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What's the Tea with Ministry?
Welcome to What’s the Tea with Ministry!
Where we spill the tea on the Jesuit and Mercy mission at the University of Detroit Mercy! Bringing you mission-centered conversation through storytelling, reflection, and community connection all over a cup of tea.
What's the Tea with Ministry?
Music, the Arts and Faith
Have you ever felt the profound connection between a melody and your soul? That's the golden thread interwoven throughout our latest episode, where the extraordinary Dan Greig and Oriekaose Agholor share the stage. Their stories of pianos and saxophones, choirs and afrobeats, not only tug at the heartstrings but also serve as a testament to the impact of music on spirituality and community.
Join us as we share laughter and nostalgia over amateur high school musicals, spontaneous theater dates, and dance, that universal language that even a 'non-dancer' can understand and appreciate. This episode isn't just a listening experience—it's an invitation to reflect on how the arts can embody a mission, heal the heart, and unite us in unexpected ways.
Welcome to what's the Tea with Ministry, where we spill the tea on the Jesuit and Mercy mission at the University of Detroit.
Speaker 2:Mercy- bringing you mission-centered conversation through storytelling, reflection and community connection. All over a cup of tea.
Speaker 1:Hosted by University Ministry and a student co-host.
Speaker 2:That's us. I'm Anna Lawler University Minister and.
Speaker 1:I'm Margo Ewell, your student co-host. Today. We're going to be talking with Dan Gregg and Aurea.
Speaker 2:Cosa Aulor. Dan Gregg has been playing the piano and directing the singers of the Sunday night student mass on campus for the last 25 years. He conducts the university chorus and teaches music classes in the College of Humanities, arts and Social Sciences. Dan is a published composer of choir music and has 10 songs currently in print with several publishers. He is also a part-time minister in our office and university ministry and we love having him.
Speaker 1:Oya Kose is a robotics and mechatronics systems engineering honors major. He is a Nigerian international student who is currently in his junior year. He is the president of the music club and the senator of the international students and student government association at Detroit Mercy, and he is also the president of the African and Caribbean Student Organization. So let's talk with Oya Kosa and Dan.
Speaker 2:Welcome to both of you. I'm so glad you're here today. We're so excited to have you on the what's the Tea with Ministry podcast. Before we started today, I offered each of you a cup of tea. It seems to be our little gig, our little session that we always have at the beginning of our podcast, we offer our guests a cup of tea, and this is related to the Sisters of Mercy, particularly to Catherine Macaulay. On her deathbed, she said to one of her sisters when she was dying make sure that the sisters have a comfortable cup of tea. And so we named our podcast after that moment. We've also encouraged to have tea with everybody while we're recording. So I'm going to ask if you chose to have tea with us today, what tea are you drinking? So I'm going to ask Dan first what did you choose?
Speaker 4:I am drinking peppermint tea today, though I'm not normally a tea drinker, but for today's episode, this peppermint tea is really good.
Speaker 2:Love it and Oricose, what are you drinking?
Speaker 5:I picked the sweetest tea in the bunch. I believe this is the peach flavored tea.
Speaker 2:Yeah great Margo, the peach and honey one oh yep, same one. And then, in typical fashion, I chose some mint variation. I always drink mint tea is what seems to be what I'm doing. So I'm drinking a mint and honey and juniper tea today. So that is what we're drinking Cheers, cheers, exactly Cheers. So we've invited you both today to come talk to us a little bit about music and the arts and what the connection between music and the arts to our mission at the university is, and also how you see your connection to music and your faith life, and so that's what we're going to start talking about a little bit today. But to start us off, I'd really like to know, because both of you are musicians, what led you to be musicians, what's your story with music, and share a little bit about your history. Oryakose, would you?
Speaker 5:like to go first. Sure, I don't mind um. So I guess um back home in Nigeria, for our primary school that's like equivalent to, I believe, um elementary school. It was always encouraged, I know students learned how to play an instrument. So from early we were exposed to playing the recorder. It's a woodwind-based instrument and, going forward, I went on to learn the flute and then my music teacher told me that you know, he thought that I'd be very good in playing the saxophone. So at that point in time I didn't really have any particular preference.
Speaker 5:I went on to learn the saxophone and for me I felt like you, you know, like usually when you're teaching someone to play an instrument, you learn the basic skills, you know, you learn how to play a couple songs and I feel like sometimes a good number of music teachers don't always do the best because, like, they teach you something to impress your parents and that's it. You can't improvise if you like, if someone sings a song, you can't play along. So I was kind of stuck at that point at which, like, I could only like read songs, I couldn't like make any like. I couldn't improvise, I couldn't like. If you sang a song on a different key, I couldn't do that, and that was like the case for like um three or four years of me learning the saxophone.
Speaker 5:Then saxophonist came to my church and then my mom had introduced him to me during the holiday and then we began working together for about um I believe it was like three months. We learned, like at some point I learned how to hear and play, but like I only knew of very limited um keys. So what he did was he taught me like every key and then, because I could hear and play, all I had to do was I had to learn how to like, even if it was one song, be able to play it by ear on every key and play it like you know perfectly, and also learn how to improvise on each note. And by doing that for those three months I became like that's when my journey of improv and, like you know, playing at them, different events and stuff and, you know, being able to just be very creative with the saxophone, began, and I believe it will soon be 10 years since I've been playing the saxophone wow, that's awesome, cool.
Speaker 5:And then um yeah, I also sing too. I wouldn't say I was the best of a singer like a couple years, um, like a couple years back, but I I had always loved singing and I can. I guess I just like I like I sing in church. I also make like afro beats based music. So I believe that like because I like just kept practicing over and over again, like oh, maybe like I'm listening to a song and then at the end, when there's like the instruments, I'll just like improv and like add my own lyrics as if I was featured on a song During that consistently kind of improved my lyrical flow and like my voice and like people have now said that I'm a very good singer and I'm grateful to God for that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Amazing Dan. What's your story about becoming a musician?
Speaker 4:Well, when I was in the first grade, my great grandma, who lived in Florida and we lived in Michigan, uh bought my sister, who's older than me by two years. She bought a piano. She said girls play the piano. So she bought a piano for my sister and it was there. It sat in our house. My sister took lessons for a year, uh, but I would actually sneak and uh use her lesson books and teach myself how to play um, and pretty quickly.
Speaker 4:My parents saw that they were paying for the wrong person to have lessons because I would.
Speaker 4:They would hear me playing and then they would uh think, oh good job, diane, my sister and wasn't her. It was me, of course, who didn't have a teacher. So luckily the teacher was right across the street. So my parents the next year said you should have the lessons, not your sister. So I started taking lessons and I worked with that teacher for a couple of years and then changed to a different teacher who taught me more about improvisation and different kinds of styles of playing.
Speaker 4:And then I switched to another teacher when I got to high school and then I liked music so much it was mostly all that I could think about when I was in school, and so I decided that I would major in music in college. So then I went on to study conducting, to study singing, to study singing, to study piano. I was going to be a choir teacher. It didn't end up quite that way, but I ended up choir director, music director for lots of different things. So it was kind of by accident that I started music, because I didn't really know that I had any music talent to begin with.
Speaker 4:But it ended up that God had a plan. I really feel like in my life and kind of put that, instilled that music in my soul and that same song, like from when I was like six years old, that same song that God sang over me, still sings today and it's kind of like I feel like it's one of my missions in life is like to continue that song to, to broaden that song to let other people hear it, um, and also just to continue studying music and just you know that it kind of brings me a lot of life, yeah that's wonderful.
Speaker 2:I have to be honest, I am not musically talented I really tried I really tried I've heard you sing.
Speaker 2:You sing well thank you, I do like to sing, okay, maybe.
Speaker 2:Maybe that level of musical talent stayed with me, but my parents were very big into I should learn piano and they had a tradition that in second grade everyone all of my siblings and I started piano lessons, and then when you got to fourth grade, you could either keep playing piano or you could pick a new instrument. And so I played the guitar for a little while. Wasn't good at that either. I wasn't really good at any of it, because they all involve practicing and I at the time didn't have any level of discipline to practice enough to be good at it. So the only instrument I can still play is the ukulele, and I still can't play it super well, but I can play a lot of the chords. I do own a guitar still, but it just lives in my house and sits in the corner, and so does my fiance. He also has a guitar that just sits in the corner. That's cool, and we just stare at them and their beautiful decorations and maybe someday we'll learn to play them again.
Speaker 5:It's funny because I'm the only in terms of music. I'm the only like musically I won't say talent. I'm the only person who plays music in my family, because maybe my family members do have musical talent, they just don't know. So I have two other brothers, so my mom and dad have never done anything musical, Neither have my two brothers, my second elder brother. He does spoken words In terms of music, like singing, playing an instrument.
Speaker 2:I'm the only one Margo, do you play any instruments? I don't think I know this.
Speaker 1:Marco can only whistle. I can give you a nice whistling tone, sing a little something and that's it.
Speaker 2:That's it and I also. We we brought you both on. Even though both of you are musicians, you're also involved in other areas in the arts, obviously we know I know for Dan that you are involved in our theater department and you also help teach the university chorus, so I know that you have many talents and are involved in the arts in many ways. Ori kose, are you involved in the arts in other aspects visual arts, digital spaces?
Speaker 5:yeah, so, um, I do sketch, um I don't. Some like I have different like talents and it's, like you know, sometimes not good like to be a jack of all trades, a master of none. So I've tried to hone more into music, but I'd like I have I I do enjoy drawing, but, um, I've not had time to really go deep into it, like be a very skilled um drawer or jotsman, but, and I'm also like I'm into graphic designing, so like for lots of my music, maybe for clubs and stuff. So I design the graphics, the flyers, the posters and stuff. So I have a niche, um skill for that too. And then also, when it comes to music too, there's now a blend of video as well. So I really do love um video production, so like making a music video, recording videos, editing videos. So, yeah, those are, I believe those are like the extra areas of the arts that I'm involved with Very cool, very cool, love it.
Speaker 1:Do you see an intersection between the arts music and the divine or God? If you do, what does that relationship look like?
Speaker 2:Who wants to take the first swing at it?
Speaker 4:Because my first experience of um playing music in public wasn't church um, so for me, when I learned um, for me the connection was always a spiritual connection with music. Now I learned, you know, the regular things that kids learn when they play the piano. But I was always interested in learning how to lead music, like for people to sing, because to me one of the best ways that sometimes I can describe God without words is with music. To have people experience something even when you don't say anything, to listen and to have that move something inside of their heart. To me that's the connection, right, and it doesn't have to be religious song.
Speaker 4:There's a lot of people who necessarily don't say I'm Catholic or I'm Christian or I'm this or that.
Speaker 4:You know they don't really associate with a particular spirituality, but music sort of is one of those ways to sort of break down those barriers and that music can reach people and in my mind this is God resonating with that person's soul, right, whether that person realizes it or not. But to me I think that's the best connection. And when I can hear a room full of people singing together, even if it's at a concert, that's not a religious concert, right? You've ever been to a concert you hear, hear people just singing really loud right, there's something about that as a unifying action right that brings about a sense of communion with a lowercase c right, the idea of being together, our hearts together, doing something together, and for me, music is the best way to do that. Music is just uplifting in lots of ways and to me, I think that's how people experience the divine, who maybe aren't aware of it or aren't open to experiencing the divine. So they say, and I think that to me that's one of the greatest connections for music.
Speaker 5:I also concur with Dan too. God is the creator of everything the arts, science and I believe that music is special to God's heart because praise and worship is like, it's a very like integral relationship between an individual and God. And you know, you see the trees worshiping God in, with the wave in the air as they swing by, see the air, the noise, the birds chirping, everything like about nature and the world. It has like a musical flow towards that. I know everything gives praise to god.
Speaker 5:I believe there's a bible verse that says that you know, if, um, if, we choose not to praise god, you know the very rocks would rise up and praise god. So I believe, I know music is very integral and it does connect with the divine. It does connect with God because you know there's a way just you produce, you create something out of nothing, like you don't even need to have any physical material, but you just produce music, musical notes, and you know anyone around the world can resonate with that and feel that particular connections really with emotions, because you know different styles of playing, different modes of singing can evoke certain emotions. I feel like that's a very powerful thing.
Speaker 4:I've always contemplated, thinking about the trees worshiping God, like you said, with the branches swaying in the breeze. Right, and that's the act of worshiping God, right, and that even the earth as it spins on its axis produces a frequency. Even the earth when it's as it spins on its axis produces a frequency. Even the earth sings god's praises.
Speaker 2:Yeah oh, that's so beautiful. I always think of um. Both of you talked about how music can create community and how music can inspire, and one of the things I always think of, for me with music in particular, is I have these moments every once in a while. It's not always music related, but often with music I get like the, the full body chills and I always I relate, I always say to myself like that's God letting me know, god's there, like God's acknowledging like this is a moment to pay attention to, and so I often I have that moment frequently with music, particularly with, like, broadway music. Um, that for me, stage production music it's like probably my, my favorite gets me the most inspired yay, show tunes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I love a good show. Just to punctuate what you said, um, I was at a wedding of an alum, um, last month, and uh, the uh. On the dance floor the DJ was playing and it was a Whitney Houston song, right, it was, oh, I Want to Dance with Someone, right, but it's really popular. A lot of people know that song. I love that song. Great, I happen to like that song too, and anyway. So they're dancing and dancing and he turns the music off and people are just singing at the top of their lungs with no music on the dance floor. And I had one of those chill moments where I went, oh wow, this is a powerful moment. This is a moment to really pay attention to what's happening.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. Oricose, we invited you to be a part of this podcast primarily because you are the president of the music club and you were also integral in helping start the music club or bring the music club back, I not sure which one. I'd love to know a little bit more about what that process looked like and if you could share a little bit about what the music club does, because some of us may not know on campus okay.
Speaker 5:Um. So coming to Detroit from Nigeria, no, detroit Motown jazz blues is a big thing. So I kind of, being a musician and into music, I thought I know there'll be a big thing. So I kind of being a musician and into music, I thought that there would be a big kind of jazz Motown scene on campus. So coming in here, I didn't see much of that.
Speaker 5:Yes, there are different musical avenues on campus, such as the band, but with music I like to be free to be able to express myself, not to be restricted, like, oh, play this particular song or play for this specific event, and I was in my orchestra back home in nigeria and I really enjoyed that. But at some points too, once, like, there's a high level of restriction how you're to play or how you're to conform to music I no longer begin to enjoy because, like, for example, I love engineering and science so much that I want to study, you know, learn, learn the rubrics, learn everything. But in music it's like I don't want to be caged but I want to be able to, you know, be able to enjoy that. So that was the reason I started the music club, so that we can give other people that opportunity to, you know, express themselves with music without being restricted in like, you know, in like in any kind of form or any kind of way. In any kind of form or any kind of way. So I began working on launching the club in the summer of 2022.
Speaker 5:And then, because I'd already met different musicians already freshman year there was a drummer on my floor. My friend was a flute player. So I kind of had in mind a group of people that we could kind of start the club with. So when I had those people in mind, we began working on getting the club. I was able to email dan, who was, you know, very fortunate to um agree to be our club advisor. And then, um, sophomore year fall and we got the club started. Well, I believe we're like three or four. Then I haven't had a friend. I didn't even know he was an electric guitar player until today. It's like one of of our most prominent players.
Speaker 5:So I believe that, starting the club, people do enjoy the music. Sometimes they just see us. They never expect the music to be that good. So I don't know the kind of impression people have in their mind Like, wow, you guys are really good. Like, oh, I heard of you guys and I saw your instagram post like man, that the music is really good. So I'm really happy that you know we've been able to bring such an impact to campus.
Speaker 5:Many people have said that oh, one of the best clubs on campus and the way we, like you know, we play for music and like usually we don't charge like for any event, like we're always open to play for free. If you're willing to give us money, that's fine, but, like you know, it's always it's always a good thing that you play, you play good music and if people are willing to give you some kind of gift or anything, we're willing to accept. So I feel like we've been able to turn campus around and being the headphones that supply the music that everybody can enjoy. And that's kind of why on our logo you see the Detroit Mercy logo and a musical headphone, because you don't have to be a musician to enjoy the music. We want to supply that kind of entertainment, I know, and help everyone kind of enjoy that experience.
Speaker 2:Amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Speaker 1:As a Catholic Jesuit and Mercy school, why do you think we should care about music and the arts?
Speaker 5:So because it's a Catholic Jesuit and Mercy school, it's integrally a Christian school and you know, praise and worship is integral to your relationship with God and music is a very important aspect of that. People need to not just understand that, to communicate with God, to commune with God, it's not just about studying your Bible, but sometimes just being able to break down in praise and worship. It may not necessarily be in actual songs like the Psalms. You can recite it, you can just God is awesome, God is good, Just eulogize and just say so many great things about God. So I believe that music is really integral and for you to be Catholic, for you to be Jesus, for you to be mercy, for you to be a Christian, we really need to be able to connect with God in a musical level as well. Even if you're out of pitch, out of tone, it doesn't really matter, God doesn't care about that. It's the kind of effort, it's the intention that counts.
Speaker 4:Yeah, what he said, that's great. I think that really is important. I just wanted to add, too, that I think one of the Jesuit kind of values is this cura personalis like to be a well-rounded person, that to care about all parts of the human being, and I think music and the arts is what really does that. Because we have a lot of professional programs on campus, you know. There's architecture and all kinds of engineering and sciences and business, and I think it can be really easy to get caught up in. Oh, I have to stay very focused on these academics in this program. But if we're not really educating the whole person, you know, then we're really missing out on something. We're just missing out on a part of humanity that could be developed and grow. And that's what we're about in our Mercy and Jesuit traditions is to, you know, educate the whole of the person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's very true. I wasn't really thinking about that when. I was curious what your answers both might be. But I do think the idea that we're a school that is here to educate students around so many different aspects of life and even though we have some really great programs and we clearly excel in the science area, we have a lot of really great pre-medical programs, which are all wonderful, and I love that we have so many students pursuing those career fields because I would never succeed in those career fields Definitely more on the arts and humanity side was my schooling experience.
Speaker 2:But what I have always loved I mean I preach this from my own experience at John Carroll University, our sister Jesuit school without like a core curriculum and the, the focus on making sure we dabble in lots of different areas, I never would have fallen in love with theology. I never would have been like this is what I want to study. I only ended up in those courses because I had to take them and even you know then I was like, wow, I should continue taking them. These are very fun and interesting and I want to learn more, but I wouldn't have had that without a core curriculum, and so I appreciate the efforts of Jesuit and Mercy institutions to make sure we're educating our students to have experiences in lots of areas, not just in the field of study that they come to study at school. Agreed.
Speaker 4:Also, I just want to mention that I know a lot of people who come to me who are out of school now, who've graduated, and say, oh, I wish I would have stuck with my piano lessons, or oh, I wish I played an instrument. It looks so, so fun. I'm so jealous that you play an instrument. You know, this is the story of many adults that I meet. They say, oh, you're so lucky that you can play music.
Speaker 5:I said you can play music too, but it's just something that I think is in every human heart a little bit the the desire to just want to make music yeah, and I'm grateful to God, like you know, to be able to be gifted and to be skilled in music, because you know, lots of my professors, like I, played for different engineering events oh, wow, you play an instrument too. So kind of like, oh, you're an engineer, you're doing music, so like sometimes you can catch people off guard too, and like the electric guitar player in the music club, he's a computer science major too, so sometimes just catches people off guard, seeing how, like music is not just for, like you're just in arts alone. It's like anyone in any kind of sphere can be a musician.
Speaker 4:I know doctors who are professional musicians. I know lawyers who are musicians. Music doesn't really discriminate. It kind of it goes for all walks of life, yeah.
Speaker 2:Amazing, awesome. So we've talked a lot about music, and music is wonderful, but I'd love to hear a little bit more about the different areas of your life where you engage with other aspects of the arts, and so I know, of course, you shared a little bit about being someone who likes to sketch and also like your interest in graphic design, so I'd love to hear from both of you what are some other areas of the arts that inspire you or that you're drawn to or involved in?
Speaker 4:I really enjoy poetry, and partly because I'm a songwriter myself. But I'm always interested in what words people choose for songs and you know what rhyme. You know. Oftentimes, when I'm writing a song, let's say okay, what rhymes with this, this word? And you come to a word like purple. You're like oh great, nothing rhymes with purple.
Speaker 4:Okay, okay, let's reward that you know just the idea of wordsmithing and that kind of thing.
Speaker 4:It's not distinct from music, because for me it's connected with with lyric writing, but in a way it's like it's totally different, it's its own art form and I just really enjoy, kind of even um, looking at different lyrics and, um, it often makes me laugh a little bit because nowadays, if you look at some of the lyrics of some of the songs now, um, if you like, compare lyrics from like the 1960s even and that's way before my time, but even compare them to modern day lyrics, a lot of times the lyrics are like oh, baby, baby, baby, baby, you know, and then I'm just saying right, and then you look back at like a 1950s song, you know, and it's like my dearest love, my true, you know, the true one, my heart's desire, he's like beautiful imagery, and then nowadays we're like baby, baby, baby, baby, you know, kiss me, kiss me, that's it, it's the whole song um, I concur with him too, because I do write song lyrics and, yes, um, inspiration can come from anywhere, but, like, I believe that, you know, sometimes having thoughtful, like lyrics can also be like it's.
Speaker 5:It's really enriching too. Yes, beautiful beat, beautiful piano, beautiful instrument, but, like, sometimes, the lyrics too, like it's it should be, shouldn't just be like I don't want to say meaningless, because, like you know, everything is an art form, like at least today.
Speaker 5:That's what every, that's what, like you know, it goes around like, oh, you know, this is art, like, if, like, hundreds and thousands of people like it, it must be good music like, personally, sometimes I just don't resonate with, like, oh, the lyrics, like maybe they're just too vulgar, or it's like, as he says, just like monotone, like baby, like you, there's no like diversity in the lyrics, or, you know, in like in the rhyme, you know, in anything, just all mumbled up together and then boom, people just enjoy it and like it. So it's like I don't know, I can't say, I can't dictate what is art and what is not. But, you know, sometimes I feel like it can go slightly back to the way things were in terms like, yes, you can reinvent music, reinvent the melody and the tunes, perhaps some form of structure and, like you know, um correlation between lyrics, rhyming schemes and all that. I feel like you know, it's really enhanced music today because, like you know, lots of people in the older generation can no longer resonate with the kind of music we in the young generation have today. Yeah, and then I believe, um going back to your question about like, um other interests I have, I feel like if I wasn't into music.
Speaker 5:If I could, I would have dabbled into photography because, like when I still have, like you know, memories of when I was a kid, of like this specific spot I used to be or this specific imagery or scene, like you know, I always used to see around and I feel like if I could capture that moment and just have that every day, I feel like it's something, because I've like photo. Like you know, the camera is a very beautiful tool like having, like being able to see pictures years and years back, like it's. It's very beautiful. I'm not into photography, but that would be something like I would have in a second life or something that I'll be interested in. And, um, video production still is still something that I really love. I don't have time to do much of that, but I really love doing it, like making my own mini movie or making my own music video, especially because I don't have the money to make a big budget production, so when I use limited resources and it still comes out really good, wow, that's awesome. That is great.
Speaker 1:Mara what are some of the aspects of the arts that you enjoy? Where I'm from being an Igbo girl or just being Nigerian, actually we use music to worship. I've learned that growing up, or at least just as I began my little spiritual journey. There are some times where I find it hard to pray and so, instead of praying, I'm singing. I sing, I can sing, listen. I know God is so tired of my voice and I know I love that. I love that God.
Speaker 1:I know sometimes the sopranos don't be hitting the way you want the angelic sopranos to be, but I will say that I have found music to be a form of expressing, sometimes, what you want to say in prayer, but you just can't say it. So it so, like I know, every time I start off my prayer with a good six minute thank you. I'm sure he's tired of hearing me say thank you all the time. I'm sure he loves it, but I'm sure he enjoys it when I sing it more, because in Igbo we have so many songs that, like email at this, email at that, there's so many ways to sing that one word. So for me, I think music has been a powerful way to express myself. And then now we're just in this era where, like, christian music is no longer boring. I mean, there's christian rap, there's christian hip-hop, and so if I'm from the gym it's christian hip-hop, if I'm at home, it's it's catholics. What's that? One song? There are so many. Dan plays them all the time.
Speaker 1:He plays them all the time. But I think because I can't draw Nothing past two stick figures and a circle face and a smiley face. Pictures are a fun thing when other people take them of me, because it's also not my specialty, but music I can say music has I think me, because it's also not my specialty, but music I can say I can say music has it's, I think for me is a big part of my identity. Like I'm at the point where I can't do anything functional except for study without music.
Speaker 2:I think I said earlier that musical theater is probably one of my, like, favorite things. Um, I was in a couple musicals in high school and there's I live with a level of regret of not trying out for any of the productions in college, just because I think I would have really enjoyed it. I think I allowed myself. The audition process really freaked me out just because I went to such a small high school that like, if you wanted to be in the musical, you really you could be in the musical. It didn't matter, we still auditioned, but it didn't feel very formal.
Speaker 2:And so theater has always been for me kind of the the area of the arts, that musical theater in particular, but all, all shapes and forms of theater have been so meaningful to me, not only in allowing me to kind of get out of my shell, because I was in different theater productions and musicals and having to be a different character was always really fun. And I went to an all girls high school and so I often was cast as a boy because we didn't have a brother school and so and we, you know, there were enough students that wanted to be in the in the theater production that we could just cast a whole um musical with just women and have you know, I was in a, an all-female production of west side story and that was probably my absolute favorite musical I've ever been in um one because it's an iconic musical but also because it was just like super fun to have like the fan the dancing fighting numbers where, like we were fake fighting but we were also dancing.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't say that it was very well choreographed. We had like a small black box theater and so it was. It was a wild time but I loved being a part of that and I think that aspect of the arts of getting to like be something you're not, or getting to experience a story that is never something you might have experienced in your life and watching it come to life on stage is so amazing and I've enjoyed, particularly in the last couple of years. My fiance was never really exposed to musical theater or any theater. He was never really taken to that as a younger child, um, and so I've kind of dragged him the first few times. It was like dragging he's like I was like you'll like this musical, it'll be fun. Um and I we saw Wicked on a whim. We bought tickets like the day before and I've seen the musical Wicked a number of times but he had never seen it and we saw it, um, maybe last second, and he loved it and now he'll go to like any musical so I've won him over to musical theater.
Speaker 2:We also go to just regular plays and productions, but I've won him over in that regard.
Speaker 1:I completely forgot that dance was a form of art. Let me tell y'all, I can bust a move If you guys, I can dance for Jesus like nobody's business. I forgot that, guys. In high school I was in show choir when I said you can't stop the beat, I was. I wasn't stopping the beat, I was not throwing away my shot, I was doing it all. And I think. Well, my first one in high school was the motown manly, you best believe I was not too proud to beg, but I still sang it anyway but for me this is how I know god has this kind of a sense of humor.
Speaker 4:I secretly love to dance, but I am the worst dancer you will ever see.
Speaker 5:Like I've got some rhythm right but I like literally, but in my heart it's like I just love to dance but I just don't, because I know it's really terrible and I concur with margot too, like I too love to dance as well and I'll say at least I can speak for nigerian and african culture in terms of, um, christianity, uh, praise and worship. It's like, um, yes, the worship, you know, you feel the power of god and I know it's calm and solemn. But, like, once we enter the praise, the, when the beat hits, you have to start dancing, you have to start moving. So I took one of my friends, um, to my church. Um, she's catholic and she's like, wow, like everybody's dancing and moving.
Speaker 5:I'm like you can dance. So she's like I don't usually dance, so just dance at church. So I feel like it's a very different like. I feel like lots of people, when they go to like um, um christian churches which have like no african or or Nigerian roots, they really do enjoy like you don't just have to like stand and clap to it, you can actually like, kind of, and like move and, like you know, flow with the rhythm too. So, yeah, I feel like that also makes like, makes the experience worthwhile as well.
Speaker 2:So another question I have for both of you is what can our community learn about, like our mission and identity at the university, through engaging with the arts? So we've talked a little bit about this at different points, maybe not super directly, but we've alluded to how our mission encourages the arts. But what are maybe some things that other people on our campus can learn about our mission and identity through engaging with the arts?
Speaker 4:I would say one important aspect of music that sort of just comes natural for everyone is it brings people together. You hear somebody playing a saxophone over in the basement of the student union, right, and people go, hey, what's that? And they walk over right, and then all of a sudden they start talking to somebody else. It's time for our favorite section of the podcast.
Speaker 2:It sort of helps to center.
Speaker 4:Time for the lightning round conversation sometimes or just kind of bring people together, even if it's just, if they don't play music, but just to come and hear music together. I think that it's something that everyone can enjoy and you don't have to know anybody else there, but you're still connected with them. Then you strike up conversations about the music and that kind of thing. It really fosters the sense of hospitality and kind of a shared experience. Oftentimes people's best friends are people they met doing some kind of art, some kind of music.
Speaker 5:Yeah, going off what he has said, music too is also therapeutic as well. So maybe you know, oh, you had a bad day, or you know, school has, you've been swamped. And then, oh, in the fountain lounge, the music club, you know, we're just practicing throwing some tunes. People just walk by, they just maybe pause for five, ten minutes. Just, you know, take it in, listen and enjoy. I believe that you know, music is very therapeutic. I'm always happy when people know you leave, they hear the music being played wherever and they leave that place better or happier than when they came. So I believe that's very helpful for people who are going through whatever stroke, whether emotional, mental, social or health. Music can really uplift one's soul, uplift one's spirits to a higher level.
Speaker 2:Amazing, amazing. One's spirits to a higher level, amazing. Is there somebody who would like to be the one who answers first? Who feels called? Who feels called Otherwise? I'll assign it Oricosa. You're going to answer first, and what I'll do is I'll ask the question. Margo and I are going to go back and forth, and then Oricosa, you'll always answer first and Dan will go second. You don't have to explain why you've chosen your particular answer. It's meant to be kind of quick fire. The only one that usually has a bit of a story is our very last one. We always ask what's the best advice you've ever received, and so that one obviously needs more explanation. But all the others you can just tell us where you want to go, what your favorite thing is. Quick fire.
Speaker 5:So, I will start us off, so you'll go first and then Dan sweet or savory, savory Sweet.
Speaker 1:What was your first job?
Speaker 5:I was a web development intern.
Speaker 1:Okay, gosh.
Speaker 4:I worked at Burger King Right I worked at Burger King.
Speaker 1:All right, I worked at Soap, but he's interning and everything.
Speaker 2:What is one food you could not live without?
Speaker 5:Jell-O fries. Jell-o fries.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 4:Ice cream.
Speaker 1:What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Speaker 4:Christmas Sitting around the Thanksgiving table telling stories.
Speaker 2:Nice Current favorite song.
Speaker 5:Over by Limo Blaze and Ellie Linebare.
Speaker 4:Okay, this one's going to age me a little bit, but I've been listening to a lot Hootie and the Blowfish. I love the song. I Only Want to Be With you. I've been jamming out to that one lately. I love Hootie and the.
Speaker 1:Blowfish. I'm going to go listen to that one lately. I love who's your hero.
Speaker 4:I have to say God, you know Jesus Christ yeah what he said, I would say France, okay, malta.
Speaker 2:Very cool.
Speaker 1:If you could learn a new instrument that you don't already play.
Speaker 5:what would it be? An electric guitar, Okay.
Speaker 4:This one's kind of strange, but bagpipes. I've always wanted to play the bagpipes. That would be cool.
Speaker 2:What famous person or saint, dead or alive, would you like to have a conversation with?
Speaker 5:Who is it Newton?
Speaker 1:Newton Okay.
Speaker 4:For me, I think, dorothy Day.
Speaker 1:Nice, what is the best advice you have ever received?
Speaker 5:Run to God first, before you run to anyone else for help or advice.
Speaker 4:Don't sweat the small stuff, don't worry about little, tiny details. Worry about the big picture and the little details will fall together.
Speaker 1:That's pretty good advice.
Speaker 2:Well, I want to thank you both for being on the podcast with us today, uh for sitting down, having this conversation, um sharing a bit about your your life with music and what inspires you, what, uh, your relationship with god looks like through music and and why you like to share music and the arts with the world. So I want to thank you both for being here.
Speaker 5:I really appreciate it thanks so much for having us. It was a pleasure.
Speaker 4:Really was fun, thank you.
Speaker 2:On our episode today we have a special treat for our listeners. Having just had a wonderful conversation with Oryakose and Dan about music, the arts and faith, we asked them to share a bit of their musical talents with us. Please enjoy this jam session recording of Oria Kose and Dan.
Speaker 1:Hey, you've been listening to what's the tea with ministry. If you enjoyed listening to us today, be sure to subscribe so that you never miss an episode. Also, be sure to follow us on social media at udm underscore ministry, or you can check us out at what's the tea with ministry podcast on the detroit mercy website.
Speaker 2:Thank you to our guests, dan and aria cose, for being in conversation with us today. Thank you also to all those who have made this podcast possible, especially the Communication Studies Department, our sound engineer, michael Jason, our music composer, dan Gregg, marketing and Communications and the whole Detroit Mercy community.
Speaker 1:We look forward to sharing more of the mission with you next time, see you later.