‘Songs in the Key of Resistance’

Song circles with Kairos Center leave no one behind

by Beth Waltemath | Presbyterian News Service

UNION GROVE, North Carolina — “Kairos is an ancient Greek word, describing a time of great change when the old ways of the world are dying and new ones are struggling to be born,” said Pauline Pisano, organizer for the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice. “It’s clear we are living through exactly such a time today.” Pisano called this time “full of grave danger and rare opportunity” and described the work of the center in lifting up leaders and activists to take bold, prophetic and imaginative action to break free from the “intolerable conditions of poverty, systemic racism, militarism, ecological devastation and more.”

Pisano spoke to a crowd under “The Tent of Make Believe,” a venue sponsored by PC(USA)’s 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary at the Wild Goose Festival, a four-day event rooted in progressive Christianity that celebrates “spirit, justice, music and art.” Pisano was joined by other cultural artists and colleagues from the Kairos Center and the Freedom Church of the Poor, who together conducted a song circle and lifted up stories of the role of song in their political actions and peaceful protests.

Pisano relayed how often the “unsung leaders emerging out of poor and oppressed communities have been the first to feel the pain of injustice and the first to strike out against it.” The Kairos Center works to raise up generations of these leaders and to form a community to help sustain their work.

One of the ways is by supporting the creative work of cultural artists in the movement. They share the work with other activists as they find connections in the struggles of the marginalized across the globe. Their “Songs in the Key of Resistance: A Movement Songbook” draws on a rich history of social movement music from spirituals, labor and freedom songs and celebrates the poetry and chants born out of human rights struggles today.

“In exchanging songs, we’re able to learn more about each other — build trust, build connection so that we can build strong communities,” said Ciara M. Taylor, strategist and educator for the Kairos Center.

Ciara Taylor and Pauline Pisano introduce the “Songs in the Key of Resistance” songbook at the Wild Goose Festival. (Photo by Beth Waltemath)

Taylor and Pisano led the participants in songs written for various contexts. Most recently, these same songs have been used for peaceful actions taken by Kairos Center affiliates around the country to protest the war in Gaza. The songs are taught in a call-and-response style, with the overlap of vocals harmonizing as people find their voice within the collective.

“Just get in where you fit in,” Taylor said before introducing a song written on the way to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. The songwriter, Te Martin, discovered how the song, “May This Body Be a Bridge,” resonated elsewhere when they were approached by a Palestinian comrade who made connections between the struggle of Gazans and that of Indigenous people to protect their lands and keep them sacred.

Another story Taylor shared was about a song written on the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s killing in Ferguson, Missouri. Taylor said the Flobots penned the song “We Remember You” to remind oppressed communities how important they are and “how important it is for us to struggle for one another. Those who are taken from us due to state violence, militarism and poverty, we will never forget them.” Taylor then recited the poem “In Jerusalem” by the late Palestinian poet laureate emeritus, Mahmoud Darwish as Pisano led those gathered in the simple lyric, “We, we remember you.”

“It’s important to ground ourselves in who we are struggling for,” said Taylor. “There are still people alive whom we have to be fighting for.”

Other songs shared came from the “We Cry Justice Cultural Arts Project,” a companion piece to a book by the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-founder of the Poor People’s Campaign, called “We Cry Justice: Reading the Bible with the Poor People’s Campaign.” Some of the musicians are featured in special quarterly gatherings of the Freedom Church of the Poor.

Dr. Adam Barnes, director of religious faith and organizing for the Kairos Center, speaks about the Freedom Church of the Poor, a new worshiping community which meets online Sundays at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. (Photo by Beth Waltemath).

The Freedom Church of the Poor is the focus of Dr. Adam Barnes, the director of religious faith and organizing for Kairos Center, who said the church takes inspiration from the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of poor people coming together from all parts of the country across all lines of division as a non-violent core of a movement for human rights. Freedom Church meets online every Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern and for Bible study on Wednesdays. Since its beginning five years ago, participants in the Freedom Church of the Poor have formed in-person communities that respond with activism to the pleas for justice in their communities. Barnes said art and culture are essential to their work. “The forces we are up against use art and culture to reinforce and justify poverty and all kinds of injustice,” said Barnes. “We have to do our art and culture work to be able to expose that and lift us up past the divisions.”

Leaders of the Freedom Church of the Poor lead a workshop on protest songs at a tent sponsored by 1001 New Worshiping Communities and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. (Photo by Beth Waltemath)

Taylor, Pisano and Barnes shared a song called “We Get There Together,” based on the Exodus story of crossing the Red Sea, written by an artist in their collective. It has been an important song to help de-escalate intimidation tactics during their public actions, like a demonstration on behalf of Palestine undertaken in New York’s Grand Central Station.

This time, under the tent, Taylor and Pisano teach the song line by line and sing over and over until the collective voice is strong and assured.

“No one is getting left behind this time. No one is getting left behind. No one is getting left behind this time. We get there together or never get there at all.”

The “Songs in the Key of Resistance” songbook is available here.