that comfort me we have no other choice after what we've been through we have no other choice it must be fantastic here And it will be. It will take some time, but it will be.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. When does Like a Prayer, what's the schedule on that to be released?
SPEAKER_01:The final video will be released next week, by the end of next week. We've got beautiful, beautiful, beautiful videos from countries all over the world. And I was interviewed to one of the channel and national TVs here in Israel in the event that we did with the families of the hostages. And I said to the reporter that this project has two goals. First one is obviously to bring back the hostages, to make this world right pressure and to make a change. And the second goal is to show to the families of the hostages but not only but for any citizen in israel that we are not alone that we have this huge support around the world and we need it we need this support we need to feel it we need to see it and we need to sing it
SPEAKER_04:absolutely we need to sing it singing singing is believing as you say well um Thank you, Mikal. I think this is a good spot for us to wrap. I'd love to continue our conversation here in a second. But thank you so much for being on the show and sharing what you're working on and the positivity that you're trying to bring.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much, Ashley, for having me. And hopefully next time we will talk, we will be in a very much different reality.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely. Godspeed.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for listening to Ashley on Nothing But The Truth for a better you and me.