Thoughtful Thursdays, Stayed on Freedom’s Call page 47, and Song

       How do melodies help keep us going, and even connect us to community?

     I wrote this book in the belief that song is a powerful way to help bring people together, and that remembering the stories around those songs can help us learn from our history.  I hope, as we come to the end of my book, Stayed on Freedom’s Call, that this journey has been a valuable one for you (last week was Page 46…):

 

” …  7.   Washington Ethical Society: 7750 16th Street NW

Proudly built in Shepherd Park specifically because it was an integrated neighborhood. This humanist congregation is part of the history of Civil Rights, and the present of community cooperation.

Sometimes you can hear folks standing outside the building, next door to the former home of NAACP lawyer Frank Reeves, singing:

“I woke up this morning with my mind,
stayed on Freedom… ”

8. Tifereth Israel Congregation: 7701 16th Street, NW

The shul stayed, and is helping to Repair the World, one step at a time down Georgia Avenue. Now we finish up the tour looking down 16th Street, toward the White House if we could see that far along what was once the nation’s Prime Meridian, and we close with a niggun, a melody that both soothes and recalls hope, as we recall the ideals which inspired men two centuries ago to found a nation predicated on the fundamental equality of all men.

“Yai daaiii dai daii, yai daaiii dai daii,
yai daii dai dai dai daii daiii aaayyyii…”

 

47

      “

    So, it turns out that I might have needed to explain a bit more about niggunim?

Page 46 was last week, next week will be Page 48…

Action Prompts:

1.) Share your thoughts on how this page from Stayed On Freedom’s Call helps continuing empathy-building cooperation, and may also  help, or hinder, inclusive thinking.   (You can download the entire book for free here from The Internet Archive…)

2.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those thoughts.

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Click here to read, if you like:

Narrative and Prose Nonfiction,     

Holistic High School Lessons,

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Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.