Raising Our Collective Voices: A Sing-Along for Our Collaborative Futures as Qualitative Inquiry (Introduction to a Song Panel From ICQI 2021)

The short essay serves as introduction to a partial Special Issue section that chronicles the 2021 ICQI panel “Raising Our Collective Voices.” The introduction outlines the purpose of the panel in relation to the congress theme and participant responses to the call. After the initial COVID year from which we will continue to reel, it seemed more important than ever to revisit the modality of song linked with the theme of the congress. And more importantly to revisit the power, potency, and possibility of music and how particular songs, old and emerging, stir and inspire something in all of us—tapping into our collective conscious, penetrating our sense of being fully alive, and giving voice and sound to the fury, desire, and resolve in our living.