The Sound of Music
The Little-Big Choir
STC has always been blessed with great singers. In fact, I refused to sign the membership book until the congregation formed a choir. I wanted so desperately to sing with these incredible people. And singing was just the beginning. STC has had over five different choir configurations over the years, but one thing is common. All the successful choirs were A Cappella, and sang a lot of Sweet Honey in the Rock songs.
The tradition was cemented by having a former Sweet Honey member, the incredible Eveyln Harris, as the choir director. She was so formidable that one of the choir members once remarked that all great choir directors have two qualities in common "Diva, and Drill Sergeant, and our Eveyln has it all and then some". The choir, always loved by the congregation, was soon a favorite all over the Washington area. Although small in number, we seldom numbered over 6 to 8 members, it made a big sound. And soon became one the most notable features of our small quirky congregation.
More Than Hymns
The music of STC always reflected its racial diversity, with a special emphasis on African American musical traditions. As a result, the STC anthem, the UU principles set to music by a former minister coupled with "Ella's Song", usually rocks with a gospel beat.
On any given Sunday you can hear jazz, blues, gospel, Chinese melodies, drum solos, electric guitars, rap, arias, folk songs and pagan chants, and that doesn't include the recorded music! At one point we tried to pick a song out of the UU hymnal to learn each month, but that soon deteriorated, since we needed someone at each service that could sight-read or play the piano to help us learn the new songs. So we fell back in to singing what we liked, and it seems to work fine for us.
The black focus of the music is what, for many of us, makes it welcoming to a diverse crowd. It is accessible, and as long as there is at least one decent singer in attendance, it usually hits its mark. The point is that everyone wants to sing gospel style music even if they are atheist. So even if it sounds terrible, everyone has a good time trying. And since STC members are known for changing anything they don't like, often everyone is singing different lyrics as well -- which makes it very funny and confusing at times for visitors.
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Wish I could be there. Very well spoken.
Katrina,
I wish you all the blessings and power you need on your journey. Thank you for these words. It is good to remember that returning to work (and thus returning to grace) bring a chance for us all to rest and have joy.
Wishing you joy in the Work.
David
Dear Katrina- Thorn reposted your blog and happy am I. Your passion, always so immense, comes blowing out in these words. So akin to my own heart and soul that it makes me have a bittersweet smile.
The Storm is only now coming to the edges of our universe and yet it will sweep and consume all that is. In the end, our beautiful universe will be so much...more? Different? Complete? Who knows?
All I do know is my soul came here to witness and be part in this period. I cannot shrink from the work. I am here with you, fae sister!
Thought-provoking piece, Katrina. Thanks.
I don't know what to call myself either. In Pagandom, I've taken to referring to myself as a Witch at Large. In the interfaith world where I'm active, I call myself a Pagan. Sometimes I call myself an uppity woman or a Second Wave Feminist. I've never really thought to publicly identify myself by my sexuality, het woman, which is very "white bread" and old-fashioned. Not only het, but serially monogamous for the most part. It seems almost a liability these days to say you're het, but I am proudly and happily so. I tend towards intellectualism but only have a BA, which doesn't carry much weight, at least in public and professional worlds, no matter how much you've studied, trained, and can articulate, even teach.
My biological heritage is Irish, Dutch, French Huguenot, Euro-mongrel. My social heritage is Roman Catholic on one side and conservative Methodist, temperance-crusading, women's rights and education on the other, with distinct East Coast sensibilities, now mellowed by more than half a century living on the Left Coast. My maternal political heritage is conservative Republican (altho what my relatives might think of current trends in the GOP I cannot imagine, since they did have brains and they did think and they did have a social conscience), yet I am much farther left in my outlook than any elected official I know. My paternal political heritage is blue collar Democratic, except that my dad broke with his family on politics and allied with my mother's family's conservatism.
I'm a former hippie, a home-birth advocate, a home death and green burial advocate, an opponent of capital punishment and resorting to warfare to resolve humankind's differences. I support the right to conscious self-deliverance. I rejoice in any and all consensual expressions of love and eros. I'm a lover and a mom.
I have never missed voting in an election and I disrespect those who don't avail themselves of this hard-won right. (I have ancestors who fought the Brits in the American Revolution.) I support workers' rights. I recognize our interdependence on this planet, so could be called a greenie. I'm a committed environmentalist in my day-to-day life (in terms of eating locally grown food, expanding public transit, recycling, preserving open space and wildlife, opposing exploitation of natural resources [strip mining, oil-drilling, nuclear facilities, agribusiness, monocultures, clear-cutting timber, overuse of pesticides, genetic modification, etc.]) I want to make the city streets "safe for dancing," as my old friend Tony Serra said when he ran for mayor of SF on the Platypus Party ticket.
Well, you got me going there, my friend. Thought-provoking read, as I said. ;-)
xo,
Macha
Lovely azaleas!
[cough][gag][snort][sneeze]
Just lovely...
I know what you mean.
I feel you. There is too much bs- particularly when people decide that their temperament is tantamount to truthful and ignore everyone else.
I get irked by immature extroverts or closet introverts who ignore you REPEATEDLY and then pretend you're out of line for being upset by the time they can't pretend you didn't say anything anymore. I find that the same people will ignore you if you blow up right away, too, and that it's because they just don't think that honoring what you value is important to maintaining a relationship, or even worse: that you don't know what you value at all and that it's all a mind game for their pleasure or annoyance. Then they call you passive-aggressive, aggressive, moody, touchy and temperamental. I call them "not listening".