"From the day you're born you begin building walls around your heart. It is the
broken heart that tears down the walls and opens you to the love of God." - Rumi
Read Steve Earle and the Bluegrass Dukes . . . ""and I heard Emmylou Harris doing a duet with someone, a sweet sad song
about lost love remembered. It was Steve Earle's "I Remember You," from his controversial
CD "Jerusalem."" Read it HERE.
Music and Peace
The subject words, when combined as above, can create a typical Western World
three-second response image of long haired troubadours with beaded headbands and
guitars, singing . . . (read more here)
Coni
writing from
Salem Oregon, says Salem
is really quite an ordinary American city.
Read her story.
The capitol of Oregon sits in the middle of the
verdant Willamette Valley with it's thousands of acres of
farmland surrounding the city, giving it the air of a rural community
more than an urban center.
When I moved here from Northern California 27 years ago I was shocked by the
Whiteness of the region. Now there are people of color, but at that time they
were rare. "Diversity" pretty much meant "Are you Catholic or Methodist?" In
some areas that’s pushing it: the KKK were persecuting Catholics in the Valley
100 years ago.
So imagine my pleasure when I heard
a group was forming a World Beat Festival to be
held on Salem’s under-appreciated river front every summer.
The Salem World Beat Festival is conducted by the Salem Multicultural Institute,
an all-volunteer, non-profit 503(c)(3) organization with the mission
of promoting harmony and understanding through innovative, educational cultural
programs and activities. When the Festival began in 1998, the influx of Hispanics
and the cultural fear of Gangs had resulted in those who were open-minded
scrambling to understand Acceptance and Tolerance, and those
who were prone to bigotry had reason to rant.
Music is, of course, a core element of the Festival.
The grounds are laid out geographically.
Each has a small stage, with a lovely amphitheater
at the end of the park available as a larger venue.
The Americas offered North American Native flute,
North Plains Grass Dance exhibit, Mariachi,
South American Folk music, and even
Steel Drums from the Caribbean.
African and Asian-Pacific villages
brought another layer of diversity to the
sounds (and smells, foods from around the world
were also offered, as were arts and crafts).
It was so heartening to see a Middle Eastern presence
gently easing the audience past stereotypical attitudes.
The European area was a whirlwind of
Flamenco
Irish
and Scottish dance
with accompanying bagpipers,
as well as songs about women, fish and wine in "klapa" style
of the Dalmatian Coast (the coast of Croatia, a mountainous region
across the Adriatic sea from Eastern Italy).
All the while, walking from village to village, stopping to hear
and watch and taste, the fine people of Salem were there, exposing
themselves to the wonderful diversity of our wonderful planet.
It wasn’t all performance, either. There were workshops in
dance and song and lessons for instruments.
Best of all were the parades of the nations
and the community drumming circles,
where anyone could join in and be a part of the
music of the world.
Read Steve Earle and the Bluegrass Dukes . . . ""and I heard Emmylou Harris doing a duet with someone, a sweet sad song
about lost love remembered. It was Steve Earle's "I Remember You," from his controversial
CD "Jerusalem."" Read it HERE.
Music and Peace The subject words, when combined as above, can create a typical Western World
three-second response image of long haired troubadours with beaded headbands and
guitars, singing . . . (read more here)
