Last night, I attended a concert unlike any other. I saw Sweet Honey In The Rock at SUNY Oswego. It was amazing. The group is made up of six African-American women who blend their voices in a mix of blues, gospel, and jazz. They were awesome. One of my favorites that they sang was "I Remember I Believe" . They were also on NPR recently. In the show, they sing another one of my favorite spirituals with a twist, "Do What the Spirit Say Do" (to hear the song...go about 7:00 minuted into the interview). Most of their music is about freedom, justice, and truth. It was exactly what my spirit needed and I left the concert uplifted and renewed. It was truly a blessing to me. If you ever have the chance to see and experience them I highly recommend that you do so.
I went to the concert with a few people and had a great time. Yet, on the way home, one person made a comment that bothered me. This person said that they liked the concert but thought SHIR talked too much about how 'bad' the white man is. I disagreed with her (that was not the ethos of the concert) but tried to respect where she was coming from. It was just interesting to me that we spent 2 hours listening about freedom and justice (for ALL people) and a few comments were turned into how 'bad' the white man is (because some of the songs reminded us how we need to learn from history). Racism rears its ugly head in many different ways...most of the time it comes from ignorance or failing to recognize that racism is systemic and not something that happened to people long ago.
Sweet Honey In The Rock is a group that evoked so many emotions for me and rekindled my spirit. What lately has rekindled yours?
1 comment:
Heather and I saw them at the Festival of Homiletics. They were spectacular!
Post a Comment