Improvising Across Abilities: Pauline Oliveros and the Adaptive Use Musical Instrument (AUMI) brings together scholars, musicians, and family members of people with disabilities to  collectively recount years of personal experiences, research, and perspectives on the societal and community impact of inclusive musical improvisation. One of the lesser-known projects of composer, improviser, and humanitarian, Pauline Oliveros (1932–2016), the AUMI was designed as a liberating and affordable alternative to the constraints of instruments created only for normative bodies, thus opening a doorway for people of all ages, genders, abilities, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds to access artistic practice with others. More than a book about AUMI, this book is an invitation to readers to use AUMI in their own communities.  This book, which contains wisdom from many who have been affected by their work with the instrument and the people who use it, is a representation of how music and extemporized performance have touched the lives and minds of scholars and families alike. Not only has AUMI provided the opportunity to grow in listening to others who may speak differently (or not at all), but it has been used as an avenue for a diverse set of people to build friendships with others whom they may have never otherwise even glanced at in the street. By providing a space for every person who comes across AUMI to perform, listen, improvise, and collaborate, the continuing development of this instrument contributes to a world in which every person is heard, welcomed, and celebrated.

Drawing on original interviews with improvising musicians, on critical pedagogy and cultural studies, and on the authors’ personal histories with improvised music as a form of activism, community-based pedagogy, Jamming the Classroom examines how the teaching and learning of improvisational musical practices can be understood as vital and publicly resonant acts that generate new forms of knowledge, new understandings of identity and community, and new imaginative possibilities. The book takes its cue not just from the learning in conventional classrooms and credentialing institutions but also from the work that happens in and through broader communities of practice. Heble and Stewart ask how the improvisational practices of artists and the internal educational endeavors within community groups model—and enact—new forms of community-making and critical thinking, as well as what it means to theorize the pedagogy of improvised music in relation to public programs of action, debate, and critical practice and the context of material practices and struggles for institutional authority.

Drawing on original interviews with improvising musicians, on critical pedagogy and cultural studies, and on the authors’ personal histories with improvised music as a form of activism, community-based pedagogy, Jamming the Classroom examines how the teaching and learning of improvisational musical practices can be understood as vital and publicly resonant acts that generate new forms of knowledge, new understandings of identity and community, and new imaginative possibilities. The book takes its cue not just from the learning in conventional classrooms and credentialing institutions but also from the work that happens in and through broader communities of practice. Heble and Stewart ask how the improvisational practices of artists and the internal educational endeavors within community groups model—and enact—new forms of community-making and critical thinking, as well as what it means to theorize the pedagogy of improvised music in relation to public programs of action, debate, and critical practice and the context of material practices and struggles for institutional authority.

Cuentos y Tradiciones de Pijal es una recopilacion de narraciones de la comunidad de Pijal, Ecuador. Este libro es el primer manuscrito publicado en media lengua, un idioma mixto hablado en la sierra Ecuatoriana. Lo que hace a la media lengua tan unica es su genesis. La media lengua tiene una ascendencia dividida donde casi todas (90%) las raices (sustantivos, verbos, adjetivos, adverbios, pronombres, demostrativos, etc.) del espanol han sustituido a sus contrapartes del kichwa, mientras que la media lengua mantiene los morfemas, la gramatica y la pronunciacion del kichwa. Se incorporaron traducciones en espanol e ingles. Stories and traditions from Pijal is a collection of narrations from the community of Pijal, Ecuador. This is the first published document in Media Lengua, a rare mixed language spoken in the Ecuadorian highlands. What makes this language so unique is its genesis. ML has a split ancestry where nearly all (90%) root words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, demonstratives etc.) from Spanish have replaced their Quichua counterparts while maintaining Quichua morphemes, grammar and pronunciation. Translations in English and Spanish are provided.

Cuentos y Tradiciones de Pijal es una recopilacion de narraciones de la comunidad de Pijal, Ecuador. Este libro es el primer manuscrito publicado en media lengua, un idioma mixto hablado en la sierra Ecuatoriana. Lo que hace a la media lengua tan unica es su genesis. La media lengua tiene una ascendencia dividida donde casi todas (90%) las raices (sustantivos, verbos, adjetivos, adverbios, pronombres, demostrativos, etc.) del espanol han sustituido a sus contrapartes del kichwa, mientras que la media lengua mantiene los morfemas, la gramatica y la pronunciacion del kichwa. Se incorporaron traducciones en espanol e ingles. Stories and traditions from Pijal is a collection of narrations from the community of Pijal, Ecuador. This is the first published document in Media Lengua, a rare mixed language spoken in the Ecuadorian highlands. What makes this language so unique is its genesis. ML has a split ancestry where nearly all (90%) root words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, demonstratives etc.) from Spanish have replaced their Quichua counterparts while maintaining Quichua morphemes, grammar and pronunciation. Translations in English and Spanish are provided.