There is a choice with every note

12/5/14

Joel and Steve B

Thomas Bo is rehearsing the Composers Concordance string orchestra for the concert tomorrow night.  A flamenco trio with singer Ismael Fernandez, guitarist Pedro Cortes and Jose Luis Moreno, cajon, have joined them. The plaintive and passionate sounds of flamenco rising above and dancing with the orchestra in  Dave Soldier’s piece Seguiryas based on a passage from Julius Caesar. It’s a good way to start the day.

Milica's on her way to the Gate to work out final details with Paul.

Pat O is in because Jerry our contractor is finally back and we’re ready for the work to begin. Ongoing protests and disruptions over the non-indictment in the Eric Garner death are making traffic crazy and our roof people don’t make it in, but Pat and  Jerry go exploring anyways.

Arcadia stops in to sign checks and give me two very thoughtful birthday presents.

A paper weight and a pen to use with an iPhone. The paper weight has these words:

Live simply

Expect little, give much

Fill your life with love

Scatter sunshine

Forget self

Think of others and

Do and you would

Be done by.

She’s on her way to Pennsylvania for her weekly visit to her sister.

Another bunch of fresh flowers arrives from New York Hair. They’ve been arriving weekly since Stephen W started getting his hair cut there.

Our faithful volunteer Thomas from Brooklyn  arrives as he does every Friday. Helping with posters today.

Charles is in in his day off to clear some work.

Our rehearsal is expanding. Mandola Joe and Jeremy M have joined Esther, Pat and I. Jeremy shaping and forming our performance. He shares with us a lesson from Jack Hardy, that it’s better to behind the beat than in front of it., And from a reggae musician, that you let the beat, the groove, be like a rocking chair you settle back into. And then he works very hard on our harmonies. Each note. The sounds, the spaces between our voices. And all of a sudden it’s there. A damn near perfect sound for just a moment.  And something like a golden glow comes through the late afternoon windows. Seems like anyways. I’m discovering how much work this is. That there is a choice with every note you sing. A decision to be made. This is where joy is for me right now.

Dion brings his best

I go off to Alistair’s Christmas party and then back for Open Mic. I miss Graciella who Pat and I heard Wednesday night at Barley & Grain. Very happy that my friend Beppe has come again just to hang out. 

David L

David L’s wife Rachel is,

Rachel R sings

like David, beginning to push herself out further as a performer and  Steve B is giving her support on piano.

NEB from France

NEB from France

has joined us tonight keeping our international connections going.

Mandola Joe is acapella tonight, his strum finger still recovering from an accident with knife.

The surprise of the night is a young comedian by the name of Yu Jean Chung whose observational humor was clever enough to puncture all kinds of holes in liberal pc conventions. Great at portraying the insider/outsider persona of an Asian American. 

Yu Jean Chung

Mandola Joe acapella

It’s late by the time I come on. I’ve been back and forth on my set all day but finally decide to open with an acapella version of my song from the Composers Concordance Wingjammer concert. Then my Queen of the factory town…and because I can’t avoid it, feel compelled to finish with Dylan’s (still, sadly) timely A hard rain’s gonna fall…so much still connecting with the Eric Garner tragedy. I end Hard Rain with the words….I can’t breathe….

A very full day

12/4

The Composers Concordance orchestra is loading in for their first rehearsal for their upcoming concert of Shakespeare inspired music this weekend.

I’m waiting for my noon appointment with Russ when I look up and Daniella is here. I met her at the Princeton weekend on Poverty and Peacemaking. She is a translator who has juts published her translation of the Argentinian '50's classic, Operation Massacre, by Rodolfo Walsh. (http://www.amazon.com/Operation-Massacre-Rodolfo-Walsh/dp/1609805135) But here in New York City , she is part of the collective who is managing the Word Up bookstore in Washington Heights, a Dominican neighborhood trying to survive against the onslaught of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital gentrification. We head across the street to the Bean and she shares with me her outrage on the Eric Garner grand jury decision. It fills her with an anger too deep for words. She wants to at least march but that doesn't go deep enough. Knowing what to do is hard. I admire her commitment to a collective decision making process, despite all its inherent issues. Word Up, as I tell her, has an intuitive philosophy but no coherent ideology. Community building projects like Word Up are inherently political, subversive, but in an organic, not strategic sense. It’s all part of the new reality being created out there. (htttp://wordupbooks.wordpress.com)

When I give Daniella a tour of the building, there is a syncopated dance group rehearsing in the gym. A walk up rental snagged by Charles. Looks like they will be coming back.

The Koreans are back again. They are pressing hard for a major buy in with our building. They are connected to one of the innumerable Korean Presbyterian denominations, conservative Reformed theology over Confucian culture. Politically liberal, socially conservative.I remember a previous Korean congregation we worked with. When I asked the pastor about their relationship with the LGBTQ community, he said, No problem, there are no homosexuals in Korea.
Well, alright then.

Russ does show up. We continue our conversation about revolution and religion, The meaning of radical discipleship. And very existentially , how we should respond to the Garner decision. We want to continue this conversation. But how to even invite people? Get the word out? We know there is a hunger… but how to connect? That is the question…

Berik still wants to get his Kazakh friend a crack at our reconstruction project.

Pat is in to begin the go ahead conversation with our construction manager Jerry. We're way behind, need to get this work moving forward. have to get the roof. beefore winter sets in. Jerry and his subcontractor are into walk the roof with Pat O and figure out the next move.

Karen has complicated problems from Hawaii she wants me to help solve. And then she plays some very reflective piano.

Diane and Teddy and Tricia are in to share their ideas for hoer next performances but also an eye toward put reconstruction work. Everyone  has their own opinion. I just wan to get it done.

Reggie who took pictures of Thomas Bo’s performance wants to share the photos.

Anna has a host of stories to tell. Her keeping me up to date with what's going on in the projects is invaluable.

A very full day.

How Much of This Are We Supposed to Take?

12/1



The Riverside orchestra fills the sanctuary for their rehearsal.



12/2



I began the day at the Federation of Protestant Welfare Organizations with my            friends from the SWEAT campaign. (I finally learned that SWEAT stands for               Securing Wages Earned Against Theft..) We’ve come to one of the largest oldschool  antipoverty agencies in the city to seek their support for a bill in Albany to stop wage theft. At  least we’ve succeeded in getting the concept into the public consciousness. 


Pat O is in to review everything we’ve got to be dealing with
this week. Wanting to  get construction
underway before the weather is too far gone.


The Mass Incarceration Network has called an emergency meeting. Wanting to rally  their supporters to join in the ongoing Ferguson demonstrations. The meeting was      called for West-Park but got changed to SPSA so we have a steady stream of people  coming in looking for the meeting. The last one through is Noche Diaz, a young    leader in the struggle against  the NYPD stop and frisk policy. He is definitely unpopular with the NYPD so early in the Ferguson protests he was singled out and taken off the streets. A steady stream of phone calls to Central Booking got  him out.


My son Nate comes by to take me to dinner for my birthday,coming up tomorrow.



12/3



I get to the office after walking back home from lectionary study then busing in. I just miss    Jeremy and Priska. It’s one of those days…Russ waited for an hour not realizing our meeting was for Thursday and I double booked and forgot both meetings. It’s a bit of an off birthday.



I was at a meeting at presbytery about Ferguson and our response. Only 4 of us were there.   My friend Cornell the only African-American. Trust is low. New York City Hair barbershop  and salon brings another arrangement of fresh flowers. They’ve doing this for about a month now.



I’ll go to the Composer’s Concordance Concert in honor of Anton Webern’s birthday and feel happy to get a name check the end of the concert. Me and Anton.



Then I’ll meet up with Pat O to hear love music. The verdict
comes in. The Grand Jury brings no indictment against the NYPD officer who
threw a chokehold on Eric Garner on Staten     
Island. The one they called a gentle giant went down. Told them
he couldn’t breathe. He lay there. No
one offered CPR. Everyone’s seen the video. (http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2014/dec/04/i-cant-breathe-eric-garner-chokehold-death-video)
An unbelievable verdict. I look outside on Amsterdam Avenue. A steady stream of    people hitting the streets. 



My friend Sekou will post on Facebook, How much of this are
supposed to take?

Awakening 2: the first Sunday in Advent, from Lament to Hope

11/30

Robin Rhodes, Bob Brashear, Angela Lamb, Olivia Harris

40/60 is here, ready to rehearse. They’ve come from Boston and Washington to reunite here at West-Park. Jeremy M arrives soon after.

There are quite a few visitors. One an old man I never do get to meet. There’s a woman who raises her hand in praise. I’ll be watching her for reactions. Turns out the parents of 40/60 have also all travelled here from different places to be here for the service and afternoon concert.

Pat and Larry are here early to decorate again and Pat has brought the three purple and one white candles for the Advent wreath.

We’ve got to cover Ferguson and Advent today.  We begin with O COME, O COME EMMANUEL.  Jeremy explains that it’s from the 12^th Century. And I add that the third verse, the one about war ceasing and filling the whole world with peace was written by Henry Sloane Coffin, father of William, former Yale Chaplain during my time there and Riverside pastor, at the start of World War I.

I’ve written my own words for the LIGHTING of THE ADVENT CANDLE:   

One: Our brothers and sisters are not yet free. Like captives and exiles in their own land, they mourn the loss of children with inconsolable grief.

All: We light this candle in solidarity. We light this candle to light the path from lament to hope. To the day of true emancipation when all will live in freedom.

We begin our scriptures with ISAIAH 64: 1-9 and follow with 40/60’s first

MUSICAL REFLECTION. Jeremy has written a  sung response for Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19:

O come Lord, come; restore and save us now. After MARK 13: 24-37, we go into When the saints come marchin’ in with its apocalyptic language.

And then I begin my REFLECTION.    It’s been a hard week.  What you might call a kairos moment…where our normal chronos is interrupted…a week where the heavens are torn open…(Isaiah 64:1) There was the verdict in Ferguson. Then people exploded. Fires blazed. In New York City, tunnels, bridges, highways shut down. Shopping malls across the country. While protests in Ferguson have been building for weeks, there were spontaneous outcries across the country…

Friday was the traditional start for the shopping season, Black Friday. But another cry went up:  Black lives matter…If you saw Nicholas Kristof’s op ed this morning in the Times,(http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-when-whites-just-dont-get-it-part-5.html) you got some insight into the emotions of the time:

Black men are 21 times more likely to be killed than white men

Imprison higher percentage of our black population  of than apartheid South Africa.

There is now greater income disparity  in than in 1970 South Africa  at the peak of apartheid

As the children of Israel lifted up their lament from their Babylonian exile, it  easy to understand how our black citizens might feel abandoned…in captivity…

O come Emmanuel we sang…lonely exile, captivity..it has been said that what is happening now is not a renewal of the civil rights movement but a movement for the emancipation of oppressed….

Every Advent is three at the same time:

Historic, as in the birth of Jesus

Existential, as we move towards this season’s celebration of Christmas, the incarnation, God coming  to be  present in human flesh, in the midst of humanity

And future…the Second coming, or the day of emancipation, of liberation, of the coming of the  beloved community.

It is our challenge to move from our lament to hope.

That Jim Wallis quote again, to be able to believe  in spite of the evidence and the courage to make the evidence change.

Archbishop Tutu at the peak of apartheid affirming we have already won

Martin Luther King, Jr. saying that the arc of history is long but it bends towards justice

The liberatory power of black worship that created zones of liberation in the midst of slavery and oppression  giving sustaining power for the long struggle for true emancipation.

It is our work as followers of Jesus to create those outposts of the kindom, those liberated zones where people can taste and see and experience the freedom, the victory that is to come. That is the journey we invite you on in as we begin this season. I’m not even sure I know what all that means but it begins with a commitment to go there. And that we journey together.

We need a coming. We await a coming. Not for a new one to come. But to find  Emmanuel already in our midst. On the other side of our lament, hope…

As I concluded, before 40/60 played again, I asked Olivia to speak about how they experience the sharing  of their music as reflection on what is going on around us. And she explained her feeling of anger and frustration as she marched in Boston  and the moving of music through their instruments.  The non-didactic, expression of lament and hope.

Before our prayers, we sang as 40/60 played, from Isaiah 64:8:

Change my heart O God, make it ever true                                                                                        Change my heart O God, may I be like you.                                                                                         You are  the potter, I am the clay                                                                                                         Mold me and make me, this is what I pray.

Then I had John R and Dion bring our ceramic baptism cover from Occupy days. I showed it’s words of peace. And the crack. How its creator (Sheryl Jaffe) had said we were about healing the cracks in the world. And how I later learned of the Japanese tradition of always needing an imperfection as a reminder of life’s (and our) imperfection.

Our final song is Ella’s Song by () Berniece Johnson Reagon. It is frightening how fitting the  words are to what is happening  today:

Refrain: 

We who believe in freedom cannot rest We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes 

 Verses 

Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers’ sons Is as important as the killing of   White men, White mothers’ sons And that which touches we most is that I had a          chance to work with people Passing on to others that which was passed on to me  To me young people come first, they have the courage where we fail And if I can shed some light as they carry us through the gale  The older I get the better I know that the    secret of my going on Is when the reins are in the hand of the young who dare to run against the storm  Not needing to clutch for power, not needing the light just to shine on me I need to be just one in the number as we stand against tyranny  Struggling     myself don’t mean a whole lot I come to realize That teaching others to stand up and  fight is the only way my struggle survive  I’m a woman who speaks in a voice and I   must be heard At time I can be quite difficult, I’ll bow to no man’s word 

In the honor of powerful grassroots organizer Ella Josephine Baker, 1903-1986.

I go off to have brunch with my boys and return for 40/60’s concert. The gym is full  of supportive friends and family and they give us an afternoon of passionate,               inventive and intense music including a musical interpretation of Ulam’s Spiral, the    revelatory graphic representation  of  the correlation of prime numbers. By their          teacher David Mc Bride. 
Ulam's Spiral 

It was warm enough today that      people were eating brunch at the   outdoor café tables. The late          afternoon  sun washes through as   the music fills the room. 

A good end to the day….
Add caption

Of Advent. And Ferguson. Marching saints. And an emmanuel to come.

11/29

The 40/60 band (http://fortysixtytrio.com/) is waiting for me as I get to the 86^th street door, ready to rehearse. I let them in and they head up to the gym. Robin Rhodes, Olivia Harris and Angela Lamb, they are proteges of Ralph Farris and ETHEL yet have their own unique persona as a performing group, not to mention a strong commitment to tier work as artists to the greater struggle for social justice. Ferguson has had a heavy impact on Olivia who has been on the streets in Boston with Robin.

I am occupied with working on putting the Sunday morning service together, trying to develop my theme of From Lament to Hope with a very existential eye on Ferguson and the events of last week.

Jeremy arrives and we go through our own work.  He asks about O Come, O Come Emmanuel and I point out that  captive Israel captures the sense of a people not yet free. That mourn(ing) in lonely exile can be  like feeling exiled in your own country. I think of only one verse, but Jeremy is drawn to the third, by Henry Sloane Coffin in 1852:

O come, Desire of nations, bind
All peoples in one heart and mind;
Bid envy, strife and quarrels cease;
Fill the whole world with heaven’s peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Whenever I hear anything  that could be as Zionist anthem, I feel, well, you gotta go for the universal….he says.

When we look at Mark 13: 24-25

²⁴“But in those days, after that suffering, 
     the sun will be darkened, 
          and the moon will not give its light, 
²⁵  and the stars will be falling from heaven, 
          and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 

he says,  Saints….when the saints go marchin’ in…that’s it…

O when the sun refuse to shine…

O when the moon turns red with blood

O when the stars fall from the sky…

And I realize what I’ve always missed.... Saints... is an apocalyptic song, it’s lyrics drawn straight from Mark and Revelation.

We head up to the gym to meet with 40/60. They  love the starkness of the space. It’s sonoral resonance. We go over the plan. Rehearse O come, O come Emmanuel….and …Saints…complete with improvisations. Tomorrow will be a good day.

I’m short on time. Will barely be able to make it to my performance with Composers Concordance on the Lower Eastside. (Where 40/60 will turn up in the audience..)

I open the door an there is Sean in hi wheelchair…..Uh, Bob….