Recently I attended the Iowa Choral Director's Association's Summer Symposium. I type here, right now to discuss something I found intriguing and very important. The Justice Choir is a movement, originating up in the Twin Cities of Minnesota by Tesfa Wondemagegnehu. This choir is lead by a songbook that urges its singers to "Start Local, Stay Vocal". The vision of the Justice Choir reads:
"Justice Choir isn't actually one choir. It's a template for bringing local communities together to inspire strength, unity, and policy change in situations that demand social, economic, and environmental justice, and for amplifying that messages peacefully, on the local and national level through singing."
During the session at the symposium, Tesfa took us through the song book. The subject matter of each song related to social inequality, the need to recognize that we can do more for our planet, and sharing this message in nonviolent ways. We began with song 8. Courage to Be Who We Are, the text reminds us that we are 1. Here, 2. Standing, and 3. Singing for those who have fallen, and for the courage to be who we are. What I realized what that we need to be here. We need to be present in this current world that forces us to not accept others, and we choose to accept ourselves, and allowing our privilege to transfer to those that weren't given that at their birth. We do this by standing with them, and singing allows us to deliver that message.
I am working to start this kind of movement in my city of residence, I am beginning to let me students know that I am with them. I have students that are Black, White, Hispanic, and a slew of others that are new to the country - fleeing a country and a government that hates them. I have White students, the students that are born with privilege, but they are only racially white - they are Bosnian. Individuals from Bosnia typically practice Christianity or Islam. You can imagine that beginning on November 9th, these students and their families were afraid. This is not something that one can stop them from feeling. I heard someone say, "Well, they're legal citizens." They were right, they were completely right, but this doesn't have to do with a legal status. This has to do with their religion, that terrifies individuals who wish to not seek first to understand, then be understood.
Another piece in this songbook is #13 the Intro to "Fight with Tools". The lyrics read as follows:
"Our minds are our weapons,
Our souls our protection,
And our feet will never up root.
One body,
One Mind,
We will all stand in line and proclaim the once unspeakable truth.
So we pay our debts to the damage we share,
Underneath we are all flesh and blood.
Slowly we rise with our voices entwined,
The revival has only just begun"
After this section, individuals are welcome to chant "Fight with, fight with, fight with tools!" This is the start, or rather an intro to the Flobot song, "Fight with Tools".
Tesfa did an event of singing the songbook and then provided a survey at the end. Tesfa gave us the idea of a chart with 4 different quadrants and a circle that connects them in the middle.
You can see each quadrant is a representation of each person, or of categories that people can fit into. Tesfa shared it and I was clearly so in awe that I didn't write down any more notes. The believers - believe in the work that is required, in the choir. The thinker will think of ways to act, perhaps with no follow through. The feeler is drawn by emotion to action, or are empathetic and sympathetic to the oppressed. The actors are the doers. They do the work, perhaps without thinking about the big pictures. Each one of these players contribute in their own way to the work of social justice. We want to have individuals fitting into that circle. Believe in the important work, think about the action, feel for the right reasons, and do the work. If you witness avoidance, there is no connection to the work.
Another goal of the justice choir is to begin the conversation. Something that I found very interesting is that one should not let their badge of "woke" (individuals that are tuned into these issues of race etc.) to show what you know or what you don't know. This is a marathon race together. Yes you read that correctly. This is a race that we are running together. We all lose if we don't work together. If you are white and you are silence, that is the same as being the oppressor. That should be our true "privilege". This privilege is to share it, take what circumstances of your birth have granted to you and transfer that to the oppressed.
Whoa, right? Powerful. What are our tools? The educator in me asks, what tools do you impart to your students? I have learned that literacy is power. I have learned that speech is power. I have learned that giving students a voice, is their power. I have learned that teaching people's history with help of the Zinn Ed Project, gives students power.
I have read the disturbing news of an "alt right" group protesting in Virginia. This protest was done because of the removing a General Robert E. Lee statue. There was a counter protest going on, and a car purposefully ran into them. Peaceful protest is important, how about dialogue? There is so much hate in this world, and I want us to check our privilege at the door. Why are we here? What has allowed us to become this way? I leave with more questions.
I have been reading Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me. The opening chapter (all the further I am at this point) has the author writing to his son. Explaining how unjust the American Dream is. Did we realize that the American may not have been sought out from African slaves? There are a slew of issues where we enable stereotypes to control us. Police officers are gunning down innocent Black men. You can refute that - they had cause and such, I see that, and I raise you, did they have to kill them?
Let me share a recent story of witnessing racism. My mother has been ill, and I've either met, or taken her to a few doctor's appointments. One time, as we're sitting in a serious wing of the hospital, and an officer comes in with an inmate. Several people tensed up at seeing the inmate. The officer had to use the restroom, so the inmate was shown to a chair and the officer attended to his bladder. Holy cow, people were nervous because it wasn't only an inmate, but he was Black. People... we're in a serious part of the hospital - he's got much worse things to worry about.
So to conclude,
Educators - how do you fight systematic oppression, systems that prevent individuals from moving through a glass ceiling? How do you try to level the playing field? Are you teaching ALL students everyone's history, or just a White man's?
I am sorry for the smattering of words, but we can do better. I've been trying to figure out the words to say/write. You need to "fight with tools". I am there with you. Much love.
TGZ
"Justice Choir isn't actually one choir. It's a template for bringing local communities together to inspire strength, unity, and policy change in situations that demand social, economic, and environmental justice, and for amplifying that messages peacefully, on the local and national level through singing."
During the session at the symposium, Tesfa took us through the song book. The subject matter of each song related to social inequality, the need to recognize that we can do more for our planet, and sharing this message in nonviolent ways. We began with song 8. Courage to Be Who We Are, the text reminds us that we are 1. Here, 2. Standing, and 3. Singing for those who have fallen, and for the courage to be who we are. What I realized what that we need to be here. We need to be present in this current world that forces us to not accept others, and we choose to accept ourselves, and allowing our privilege to transfer to those that weren't given that at their birth. We do this by standing with them, and singing allows us to deliver that message.
I am working to start this kind of movement in my city of residence, I am beginning to let me students know that I am with them. I have students that are Black, White, Hispanic, and a slew of others that are new to the country - fleeing a country and a government that hates them. I have White students, the students that are born with privilege, but they are only racially white - they are Bosnian. Individuals from Bosnia typically practice Christianity or Islam. You can imagine that beginning on November 9th, these students and their families were afraid. This is not something that one can stop them from feeling. I heard someone say, "Well, they're legal citizens." They were right, they were completely right, but this doesn't have to do with a legal status. This has to do with their religion, that terrifies individuals who wish to not seek first to understand, then be understood.
Another piece in this songbook is #13 the Intro to "Fight with Tools". The lyrics read as follows:
"Our minds are our weapons,
Our souls our protection,
And our feet will never up root.
One body,
One Mind,
We will all stand in line and proclaim the once unspeakable truth.
So we pay our debts to the damage we share,
Underneath we are all flesh and blood.
Slowly we rise with our voices entwined,
The revival has only just begun"
After this section, individuals are welcome to chant "Fight with, fight with, fight with tools!" This is the start, or rather an intro to the Flobot song, "Fight with Tools".
Tesfa did an event of singing the songbook and then provided a survey at the end. Tesfa gave us the idea of a chart with 4 different quadrants and a circle that connects them in the middle.
You can see each quadrant is a representation of each person, or of categories that people can fit into. Tesfa shared it and I was clearly so in awe that I didn't write down any more notes. The believers - believe in the work that is required, in the choir. The thinker will think of ways to act, perhaps with no follow through. The feeler is drawn by emotion to action, or are empathetic and sympathetic to the oppressed. The actors are the doers. They do the work, perhaps without thinking about the big pictures. Each one of these players contribute in their own way to the work of social justice. We want to have individuals fitting into that circle. Believe in the important work, think about the action, feel for the right reasons, and do the work. If you witness avoidance, there is no connection to the work.
Another goal of the justice choir is to begin the conversation. Something that I found very interesting is that one should not let their badge of "woke" (individuals that are tuned into these issues of race etc.) to show what you know or what you don't know. This is a marathon race together. Yes you read that correctly. This is a race that we are running together. We all lose if we don't work together. If you are white and you are silence, that is the same as being the oppressor. That should be our true "privilege". This privilege is to share it, take what circumstances of your birth have granted to you and transfer that to the oppressed.
Whoa, right? Powerful. What are our tools? The educator in me asks, what tools do you impart to your students? I have learned that literacy is power. I have learned that speech is power. I have learned that giving students a voice, is their power. I have learned that teaching people's history with help of the Zinn Ed Project, gives students power.
I have read the disturbing news of an "alt right" group protesting in Virginia. This protest was done because of the removing a General Robert E. Lee statue. There was a counter protest going on, and a car purposefully ran into them. Peaceful protest is important, how about dialogue? There is so much hate in this world, and I want us to check our privilege at the door. Why are we here? What has allowed us to become this way? I leave with more questions.
I have been reading Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me. The opening chapter (all the further I am at this point) has the author writing to his son. Explaining how unjust the American Dream is. Did we realize that the American may not have been sought out from African slaves? There are a slew of issues where we enable stereotypes to control us. Police officers are gunning down innocent Black men. You can refute that - they had cause and such, I see that, and I raise you, did they have to kill them?
Let me share a recent story of witnessing racism. My mother has been ill, and I've either met, or taken her to a few doctor's appointments. One time, as we're sitting in a serious wing of the hospital, and an officer comes in with an inmate. Several people tensed up at seeing the inmate. The officer had to use the restroom, so the inmate was shown to a chair and the officer attended to his bladder. Holy cow, people were nervous because it wasn't only an inmate, but he was Black. People... we're in a serious part of the hospital - he's got much worse things to worry about.
So to conclude,
Educators - how do you fight systematic oppression, systems that prevent individuals from moving through a glass ceiling? How do you try to level the playing field? Are you teaching ALL students everyone's history, or just a White man's?
I am sorry for the smattering of words, but we can do better. I've been trying to figure out the words to say/write. You need to "fight with tools". I am there with you. Much love.
TGZ
