Dr. King Holiday 2020
19/01/20 04:18
There is a West African proverb that goes, “When an elder dies, a library is burning.” I’ve heard it before, or more likely read it somewhere, but it really struck me last night as we sat in the historic theatre of the Performing Arts Center. We had excellent seats for a performance of song, story and poetry by T. Michael Rambo accompanied by Thomas West on the piano. I suppose I should have been tipped off when I was able to reserve such excellent seats, in the front row of the mezzanine. Usually we’re quiet a few rows father back when we attend a performance in that theatre. The crowd was light. I’m not used to estimating crowds in that particular room, but I guess that perhaps there were 150 - 200 people in attendance. There were a lot of things going on in the area last night.The musician performing at Tallys restaurant is a good friend of ours and I had received a personal invitation to attend. The Burning Beetle event up in Custer is something of a South Dakota phenomena - an outdoor party and bonfire that celebrates the spirit of the folks who live in the hills.
It was important to us, however, to attend the performance of “My Heart Sings so my Spirit may Fly” as the start to the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend.
The performance began with a portion of the famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech that was delivered during the March on Washington for civil rights. We have all heard that speech many times and we’ve watched the television coverage of Dr. King addressing the crowd that stretched way down the mall from the Lincoln memorial.The well-seasoned actor T. Michael Rambo had studied not just the words, but the gestures, the occasional wipes with a handkerchief and, most importantly, the tone and rhythm of Dr. King’s speech.
He didn’t stop there. The performance was peppered with other quotes from that and other speeches by Dr. King. It was filled with songs and stories and poems. The time flew and when the performance broke for a brief intermission, I was surprised at how much time had passed.
Because our seats were right next to the walkway between the mezzanine and the main floor seating, we got to see most of the people as they came into and out of the theatre. We were seated right next to a good friend and a stream of other friends cam by before the performance and during the intermission. We had several conversations with dear friends. When the performer said, “We are family,” we knew what he meant. We felt like we are a part of the family of this community - the family of people who show up for important moments and opportunities like last night’s performance. It was, in a sense, a gathering of our people.
One of our friends commented, “For a little while you could almost forget that we live in the reddest part of one of the reddest states in the country.” I know what he meant. I have felt, on a few occasions that the community’s recognition of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday has been just another occasion for Republican politicians to repeat their well-worn rhetoric that misses the mark for those who are marginalized by our community leaders. The nearly constant political pressures and restrictions on the rights of our Native American neighbors at times makes us feel like we are living in a place that has not noticed that the rest of the country has gone through a civil rights movement. When the governor introduces blatantly racist legislation aimed at restricting the rights of people to assemble and protest and those laws easily pass the legislature only to be ruled unconstitutional by the courts and then, in the very next session the governor is back with more race baiting so called riot-busting legislation, one wonders how people can think. Mind you we haven’t had a riot. I made two trips to the water protectors camp during the protests against the pipeline a couple of years ago. I know first hand that the stories of violence and weapons were fabricated. The only ones with weapons were the well-armed law enforcement agents who were, for the most part bored staffing a roadblock and watching the size of the encampment grow. Still fear is a powerful motivator and causes people to engage in irrational behavior.
It leaves me a little bit disappointed that there weren’t more people in attendance last night.
T Michael Rambo is a teacher and he had a well-prepared lesson for those of us who did attend. He kept our attention as he reviewed the history of Dr. King’s life. He reminded us of the history of the enforced enslavement of Africans in America. He presented his program without anger or resentment, but rather as the story of a resilient culture and the powerful drive of humans on a journey to freedom. The story of freedom is, of course, deeply imbedded in our religion. We tell the story of Israel’s departure from slavery in Egypt every year. It is one of the early commandments of our faith - to teach that story to our children and to our children’s children in every generation. How we are supposed to treat others is colored by the experience of our own people with slavery and the call to freedom. In the stories of our people, God is always on the side of freedom in every struggle.
It has been a long time since I stood in a crowd of people, held hands and sang “We shall Overcome.” I guess it got to be a bit too much when our gatherings were distant from the cities and the southern communities where slavery had been practiced. A sea of white faces singing someone else’s freedom song seemed just a bit disingenuous. So we haven’t sung that song for quite a while. Last night, in a room the was more multicultural and more multiracial than most gatherings in our community, with the powerful accompaniment of Thomas West on the piano and T Michael Rambo leading us, it felt right. We felt connected.
And we were reminded that those of us to whom this performance and this holiday is so important are still a minority in our community. There are so many others who need to hear those stories. There are so many others who need to experience those poems. There are so many others who need to sing that song.
It was important to us, however, to attend the performance of “My Heart Sings so my Spirit may Fly” as the start to the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend.
The performance began with a portion of the famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech that was delivered during the March on Washington for civil rights. We have all heard that speech many times and we’ve watched the television coverage of Dr. King addressing the crowd that stretched way down the mall from the Lincoln memorial.The well-seasoned actor T. Michael Rambo had studied not just the words, but the gestures, the occasional wipes with a handkerchief and, most importantly, the tone and rhythm of Dr. King’s speech.
He didn’t stop there. The performance was peppered with other quotes from that and other speeches by Dr. King. It was filled with songs and stories and poems. The time flew and when the performance broke for a brief intermission, I was surprised at how much time had passed.
Because our seats were right next to the walkway between the mezzanine and the main floor seating, we got to see most of the people as they came into and out of the theatre. We were seated right next to a good friend and a stream of other friends cam by before the performance and during the intermission. We had several conversations with dear friends. When the performer said, “We are family,” we knew what he meant. We felt like we are a part of the family of this community - the family of people who show up for important moments and opportunities like last night’s performance. It was, in a sense, a gathering of our people.
One of our friends commented, “For a little while you could almost forget that we live in the reddest part of one of the reddest states in the country.” I know what he meant. I have felt, on a few occasions that the community’s recognition of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday has been just another occasion for Republican politicians to repeat their well-worn rhetoric that misses the mark for those who are marginalized by our community leaders. The nearly constant political pressures and restrictions on the rights of our Native American neighbors at times makes us feel like we are living in a place that has not noticed that the rest of the country has gone through a civil rights movement. When the governor introduces blatantly racist legislation aimed at restricting the rights of people to assemble and protest and those laws easily pass the legislature only to be ruled unconstitutional by the courts and then, in the very next session the governor is back with more race baiting so called riot-busting legislation, one wonders how people can think. Mind you we haven’t had a riot. I made two trips to the water protectors camp during the protests against the pipeline a couple of years ago. I know first hand that the stories of violence and weapons were fabricated. The only ones with weapons were the well-armed law enforcement agents who were, for the most part bored staffing a roadblock and watching the size of the encampment grow. Still fear is a powerful motivator and causes people to engage in irrational behavior.
It leaves me a little bit disappointed that there weren’t more people in attendance last night.
T Michael Rambo is a teacher and he had a well-prepared lesson for those of us who did attend. He kept our attention as he reviewed the history of Dr. King’s life. He reminded us of the history of the enforced enslavement of Africans in America. He presented his program without anger or resentment, but rather as the story of a resilient culture and the powerful drive of humans on a journey to freedom. The story of freedom is, of course, deeply imbedded in our religion. We tell the story of Israel’s departure from slavery in Egypt every year. It is one of the early commandments of our faith - to teach that story to our children and to our children’s children in every generation. How we are supposed to treat others is colored by the experience of our own people with slavery and the call to freedom. In the stories of our people, God is always on the side of freedom in every struggle.
It has been a long time since I stood in a crowd of people, held hands and sang “We shall Overcome.” I guess it got to be a bit too much when our gatherings were distant from the cities and the southern communities where slavery had been practiced. A sea of white faces singing someone else’s freedom song seemed just a bit disingenuous. So we haven’t sung that song for quite a while. Last night, in a room the was more multicultural and more multiracial than most gatherings in our community, with the powerful accompaniment of Thomas West on the piano and T Michael Rambo leading us, it felt right. We felt connected.
And we were reminded that those of us to whom this performance and this holiday is so important are still a minority in our community. There are so many others who need to hear those stories. There are so many others who need to experience those poems. There are so many others who need to sing that song.
