News Archives - Page 12 of 15

Grassroots Concert Series will feature Larry alongside Cory Wong. Read more here.

“Since I was young, at an early age, no one seemed to care what I had to say. If they only knew what we’ve been through, they would say, oh my god, what can I do?”

The above excerpt is from “Freedom,” a song written and recorded by two young girls imprisoned in a children’s detention center, with the help of Larry Long.

The Southern Poverty Law Center works to ensure that our children’s rights advocacy is informed and shaped in collaboration with the youth for whom we work. Despite the fact that the children we work with are frequently neglected by their schools or abused by juvenile justice systems, these youths possess an incredible resiliency and have profound insights about the systems that impact their lives.

During the Spring of 2010, the SPLC worked in collaboration with youth from the Gulf Coast Region and professional musicians to use music to give a voice to these children’s realities, hopes and dreams. Through the SPLC Youth Voices Music Project, over a few short days, these children wrote, sang and recorded seven original songs. The children demonstrate remarkable gifts and talents, as well as profound depth and thoughtfulness about life as a child in the Deep South in their music and lyrics.

Several of the children participated from behind the walls of a youth detention center in Mississippi. We were only able to work with them by passing through secured, metal doors to enter their world of imprisonment. As in most places, in Mississippi over 70 percent of the youth behind bars are accused of non-violent offenses like shoplifting, disorderly conduct or school-related offenses. At times, children as young as ten years old are locked up for a school-yard fight or for misbehaving at home.

Despite the harsh circumstances in which they are forced to exist, several children in this Mississippi detention center turned pain into beauty and sorrow into art by translating their experiences of being incarcerated into powerful songs. The sensitivity, brilliance and youthfulness of these children, as demonstrated by their art, directly challenges the grotesque practice of locking children in cages. While listening to their music, we are forced to wonder why we allow children to live in these conditions. What act could a child commit that would make him or her worthy of growing up in a cage? Could a cage ever help a child thrive and develop into a responsible adult?

This paradox is made even more obvious when confronted with the children’s hopes, dreams and acute awareness about the trajectory of their lives and possibility of a lifetime spent in prison…. As one incarcerated child stated, “We know more than what we put on the outside. You got [kids in prison for the rest of their lives] that could have been presidents. That’s one thing I lay in my bed and worry ’bout, man. Am I going to be next….Cause I know I’m smarter than what I put on the outside….Sometimes there ain’t no hope”.

Then, they say something that breaks your heart and forces you to remember that they are children. Just children. Living in cages. One child described his cellmates: “Some of the boys in here, they just want to hear their family say they love ’em. My boy in here, he was telling me… all…all I want is to hear my mama say “I love you.”

What would help these children realize their tremendous potential? How do we prevent more children from ending up behind bars? One of the major challenges facing children in the Deep South is the education system. Too many schools have become hostile environments for children instead of a refuge in which to learn.

Public school students are pushed out of school for minor misbehaviors at dramatic rates. Already, many children live in distressed communities, in which poverty and violence are prevalent. Schools could provide a safe place for children to learn and receive guidance and support instead of punishing them. When a child is repeatedly discouraged or reprimanded by educators, or suspended or expelled from school, they are more likely to drop out of school and not earn a high-school diploma. This is a tragedy of epic proportions that our nation can no longer afford to ignore.
In New Orleans, the SPLC Youth Voices Music Project worked with approximately 20 public school children, ranging from grades 5-12. These youth came together to talk about their city, their schools, their community and their future.

We began with an inter-generational dialogue circle, in which several community leaders and life-long New Orleans residents spoke of growing up in New Orleans, in segregated schools, when times were different…or so we thought. As the students asked questions and shared their experiences, we began to notice parallels between current public school conditions and those of two generations ago. In fact, certain things have become worse, such as the rate at which children are pushed out of school through the use of school suspensions and expulsions.

People both young and old reflected on the deterioration of public schools, the disintegration of community, and the need for people to unite to support and care for each other. People spoke of the continued impact of Hurricane Katrina, how it continues to cripple entire communities, including individuals who are unable to return or who return to a drastically changed city. They spoke of the international promise of support to rebuild New Orleans in the wake of Katrina, in contrast to the still broken and vacant houses and dilapidated school buildings that were flooded by the storm. They spoke of the violence plaguing children in the New Orleans schools and streets, how there are no safe havens anymore, and how children are too often brutalized by police officers, school security guards and other children.

Over two days we created three original songs, which included writing lyrics, developing melodies and recording live performances. One of the songs collaboratively written by the children, “Change These Ways,” declares that it is “time to build up unity, time to rebuild our community.” One 15-year-old boy arrived on the second evening to share a beautiful, searing melody that he had written that morning, titled “Dreams.” The chorus of another song, “This is Life,” cries out: “This is life, let me tell you how it is, grown folks problems in the thoughts of little kids.”

These new songs written by children through the SPLC’s Youth Voices Music Project have yet to stand the measure of time. Most assuredly, however, they are anchored in the same proud tradition of earlier songs of Justice and Freedom. The melodies, rhymes, and words all move from the same heartbeat. Now it’s time for these songs to be sung – so the voices of the children can be heard. For, as we do unto the least, we do unto ourselves.

Youth Voices Project participants: Children imprisoned in a Mississippi youth detention center, New Orleans Youth Artists Alexis Burnside, Teal Mitchell, Kendrick Crain, Alfred Banks, Denise Pittman, Re’Jeanne Badreaux, Ranjae Cornin, Gerelyn Mitchell, John Baumbach, Cory Burd, Chrishawn DeBose, Knowledge is Born, Isaac Bourgeois, Cassandra Tran, Daylin “Tizz” Bolding, Ladonna Bryer, Jerron Fournett, Jeremy Mitchell, Venecia Mitchell.

New Orleans Community Leaders: DJ Markey, Ted Quant, Yvette Thierry

Consulting Musicians: Skipp Coon (epk.tibbitmusic.com/tibbit_epk.pdf), Chuck “Lyrikill” Jones (www.thesoundclash.com), Larry Long (www.larrylong.org), Truth Universal (www.truthuniversal.com),

To hear these songs, please visit: www.splcenter.org/voices

This year, Community Celebration of Place’s Elder Circle will be held on April 26, 2012, 9am – 1pm, at the North Community YMCA.

Featuring Jazz Legends Irv Williams & Jeanne Arland Peterson with Billy Peterson; Harold Mezile, President & CEO, YMCA of Metropolitan Minneapolis; C. Bennice Young, Principal, Elizabeth Hall International Elementary School, Community Elders, Tonia Hughes, Youth from the North Side, Round-Table Discussions led by Dare 2 Be Real Student Leaders and a free Soul Food Lunch with vegetarian option.

For more information, visit the Community Celebration of Place website.

Celebrate the centennial of Woody Guthrie’s birth with a program featuring folk singer Darryl Holter, a former labor education director for the Wisconsin AFL-CIO and labor educator at UCLA, who has developed a “Woody Guthrie in Los Angeles” presentation/performance, and renowned Twin Cities labor troubadour Larry Long, who assembled the first hometown tribute to Woody Guthrie in Okemah, Oklahoma in 1988 and has applied and extended Woody Guthrie’s aesthetics and energies for the past four decades.

Thursday, April 19, 7 pm
St. Paul Labor Centre
411 Main St., Saint Paul

Visit www.thefriends.org for a full listing of events

Download flyer for event >

My good friend, David McDonald, at the age of 55 just joined the Peace Corp and is now serving in Morocco. David produced two documentaries from two songs on my new sound recording, Don’t Stand Still. (You can see them on YouTube). Last Monday David dropped by before flying out to northwest Africa and I gave him a signed copy of Don’t Stand Still to give as a gift to the Ambassadors to Morocco, Sam & Sylvia Kaplan, who are also friends. Three days later I received this wonderful photograph of beloved David with Ambassadors Sam & Sylvia Kaplan in Morocco. It is such a small and wonderful world. Peace!

Larry Long and Robert Robinson have teamed up to create a musical card featuring the beautiful “Mother’s Song,” written by Long as a tribute to his mother and appearing on his latest album, Don’t Stand Still. Along with the beautiful artwork from Ron Germundson, this card makes a wonderful gift for any mom.

Listen to a sample:

I created For My Mother singing cards in remembrance of my own mother, Roberta. The words on the card are the first and last verses to a song I wrote for her called, Mother’s Song. I sang it for my mother when she grew ill and while she passed in hospice care.

Though she has now passed I feel her presence daily. As the first verse sings:

You were there when I first spoke
You were there when I first stood
You are there to give me hope
You are there in all that’s good

My mother cared a lot for people. She was a community volunteer, who was honored at the White House for the time she gave to help others even in better health than she.

I asked “Minnesota’s Master Male Vocalist” Robert Robinson to sing on this card, as a gift to all mother’s. Especially for Mom’s who are going through a life transition, as a means for their children to express their love to their mother.

The cards are available for sale online and through Soderberg’s Floral (wholesale orders). For more information:

www.larrylong.org

www.robertrobinsonmusic.com

Soderberg Florists /Kym Erickson
3305 East Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55406
wecare@soderbergsflorist.com
(612) 724-3606

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Check it out:

We Shall Overcome

Featuring Joan Baez, Billy Bragg, Bruce Cockburn, Guy Davis, Ruby Dee, Ani DiFanco, Emmylou Harrish, Larry Long, Scarlett Lee Moore, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Toshi Reagon, Tao Rodriquez-Seeger, Pete Seeger, Dar Williams

Tomorrow, Saturday, March 10th, there will be a ‘Celebration of the Life of Marv Davidov’ in stories, poetry, song, and film. Speakers and performers include Larry Long, Garrison Keillor, Jamela …Pettiford, Clyde Bellecourt, Tony Bouza, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, Carol Connolly, Bill Tilton, Jerry Rau, Steve Sato, the MacDonald Sisters, and others.

Where: Woulfe Alumni Hall on the third floor of the brand new Anderson Student Center at St. Thomas University
Northeast corner of Cretin and Summit Aves., St. Paul, Minnesota.

Gathering and visiting: 1:00 to 2:00 PM
Formal Program: 2:00 to 3:30 PM
Open Mic: 3:35 to 4:05 PM
Exhibits and refreshments: 3:30 to 5:00 PM

Suggested $5 minimum donation to the Marv Davidov Peace and Justice Fund (c/o Tilton & Dunn P.L.L.P, U.S. Bank Center, 101 East Fifth Street, Ste. 2220, St. Paul, MN 55101)

Visit the event’s Facebook page and see the memories, photos, and links to Marv memorabilia from those affected by Marv’s amazing life of dedication. Add your own contributions to this treasure of remembrances:

https://www.facebook.com/events/305995852784674/See More

UPDATE: Larry Long will be performing his new song with Billy Peterson, Generations 2 Come at the St. Paul Capitol in Minnesota on March 8th, 10:30 am.

Larry has just completed the recording Generations 2 Come to help save the Boundary Waters. You can learn more about the event here. Dog Sleds are heading out February 29 – arriving March 8th in St. Paul. Larry will be singing Generations 2 Come on March 8th at the Capitol.

Listen to Generations 2 Come on SoundCloud now!

SLED DOGS TO ST. PAUL: The Race to Protect Minnesota’s Natural Heritage – March 1st through March 8th, 2012

Get involved with this historic eight day dogsled trip from Northeastern Minnesota to the State Capitol. Frank Moe and his dog team from Grand Marais will deliver your letters and petition signatures to the Capitol on Thursday March 8th.
Hear and share Larry Long’s Generations 2 Come SONG and Lyrics

Dog teams from both Ely and Grand Marais will leave on Thursday March 1st. The teams will meet in Finland and Frank Moe and his dogs will continue to Duluth and arrive at their destination in St. Paul on Thursday March 8th.

Rallies will be held in Ely and Grand Marais on March 1st, Finland on Saturday March 3rd, Duluth on Sunday March 4th and at the Capitol on March 8th.

The benefit, Friends of Carrie, with the legendary members of “Hang Dynasty” raised over $12,000 for Carrie Stenson-Hansen’s fight against cancer. Larry wrote and performed a song especially written for the occasion with Hang Dynasty, called Friends of Carrie.