Day 3 (Kenedy Kieffer)

June 13th, 2016

Today was a very powerful day as we saw many historical landmarks, met Rutha Harris and got 2 rounds of “soul food”.

2 years ago I went to South Africa with my choir to learn about the power of music in times of national struggle and injustice. As I sat in the pew today listening to Rutha Harris sing “This Little Light of Mine”, I was reminded just how powerful music in times of injustice really is.
Many of the people during this movement were trying to find something to hold on to that felt familiar to them. These people couldn’t understand why they were being treated this way, know what was going to happen to them next, or why the KKK would show up and burn a cross in their front yard. But they did know how to sing. No matter what age, gender or area you came from, you always had your voice. A quote that was used in South Africa a lot was ” when you have no power, how do you express yourself?? SING”. I think that many of the people who were apart of this movement would agree that the only way that they could individually express themselves was to create music with their voices.
Community is often an overused and cliche word to use at Messiah, however music did bring the colored community (term used during this time) together. You can sing individually but the power of music when done in mass can break barriers. “It crossed racial lines, the melody was addictive and the beat is hard to resist.” This quote was also stated by Nelson Mandela but applies so well to what we heard today. Hearing Rutha sing was incredible but there was so much more power when she sang WITH Tiffany. Can you imagine 500 Ruthas marching and singing to DC? How powerful is it when it is done together and for a common cause.

“Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can’t.” – Johnny Depp

Now off to take some pepto, turn on the air conditioning and dream about the Mac and Cheese at Sophias.


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