Gifts Are Not Free

Composer and singer-songwriter Alana Levandoski grew up on the Canadian prairies with an awareness of her own reliance on the gifts of the land, giving her an “ecological perspective” on her artistic vocation. “There’s a huge difference between seeing something as free and seeing something as a gift,” she says. For Levandoski, embracing the interdependence of a gift economy has allowed her to witness the richness of reciprocity—not just between her and her listeners but among them, too.