Skip to main content

Sing-along Café 2025-02-27

It was so good to be back together! We sang and listened and talked and nibbled and sipped happily in good company again. There were heavy moments, but we were mostly very positive and hopeful.

Our theme was Black History Month. We first talked about Sunday’s Affirming and Inclusivity Service. We all agreed that it was uplifting and fun. I pointed out that although I did aim for uplifting and hopeful, I also wanted it to be powerful, and I was proud of my team and Celena for making it strong and meaningful too. We watched a bit of the video and listened to Celena’s poem. We were all impressed by her powerful words and effective delivery, and we were all touched and heavy-hearted. We listened to the choir and praise team sing God Weeps and Put a Little Love in Your Heart. Thank God for uplifting music that reminds us that there are good people, and music that inspires us to be better as individuals and in our communities! I’m proud of my church that is a place where I feel that we can make a difference together. 

There were a few more of those inspiring songs in our evening, but first we listened to some songs that Ian and his family recommended, which led us down different paths. One thing we thought we needed to do was research blackface to see why and how and when that seemed like a good thing. Like, in what context was it acceptable? Darktown Strutters Ball by Al Jolson was interesting. Here’s a Jewish man who is credited with introducing Black music, ragtime, jazz, the blues to white audiences, but in a way that we now think is insulting, racist, cringe- blackface. I think we’re all going to look it up. I will let you journey there yourselves. 

We spent a little bit of time listening to Kendrick Lamar’s song, Not Like Us, which he performed at the Super Bowl. It’s fascinating and catchy. The version I had was so full of *** where words were bleeped that we really couldn’t sing it, but it was interesting. We’ll need to read about that song and the whole Super Bowl performance too. It was colossal. We all felt proud of Serena Williams for dancing her crip walk dance with joy and abandon. The history of the dance goes back to street gangs and rap music in the neighborhood where she grew up. It’s her culture, and I think we should be curious about it and not dismissive or scandalized (like Wimbledon). 

With all that discussion, we still managed to sing quite a bit. Here’s a selection:

  • What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
  • Every Time I Feel the Spirit and Old Man River by Paul Robeson
  • Darktown Strutters Ball by Al Jolson, and by Jimmy Dorsey, and by Fats Domino
  • Jambalaya by Fats Domino
  • What the World Needs Now by Burt Bacharach and by Jackie DeShannon
  • Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
  • People are People by Depeche Mode
  • Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
  • Stop, Look and Listen by Donna Summer
  • Unconditional Love by Donna Summer and Musical Youth
  • Just my Imagination by the Temptations
  • Love Train by the O’Jays
  • The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack
  • Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar
There's so much more music on the list by amazing Black artists, and music that inspires anti-racism, peace, and unity, that we'll continue with this playlist for another week at least. As we move into the season of Lent, a time of fasting, prayer, reflection, penitence from Ash Wednesday to Easter, the theme of anti-racism and unity fits perfectly. 
Here's a look at Trinity's Black History Month anti-racism poster. 
My team will continue to focus on anti-racism along with affirming the Pride community. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thursday, April 18 Sing-along Café Review

The theme for the evening was: Songs with La-las (and other nonsense: ooh, doo-dah, na-na, scoobie-doobie, bum-ba-bum, hey!). I call all of these little non-word lyrics la-las. They're often my favourite part of a song. Everyone can sing those words, usually. With scat singing, not usually, and with yodeling, not everyone. But, think about the Beatles song Hey Jude. At the end, everyone can sing along with the na-nas and some of us even like to harmonize with them. When my daughter was writing songs, I urged her to put some nonesense la-las in her songs. Don't worry about finding beautiful, powerful words for all the verses, or all the lines of the chorus. Sometimes, the lack of words makes a melody more powerful.  Here's the list of songs we sang and listened to: Can't Get You Out of My Head   by Kylie Minogue Everything   by Michael Bublé Those Were the Days   by Mary Hopkin Hey Jude   by the Beatles Tom's Diner   by Suzanne Vega &DNA De Do Do Do, De ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sing-along Café 2025-01-23

Our café last night was so nice! I baked the most wonderful blueberry muffins, with a nice crunchy golden-brown top and juicy blueberries. Everyone wanted the recipe, so I'll include it at the end. Nibbling our muffins was easy, as a few of the songs we sang had very long instrumental interludes.  Our theme was Disney movie music. It was interesting to hear how different eras sounded different, from the 1940's to the present. It was partly the technology developing, but also the styles of music and the kinds of bands and orchestras that were popular. We don't hear a lot of twittering birds in the more recent Disney musicals, or coloratura singing with lots of tremolo. There were a few princesses whose singing we couldn't match.  Listening to and singing all those movie songs, we remembered times we watched them in the theatre or at home on our televisions when we were small and when our children were small. I had a memory from when I was 6 years old, and lots of stories...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sing-along Café 2024-09-05

Our theme was fun! September and School, and Summer too. I'm not going to list all the songs, but you can find them in my Apple Playlist, which you can access here. I had fun making this week's playlist, and we can keep using it for school-themed songs and for summer and fall, and even new beginnings. In fact, we'll use it next week again. We didn't listen to some key songs, so we can do them first (See You in September, She Blinded Me With Science) The fist song, the one that started the list, was September by Earth, Wind and Fire. Later, I found another version which I absolutelty adore. Lots of songs with a school theme came next, and we noticed that most of them had a negative or rebellious tone. School for me was fun and interesting and I loved it. I didn't break rules, I loved them, and thrived among rules and patterns and details. I'm not a rock star. Another thing that stood out in the school theme was love stories, and a focus on the opposite sex (most...
Post a Comment
Read more