Tomorrow I present a workshop, Choral Singing: The Path to Justice, Inclusion and Love, at the Unitarian Universalists’ General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio. I weave favorite quotes with music to be sung by the participants.
Last night as the World House Choir sang at Sinclair Community College to accompany Robert Shetterly’s Portraits of Americans Who Tell the Truth, we added a new verse to Holly Near’s Singing for Our Lives. “We are standing with John Lewis and we are singing, singing for our lives.” Representative John Lewis got his Democratic colleagues singing on the floor of the US House of Representatives We Shall Overcome. Their new verse was:
We will pass a bill, we will pass a bill, we will pass a bill someday,
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we will pass a bill someday.
We are not afraid, we are not afraid , we are not afraid today,
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome someday
You can be sure that with the help of all of us who abhor rampant gun violence in the USA, we the people will make this happen.
Look at the role music plays in all movements for social justice. Let’s keep singing and support our common musical language as we march toward justice, inclusion, and love.