Music of a Movement

Yesterday my friend Dwight, a musician himself (http://www.muchcitylove.com), commented that the thing about music is that it gets in your bones. I knew he was right because I had just heard Janelle Monae and Wondaland's song "Hell You Talmbout" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=SttWb9mDp3Q), which had made me sob. It is a song that is intentionally a conversation starter and a reminder of why we are fighting for the Black Lives Matter cause ever harder as the battle feels ever more uphill.  There are precious lives at stake and she names some of those that have been lost. I'm also grateful for songs like "Glory" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUZOKvYcx_o) that brought the conversation about Ferguson into the mainstream. It's powerful message connecting the Civil Rights Movement to current events that had enough of an impact on our society to win an Academy Award. Seamus Heaney has a great stanza in The Cure at Troy: 

"History says, don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme."

Often it is the music of the movement that can make the rhyme come alive.