"Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train. Oh peace train take this country, come take it home again"..... from "Peace Train" by the singer-songwriter Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens
In keeping with the symbolism of the legendary Peace Train, The Seattle Peace Chorus traveled to Minneapolis to perform the midwest premiere of "Let America Be America Again" on Thursday, August 28 and Friday, August 29, 2008. This choral work, an original composition by Seattle Peace Chorus Director Frederick West, is based on a work by the noted African-American poet, Langston Hughes.
The Seattle Peace Chorus was honored to have as a soloist the distinguished Dr. Lawrence Burnett, choral director and professor of music at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota. Dr. Burnett's professional background includes solo/stage work with numerous orchestras, choruses, and festivals throughout the country. In 1992 he was awarded the Governor's Award for African-Americans of Distinction in New York State. He is an active member of the Music Educators National Conference, and the American Choral Directors Association for which he serves as National Chair of the Repertoire Standards Committee for Ethnic Music and Multicultural Perspectives. Read more about Dr. Burnett.
The Twin Cities' concerts opened with gospel, classical, folk and popular songs and culminated with "Let America Be America Again."
Dates and locations::
Thursday, August 28, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Burnsville Presbyterian Church of the Apostles
701 East 130th Street, Burnsville, Minnesota
Tel: 952-890-7877
Welcome by Rev. Joy Smith
Map
and directions
Friday, August 29, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church
511 Groveland Ave., Minneapolis, Minnesota
Tel: 612-871-5303
Welcome by Pastor Bruce Robbins
Special Guest: former
Saint Paul Mayor George Latimer
Map
and directions
Sunday, August 31, 2008
The chorus also performed at closing ceremonies
for the Veterans For Peace National Convention
on Sunday, August 31, 2008.
Concert Flyer (MS Word)
The Seattle Peace Chorus, in its 25th year, continues to seek opportunities to wage peace through song. The purpose of crossing the country to perform “Let America Be America Again,” was to join a multitude of peace organizations gathering in the Twin Cities just prior to the 2008 Republican National Convention. These included Veterans For Peace; the Minnesota Alliance of PeaceMakers, a collaboration of 80 peace organizations; numerous church peace and justice committees; and others.
Thousands of international, national and local media covered the Republican National Convention , creating an unprecedented opportunity for peace groups to spread their message. During this pivotal presidential election year, the chorus saw a great need to raise its voice to further the causes of peace and social justice within its own country.
In 2006, the chorus commissioned a choral work by their music director using the poem "Let America Be America" to bring the message of hope for peace and social justice to its audiences. The moving words of Langston Hughes written in the 1930's remain compelling,and relevant today. With our country in its sixth year of war in Iraq, tens of thousands of lives lost and thousands more wounded, we must loudly voice our opposition. With billions of dollars being spent to continue our occupation of another country when there are so many dire needs in our economy, our education system, our health care, and our environment, we are seeking a return to American ideals. The Seattle Peace Chorus is traveling across the country to bring our powerful choral work to a broader audience. With "Let America Be America Again," we are singing to:
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the
stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying
need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's,
Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's
lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright © 1994 the Estate of Langston Hughes. Used with permission at http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15609, accessed July 2, 2008.