Good morning!
Thanks, Scott Edelman, for the above.
Once again, a few suggestions of poetry and music for the weekend.
POETRY
After the Langston Hughes poem two weeks ago came this reminiscence from Sandy Pressman of “my favorite poem, posted across the chalk board in Mrs. Stevens’s English class at Hamilton High School”:
Dreams, by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
life is a broken winged bird
that cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
for when dreams go
Life is a barren field
frozen with snow
This appeared in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago. A friend suggested repeating it here:
Weather, by Claudia Rankine
On a scrap of paper in the archive is written
I have forgotten my umbrella. Turns out
in a pandemic everyone, not just the philosopher,
is without. We scramble in the drought of information
held back by inside traders. Drop by drop. Face
covering? No, yes. Social distancing? Six feet
under for underlying conditions. Black.
Just us and the blues kneeling on a neck
with the full weight of a man in blue.
Eight minutes and forty-six seconds.
In extremis, I can’t breathe gives way
to asphyxiation, to giving up this world,
and then mama, called to, a call
to protest, fire, glass, say their names, say
their names, white silence equals violence,
the violence of again, a militarized police
force teargassing, bullets, ricochet, and civil
unrest taking it, burning it down. Whatever
contacts keep us social compel us now
to disorder the disorder. Peace. We’re out
to repair the future. There’s and umbrella
by the door, not for yesterday but for the weather
that’s here. I say weather but I mean
a form of governing that deals out death
and names it living. I say weather but I mean
a November that won’t be held off. This time
nothing, no one forgotten. We are here for the storm
that’s storming because what’s taken matters.
MUSIC
Here’s the L.A. Philharmonic and L.A. Youth Orchestra, with Mezzo-Soprano J’Nai Bridges. It’s a socially distanced performance from the Hollywood Bowl (with cool visuals): https://www.laphil.com/about/watch-and-listen/jnai-bridges-with-dudamel-the-la-phil-and-yola
And Swan Lake with the L.A. Phil and Gustav Dudamel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRLeTziFsHs. It’s five minutes well spent.
Finally, this is Hozier, performing “Take me to Church” while sheltering-at-home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-q0ELNbIFM&feature=emb_rel_pause
Happy weekend,
Glenn
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