2021 Fall Friends and Family Concert

Program:

I

• Bread and Roses - James Oppenheim & Mimi Fariña (arr. Noel León)
  This song is commonly associated with the successful textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912, now often known as the "Bread and Roses strike". The slogan pairing bread and roses, appealing for both fair wages and dignified conditions, found resonance as transcending "the sometimes tedious struggles for marginal economic advances" in the "light of labor struggles as based on striving for dignity and respect."

• Sing Out, March On - Joshuah Campbell (arr. Noel León)
  While the musical style and the lyrics are a nod to the protest songs of the civil rights era, Joshuah conceived of the song during the 2015 demonstrations for Black Lives Matter. The fact that the lyrics can remind us simultaneously of 64 years ago, 4 years ago, and even 4 days ago, serves as a heavy reminder that the song's call to action still rings true.

• I’m Gonna Walk It With You - Brian Claflin and Ellie Grace (arr. Rebecca Blum)
  This song was written by singer-songwriters Brian Claflin and Ellie Grace as an “anthem of solidarity for a new era.” We sing it as a message of solidarity for all sorts of audiences, from marginalized communities experiencing injustices to close friends going through a rough time.

II

• Content warning: domestic violence
  Behind the Wall - Tracy Chapman (arr. Mackenzie Howard)
  This song, originally sung completely without accompaniment, describes the helpless experience of a witness hearing acts of violence from “behind the wall” with limited help from the police. Though the song was released in 1988, the scene is still all too relatable to many.

• (I Can't Keep) Quiet - MILCK (edited by Noel León)
  This next piece, called "Quiet," has inspired the formation of choirs all around the world. It all started with the #ICantKeepQuiet Choir, which was organized and led by an artist named MILCK. During the 2017 DC Women’s March, these singers from around the country gathered and performed this powerful anthem written by MILCK and Adrianne Gonzalez.

• Breathe Fire (Song for Bhopal) - arr. Noel León and Rebecca Fahrer
  The lyrics in this song use the words of people in Bhopal (either as direct quotes or close paraphrasing).

  Woven together, they tell a story of tragedy - how thousands of people died needlessly in the Bhopal disaster. It also tells the story of what the survivors did about it! The lyrics are grim...but they are meant to be a call to arms as much as a lament ... a celebration of the survivors' fight.

III

• Pilot Light - Sarah Beller (arr. Noel León)
  This song was written in June of 2018 by one of our founding members when it became public that the Administration had been separating children from their families at the border. The lyrics are a reminder to activists to “keep on your pilot light” and not get burned out in the long fight.

• Rise Up - Andra Day, Lin-Manuel Miranda (arr. Ricky Jabarin)
  Rising up means different things to people: resilience… resistance... revolution… Whatever your interpretation is, we hope that above all, this song infuses you with hope, faith, and energy to carry you through the season and those to come.

• Peace, Salaam, Shalom - Emma’s Revolution (arr. Mackenzie Howard)
  The title of this song is the word “peace” in English, Arabic, and Hebrew.
  From Emma’s Revolution’s website: “We were moving from NYC to the Washington DC area over September 11th, 2001. When the only response from the government and the corporate media was “war and retribution,” we wrote “Peace, Salaam, Shalom” and sang it at an impromptu peace march in DC that week. Less than a month later, we led the song at the first peace rally in NYC after 9/11, where over 10,000 people sang with us for the three hour march, all the way from Union Square to Times Square. Since then, the song has been called the anthem of the peace movement and the song and the tee shirt it inspired have travelled around the world.”