Policies, partnerships, and politics in the history of the “Escola de Música de Macaíba” (2006-2014) Nan QI Western University, Canada Fábio PRESGRAVE Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil Abstract This paper presents a case study of a music school located in an underprivileged town close to Natal (Brazil), exploring the school's educational policies, its history and challenges, its relationship with the government and its collaboration with two institutions from Natal: “Casa Talento,” a social project, and “Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte,” the city’s main university. Based on the narratives we collected, we discuss issues such as (1) the effectiveness and fairness of these partnerships, (2) whether the school operates within a critical pedagogy framework, and (3) how the students’ engagement in communal music activities created life-altering bonds among them, increasing their social capital and changing their sense of identity. Keywords music school, social project, Brazil, instability, policies, community music Introduction This article traces the history of the “Escola de Música de Macaíba” (EMMa) – a music school located in an underprivileged town in Northeastern Brazil. Funded by the local municipal government, EMMa has undergone four distinct phases in the eight years since it was created in 2006, with different administrators, policies, and pedagogical guidelines in each phase, and even closing twice, due to financial, political and bureaucratic issues. While Kleber (2006) specifically decided to focus on social projects that had “institutional stability,” because they would not risk being canceled while her research was going on (p. 19), the lack of stability in EMMa is what makes that story quite unique, as its failures and uncertainties may provide valuable lessons to other contexts as well. Since community music projects often arise and take place within fluid and complex conditions, this case study can serve as a window into the many narratives that may be found in politically charged social projects. Inspired by the ideals of narrative inquiry, which presents a unique possibility to delve into people's complex and fluid experiences without oversimplifying them (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000), we wrote stories based on semi-structured interviews with several stakeholders – teachers, students, coordinators, politicians, community members – from EMMa's history. i We also analyzed documents and conducted field observations. By getting many participants to tell their stories, we see the points in which most of the narratives converge; this will be as close to the truth as we can get, especially as the school's history is still being created, and its potential still waiting to be fulfilled. Escola de musica de Macaiba (EMMa) Its creation and the partnership with ‘Casa Talento’ (2006-2007) The town’s mayor, Fernando Cunha, initiated the music school in June 2006, as a place where children and teenagers could go when they were not in school, as, in Brazil, students