Posted in Inspiration, tagged American history, civil rights, history, Inspiration, music, pete seeger, storytelling on January 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »
If you only listen to the first 6 minutes, it’s illuminating. And if you pour yourself some tea and make a plate of snacks, listen to the full hour.
https://www.loc.gov/item/2015669138/
It is the Pete Seeger oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Beacon, New York, 2011 July 22. I also highly recommend: https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/music-in-the-civil-rights-movement/
Posted in Inspiration, Music, tagged beauty, blue heron, Faure, Faure Requiem, Inspiration, music, serenity on March 25, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Inspiration, tagged American history, art, black history, faith, hope, Inspiration, Katherine Lamb Tait, music, Singing Window, spirituals, stained glass windows, storytelling, Tuskegee on January 15, 2018| 1 Comment »
Today I was browsing the online archives of the Library of Congress and chanced upon this 1930s drawing by Katherine Lamb Tait. Though it is not labeled as such, I realized it was an early rendition of her design for the unique stained glass windows at Tuskegee University known as The Singing Window.
About two years ago, I wrote an article describing the story behind the windows. You can read it online here in Deep South Magazine and learn how Tait collaborated with Robert Moton, President of Tuskegee, to produce what would be a visual expression of eleven spirituals.
Installed in 1933, the original windows would only be in place for about twenty years before a fire destroyed the chapel where they were located. But because Tait’s final design survived …
… when a new chapel was built in the 1960’s, architects were able to recreate and include the new Singing Window as well.
I hope to see it in person one day. This photo of the window can be found on the Library of Congress website courtesy of photographer Carol M. Highsmith.
Posted in Inspiration, Uncategorized, tagged Alvin Ailey, art, beauty, Black History Month, dance, Inspiration, music, storytelling, urban life on February 19, 2017| 2 Comments »
I was seeking not so much inspiration as simple background music to help me stay focused on my writing. In my usual meandering way I chanced upon this video and in reading about the origins of the video I learned about an award winning movie that probably most other people already know about called Moonlight. I hope to see it one day but meanwhile here is, in just over two minutes, a film from director Anna Rose Holmer capturing a powerful collaboration between the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the movie composer Nicholas Britell. Choreography is by the theater’s artistic director Robert Battle.
Additional Reading – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_(2016_film)
Posted in Inspiration, Uncategorized, tagged American history, art, immigration, Inspiration, Kennedy Center, Leonard Bernstein, music, National Cultural Center, Pablo Casals, Yo Yo Ma on February 12, 2017| 1 Comment »
Recently I “challenged” viewers to watch a video that was less than four minutes long featuring the dancer known as L’il Buck. This week I challenge you to view this video. On November 29, 1962 a benefit concert took place called The American Pageant of the Arts. In attendance was President and Mrs. Kennedy, Marion Anderson, Robert Frost, Van Cliburn, and many other stars of stage and screen. Leonard Bernstein was Master of Ceremonies. In this particular concert excerpt he introduces to America a 7-year old cellist named Yo-Yo Ma and his sister Yeou-Cheng Ma.
The benefit performance was to raise funds toward the creation of a National Cultural Center.
Today the National Cultural Center is known as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Sources & Additional Reading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Casals
Hope for America/Government Support for the Arts – https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/hope-for-america/government-support-for-the-arts.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts
Posted in Inspiration, tagged beauty, Inspiration, music, musings, nature, Photography, poetry, rivers on February 2, 2017| 3 Comments »
When I walked toward the river yesterday, I was so cold. I knew I couldn’t walk the length of the Esplanade photographing its wintry landscape but I felt compelled to try. I had not been to the river in a long time. Rivers have been on my mind of late.
I’ve been thinking about rivers and how they branch and what you can find in those branches over time. How rivers can run deep, they can run shallow, they shape the land even as the land shapes the flow of the waters.
Of late both a song and a poem about rivers periodically run through my mind. The song, composed by Sam Cooke, begins …
I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh, and just like the river I’ve been running ever since
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gon’ come, oh yes it will …
The poem, as written by Langston Hughes, opens …
I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers. …
My fingers already freezing, I made it to the river’s edge and began walking along an icy stretch. I looked around waiting for something to catch my attention. I watched where the sunlight fell. Finally I came to a point, as may always be the case, when I had to decide how much further I could safely continue versus turning back.
I paused, took a deep breath and looked around. I planted my feet and took a few photos. Right there. That was all I had. Just that given moment before I had to race into the nearest shop to warm myself. Later as I scrolled through the few pictures captured I was glad that I had decided to take action in that given moment. What to do in a given moment? That is the question I ponder as I follow rivers and as I do my best to follow the daily news.
It is a deluge. A constant stream of information. A co-mingling of truth, lies, opinion, jargon and drama spread with too much rapidity across social media platforms, often without deep thought or editing. And not just at the Presidential level. The profound nature of the changes taking place right now in human history across this planet is quite breath-taking. It is paralyzing to some, invigorating to others, and then there is everyone in between. For me, I am learning, as by the river, to pause and take a deep breath, and then to decide what I can do, from where I am, at a given moment.
I’m not sure when I will be returning to the river, at least the Charles River. Too cold right now but Spring will come. The bared branches arching over the water will soon enough be green.
Sources & Additional Reading
The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes
A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke
Posted in Inspiration, Music, Uncategorized, tagged American history, black history, culture, folk music, Inspiration, libraries, music, sacred music on February 2, 2017| 1 Comment »
One thing people might not know about me is that as an adult I learned how to play the harmonica. I’d never played an instrument before. The class was in part an opportunity to do something different and also an homage to my father who played the harmonica when I was a child. I have a very nice harmonica tucked away somewhere. I haven’t played or thought about playing for years until I came across a 1975 recording of Babylon is Falling Down sung by Deacon Dan Smith with Nick Hallman & the Georgia Sea Island Singers. The music is on the disc, Shall We Gather at the River, highlighting Florida’s African American religious music. This song and 14 additional tracks can be accessed online via the following link: https://www.floridamemory.com/audio/cd3.php Well worth a visit to that page and the larger Florida Memory site to learn about the diverse history of the peoples that have shaped a place that is an important part of the American puzzle.
Posted in Inspiration, tagged art, beauty, black dancer, creativity, dance, Inspiration, Lil Buck, music, Nowness, performing arts, video on January 28, 2017| 4 Comments »
When I first saw this video, my first thought was I must share this with my young nieces and nephews. From dancer Lil Buck’s words about his life journey, his grace amidst the works of Matisse and other masters, and the lovely soundtrack, this short video is a gentle respite. I hope you enjoy.
Posted in Inspiration, tagged angels, art, beauty, brass, Inspiration, music, Photography, sculpture on July 10, 2016| 1 Comment »
Posted in Inspiration, tagged Ave Maria, beauty, Inspiration, music, opera, portraits, Schubert, storytelling on July 2, 2016| 1 Comment »
No picture this week but I can share this …
I’ve picked up a few things about him. He’s Haitian and speaks Creole. He joined the neighborhood maybe two years ago. He’s slender, and his skin is like black walnut. Smooth and dark. He’s rather ageless — he could be 40 or he could be 70. Is he good or bad? That I do not know. He does seem to move with grace through the world from my vantage point. I live along a main thoroughfare and along this thoroughfare he walks with an easy gait. And when he walks he sings. Operatically.
Even when I am not peering out of a window, I know that he is near by the song in the air as he moves. I know so little about opera (and that little is thanks mostly to PBS and to Bugs Bunny) and yet when he sings I can recognize what little I have heard. La Traviata. La Boheme. Wagner. And then during a recent rainstorm, when I left the windows a little cracked to let in the wonderful fresh air, I heard his voice.
I looked out a window and there he was, walking along nonchalantly, with his bags from the local grocery store, dark skin and hair, white shirt plastered against his whippet form, and those khaki pants. His shoes I could not see in the shadows of the looming night. His voice filled the air. This time it was Ave Maria.
His head was tilted back, and when he stepped beneath the glow of the street light, I could see the white of his teeth and eyes. I’d just heard Ave Maria sung at a funeral a week or so before. So solemn that day. This man, my unnamed fellow, sang it with such joy.
We have yet to actually meet. I figure I should not rush out of my home, make him stop his song, to accost him with my questions of “who are you” and “what is your story” or “may I snap your portrait.”
At least, not yet. 🙂
Words + Images 