the agreements

a Gamified Song Cycle for the 21st Century

The Agreements is a contemporary classical music project. At its centre is a song cycle being created in response to nine agreements crafted by Debbie Patterson, a Canadian theatre writer and leading disability activist, living with multiple sclerosis. As someone embracing the disruptions of disability, Ms. Patterson writes: “We know something about what it is to be human that everybody else doesn’t know yet.”

Lyrics are by Ms. Patterson, and music is by Njo Kong Kie, an internationally acclaimed classical composer based in Toronto.

These songs collectively act as an ideal pathway towards a more ethical future.

These are the nine agreements:

1. Your body is the earth. This is not a metaphor, it’s a fact. Remember what you’re made of.

2. There is no such thing as individual achievement. Anything you achieve is due to the strength of your connection to other beings. Honour connection.

3. Unearned profit is the theft of other people's time. Refuse to take without consent.

4. Cultivate curiosity. Especially about other people. Assume you know nothing of their story. Let kindness and curiosity flow from unknowing.

5. Choose to grow in a way that nurtures rather than consumes. Resist the urge to reach for more in everything, except your own imagination.

6. Sharing will make you happier than hoarding. Let go.

7. When you benefit from an unjust system, you compromise your integrity, self-respect and capacity for wisdom. Use your privilege in the service of justice.

8. Your vulnerability is as important as your strength in building a web of interdependence. Ask for help as easily as you offer it.

9. Remember you will die and the story will carry on without you. A song will be created for each agreement. Each of the nine songs will have lyrics that correspond to a different imagined forest setting - there being nine forest biomes on Earth. Together, these songs are meant to embrace the planet.

Ross Manson acts as a dramaturge and creative consultant. The three singers involved are Neema Bickersteth, Ineza Mugisha and Dérrell Woods.