Current Work

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Building Belonging is a Voices United project connecting Miami and Masite, Lesotho through art, storytelling, cultural exchange, sustainability, and community care.

For more than 35 years, Voices United has used the arts to build connection, inclusion, dialogue, and community-led change. This project grows from our belief that creativity can help people honor their stories, strengthen relationships, and build belonging across distance, difference, and generations.

At the heart of Building Belonging is ubuntu/botho, the Southern African belief that our humanity is strengthened through our care for one another. In Lesotho, this philosophy is reflected in traditional Basotho building practices, where families and neighbors worked together using local, climate-friendly materials such as stone, thatch, soil, sand, and mobu, a traditional plaster made with earth, dung, and water.

These practices are more than construction. They are acts of cooperation, dignity, cultural memory, sustainability, and collective responsibility.

Through this project, Voices United will host a public gathering in Miami where artists, educators, youth leaders, cultural workers, and community members explore what it means to build belonging in our own communities. Using the Voices United Process, participants will engage in storytelling, creative exercises, dialogue, images, and short video from our work in Lesotho.

The project will also support a connected community demonstration in Masite, where youth, elders, women, artists, and local builders will gather to share traditional building knowledge and document what they learn. Together, these gatherings create a living bridge between Miami and Lesotho rooted in reciprocity, creativity, and respect.

Building Belonging is part of the larger vision for the Voices United Village, a place in Lesotho for cultural exchange, restoration, creative leadership, traditional knowledge, and community learning.

At its core, Building Belonging asks us to remember a simple but powerful truth:

We do not build community alone. We build it together.

In December, Voices United gathered in Masite, Lesotho for a Mini-Residency rooted in a simple idea: 

Real change begins with relationships. 

This was not just a program. 

It was a process of listening, connection, and shared creation, designed to continue beyond a single moment. 

An intergenerational group of community members, youth, elders, and returning participants, came together alongside visiting Artists in Residence, Eddie Brown and Aaron Fishbein. 

From the beginning, the work focused on building trust. Through shared time, conversation, and cultural exchange, a foundation was created for honest and meaningful engagement. 

Using the Voices United Process, participants explored their experiences and their community through storytelling, movement, music, and dialogue. 

Together, they identified key challenges affecting their lives: 

• abuse 
• teen pregnancy 
• drug abuse 
• lack of infrastructure 
• land erosion 

What emerged was not just a list of issues, but a deeper understanding of the community’s strengths, relationships, and capacity for care. 

Participants spoke openly, many for the first time, and began to see themselves and one another differently. 

The residency culminated in an original, community created performance. 

Through song, movement, poetry, and humor, participants told their own stories honestly and without fear. 

The performance was alive and evolving. As it unfolded, the audience joined in, and the space shifted from presentation to shared experience. 

What was created was not just a show, but a moment of collective pride, connection, and visibility. 

Eddie Brown (actor, director, and teaching artist) and Aaron Fishbein (musician, composer, and educator) played an important role in the residency. 

They contributed their artistic experience while working collaboratively within the group, supporting the creative process and engaging in cultural exchange grounded in respect and learning. 

Their time in Lesotho extended beyond the residency: 

• beginning their journey at Thaba Bosiu, the historic site of the Basotho nation 
• participating in an artists panel in Maseru 
• appearing on local radio 
• spending time in Masite with the local chief 
• visiting the ancient cave drawings and the future Voices United Village site 

Through these experiences, they built relationships that connect communities across continents. 

One of the most important outcomes of the residency was a shared commitment to protect the ancient cave drawings in Masite. 

Through the creative process, participants developed a plan that is now moving forward: 

• establishing a medicinal garden rooted in traditional knowledge 
• creating signage to share the history and significance of the site 
• caring for the space as a place of learning, preservation, and community pride 

This work reflects the deeper purpose of Voices United where creativity leads to real, community-driven action. 

The residency was not an endpoint. 

A small team of local leaders, emerging from the program, continues to meet and work in the Rothe community. 

They are: 

• continuing dialogue around the issues raised 
• engaging others through arts-based work 
• developing locally-led responses and solutions 

This ongoing effort is supported through partnership with Voices United and artists in Miami, creating a sustained exchange of ideas, creativity, and support. 

Voices United’s work in Lesotho is rooted in relationship, trust, and long-term engagement. 

This is not a one-time intervention.

It is a growing partnership. 

With continued support, this work will: 

• deepen local leadership 
• expand creative and educational opportunities 
• strengthen intergenerational connection 
• preserve cultural and environmental resources 
• and build lasting bridges between communities 

This is what happens when people are given space to speak, create, and lead and are supported to continue long after a program ends.