6/4
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| Marching in memory |
“Black lives matter, peace-ful protest.” For the second time the week, I hear the sounds of chanting and march coming by my house. So I go out to see a steady stream of people. This march is more solemn than usual, it’s leading to a gathering in solidarity with George Floyd’s memorial service. Many people are dressed up in suits, their Sunday best.
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| marching |
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| The police followed |
Today the Center Board faces yet a new and unanticipated challenge. Originally the Program Committee was simply (simply?). dealing with the impact of the coronavirus and response on our program. Many productions had been shut down midstream, Many contracts left unfulfilled. With it being impossible to even know when reopening might take place, taking care of clients was next to impossible. At one point it seemed that August might be possible, and we had been playing around with idea of a Phoenix festival, as in rising from the ashes of the pandemic to renewed life. But that possibility is long gone. And that question now has had to become a secondary concern. Our city is under curfew. Daily protests with raised fists and voices, scattered violence mark the days. The question becomes, how does an arts organization responsibly respond to the events around it? This is especially important for an organization that had its birth from a vision to create a center for transformation of the individual and society. We talk about performances. But there are many logistical issues to be dealt with. The idea of conversations begins to emerge, Ted says we are doing this in what is essentially a white neighborhood. And I say, yes, except fr the reamaining public housing projects that are for the most part ignored. And Ted says and perhaps part of the goal is to find a way to create a dialogue. As always, that conversation seeking the intersection of beauty and justice, ethics and esthetics,. This current uprising is pushing the Center back to its roots.
Comes time for my “show” with all the anxiety that accompanies a show in a club or other venue. I want to do it right. My friends Esther and Steve, from the very first edition of my band, have joined me.
In addition to our live performances, we also include a video of Esther’s performance in church last Sunday with a song from the Wailin Jennies, Glory Bound. My friend Steve will sing a new song Resistance is holy, based on one of our conversations. What he has done with one phrase is amazing. Only six people join us in the ZOOM room, but I am amazed as a crowd builds up on our Facebook live stream. Friends and colleagues check in from all over, the state of Washington, Atlantic City, Indiana, Illinois, El Paso and Juarez…before we’re done, 269 views, my largest audience ever. I realize that as a tech naif, I’ve managed to produce a ZOOM show, stream it live on Facebook and even import a video. That feels pretty good.
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| Our show.... |
All my songs tonight relate to one or the other of the crises. When I first began singing and writing again, I stayed away from social political themes. But the 2016 Republican Convention changed all that. I believed that if I was going to perform, I had to make social witness part of that performance. At the first open mic I played at after the convention, at Maggie Reilly’s, I brought out an angry “Hard rain’s a gonna fall” and host Katelyn said “Good call.” Since then I’ve written songs, joined the People’s Music Network, played rallies and marches, a full set of “topicals;” at the Peoples’Voice Cafe and at a 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution event. I’ve sung in Chile during the uprising and at the US-Mexico border wall. Tonight I’ve added new verses to “We don’t roll that way.” I want to be done with that sing, but the President keeps adding new verses. I had also set ‘Hard rain…” aside for awhile. But my anger this week brings it back.
New verses for “We don’t roll that way”
This coronavirus has got us all stuck inside
You can run, you can run, you can run but you cannot hide.
Come outside everybody and play I heard you say
All I can say is….well until there’s more testing, tracking more reward on antibodies…
We don’t roll that way.
Common governors, do what you want, it’s all okay
Everyone for themselves, that’s the American way
I take no responsibility, I heard you say
All I can say is we don't roll that way.
We don’t roll that way
It’s not the country I believed in, not the way I was raised.
I feel like it’s late and getting darker every day.
AllI can say is,
We don’t roll that way.
Rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas clear a path to the church
Where you stand with a Bible and pretend you know what it’s worth.
If you don’t back down, I’m sending the army I heard you say
All I can say is, we don’t roll that way
We don’t….
And at the end of Hard rain I add (forgive me,Bob..)
And I’ll call out the am who says he’ll build a Great Wall
And all who stand with him in the Congress Hall
And I’ll sing for the new who take a brave knee
While congress is silent and black bodies bleed
And I’ll give t to you satrught beef it’s too late
It’ll take strong love to conquer this hate
And it’s a hard…it’s a hard rain….I can’t breathe….a gonna fall….
Concert here:
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