On Halloween Saturday I was so happy to be able to attend a PowerPoint Basics Class at MLK Library here in the District. Afterwards, I headed down to the Great Hall for the DC Legendary Musicians Concert. My ears enjoyed a warmup jam session rendered by musicians. I stayed briefly. (My living in Annapolis comes with limitations.)
The event’s purpose was to highlight professional D.C. musicians who are preserving as well as innovating the sound of D.C. music, according to the DC Libraries website. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton gave opening remarks.
The beginning of the event enthralled me with the singing of our Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” How lucky we were to have the young new singer Nia Alsop to render to us these precious words:
Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on ’til victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
This anthem was originally a poem written by James Weldon Johnson, principal of Stanton School located in Jacksonville, Florida. It was recited by 500 school children at Stanton on February 12, 1900, as a part of a celebration for Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. The poem was later set to music by James Weldon Johnson’s brother John.
Before leaving the concert I became wrapped-up with memories. This event was part of the library’s DC Reads 2015 series, which features a different book to read and celebrate at public events each year. This year “All Aunt Hagar’s Children,” a collection of stories by local author Edward P. Jones, is featured.
My mind was swept away to when I heard Jones reading one of the stories in “All Aunt Hagar’s Children” at the Library of Congress a year or so ago. He read “Blindsided,” a short story about a lady becoming blind while riding a bus here in D.C. on 14th Street. I could not believe the lady became blind in moments! I have an eye disease that may allow me to become blind in a moment, too!
I fetched up my memories and came back to the present as I left the celebration. Fun memories of our nation’s capital; I will never forget 14th street!
DC Reads 2015 Events will be going on through November 9. More info at dclibrary.org/dcreads
