Children of the Stone: The Power of Music

In 1988, 8-year-old Ramzi Hussein Aburedwan was a stone-throwing child of the first Palestinian intifada, confronting an occupying Israeli army.  A few years later, he lay down his stone and picked up a musical instrument, and soon carried a dream to bring music to “all the children of Palestine.”  Today Ramzi’s “Al Kamandjati” music school has served thousands of Palestinian children.
 
Sandy Tolan, author of The Lemon Tree and USC Annenberg Associate Professor of Journalism, in conversation with Philip Seib, professor of journalism and public diplomacy, discussed Tolan’s new book, Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land.

In a book divided into three “Interludes” with four movements, “Stone,” “Instrument,” “Practice,” and “Resistance,” Tolan, author of the well-received The Lemon Tree (2006), portrays the multigenerational Israeli-Palestinian conflict by focusing on the life and musical abilities of one youngster, Ramzi Hussein Aburedwan, and his family and friends. Though he sees his father and, later, his brother, murdered and spends his youth as a child of the stones (throwing stones at armed Israeli soldiers), Ramzi dreams of building a music school in the Al Amari refugee camp outside the West Bank city of Ramallah. Though his life is torn by the conflict, it is also touched by music and fortune, and through the intervention of intellectual Edward Said and conductor-musician Daniel Barenboim, as well as musicians from around the world, Ramzi attends school in France, travels with his own musical group, and finds instruments, funds, and teachers for his own music school (later creating 10 of them), touching many lives and demonstrating “the transformative power of music in a land of brutality, beauty, and confinement.” This is an engrossing and powerful story, moving skillfully amid the failure of the never-ending battles and “peace” talks between Israel and Palestine and the determination of one brave young man to change his world.— Eloise Kinney
 
Advanced praise for Children of the Stone:
Congratulations to Sandy Tolan for bringing us the story of Ramzi Hussein Aburedwan, his philosophy and his personal mission to make a difference.  His story is proof of the famous words of Margaret Mead – “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”  --   Yo-Yo  Ma

[A]n engrossing and powerful story, moving skillfully amid the failure of the never-ending battles and “peace” talks between Israel and Palestine and the determination of one brave young man to change his world.  -- Booklist

About Sandy Tolan

Sandy Tolan is a radio and print journalist who has reported from more than 30 countries over the last 28 years. He is the author of two books and has written for more than 40 newspapers and magazines, and produced hundreds of documentaries and features for NPR and Public Radio International. Since 1982 he has reported from American Indian country, along the U.S.-Mexico border, across New England and the American West, in Latin America, the Middle East, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and South and East Asia. A central focus of his work has been the intersection of land conflicts, racial and ethnic identity, natural resources, and the global economy. He is a co-founder of Homelands Productions, an independent production company focusing on documentary work for public radio. He was a lead producer for the Homelands series WORKING, monthly profiles on workers around the world broadcast on public radio's Marketplace. Currently he is senior producer for The Hunger Chronicles (in development), an international documentary collaboration with NPR and Magnum Photos.

Sandy is the author of two books: Me and Hank, A Boy and His Hero 25 Years Later, an exploration of race and sports in America; and The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, which was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award, and which won Booklist's "Top of the List" award in nonfiction, and the Christopher Award for works "affirming the highest values of the human spirit." The book also won honorable mention for the Sophie Brody Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Jewish Literature from the American Library Association. More