Our PIE day Singing Night was humble but wonderful! We wish we could have shared it with more people. We still had pie left to share, and I would have loved to have had to buy more pies.
It was an evening of music, connection, harmony, and spirit.
Here's the list of the songs we listened to and sang.
- The Village by Wrabel, the video ft. UNITY, and the song to sing with
- This is Me from the Greatest Showman, video, and the song to sing with
- Born This Way by Lady Gaga
- Beloved by Jordan Feliz
- You Are Loved by Stars Go Dim
- You Are Loved by Josh Groban
- True Colors by Cyndi Lauper
- Same Love by Macklemore
- Bad at Love by Halsey
- I’m Coming Out by Diana Ross, and video clip of THE D SoraKi dancing to it
- Faith by George Michael
- Express Yourself and Vogue by Madonna
- You Need to Calm Down and Cardigan by Taylor Swift
- Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat
- Constant Craving k.d. lang
- Grace Kelly and Elle Me Dit by MIKA
- Livin’ la Vida Loca by Ricky Martin
- Raise Your Glass by P!nk
- Appalachian Spring Vl by Aaron Copland
As I was preparing my playlist, I Googled "queer composers" and there was a huge list of classical composers who were gay but had to hide it because it was illegal at the times and places they lived in. So sad. We listened to a couple samples of classical music, including a larger snippet of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring that featured the melody that we know as Lord of the Dance. We wondererd if Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet was so beautiful because of his understanding of star-crossed love. It brought to mind the song Rewrite the Stars that we're singing this season in the YRCC.
We talked about misinterpretations of Bible verses out of context, and the fact that the word homosexual wasn't in the Bible until 1946. We talked about how everyone wants to be seen and known and loved. The theme of being seen and known has come up many times in love songs and songs about God's love that we've been singing. We want to be loved just the way we are and not need to change things or hide things about ourselves. We noticed that nothing in nature is perfectly symmetrical, and each of us is unique, and thought that this could be God's way of letting us know that imprefection is beautiful and we shouldn't strive to be the same as anyone else. Quilting teaches us this as well.
Dancing became a theme of discussion and we decided it would be good to end the evening with dancing. So, I turned off the lights, as I did with my Teen Choir (TTC), back when my kids were teens, at the end of every evening, and we moved our bodies. Dancing to disco-type dance music is a wonderful way to release stress, to free yourself, let go of inhibition, to lose yourself to the music and just be. It was form me in my 20's a kind of therapy.
We didn't pay much attention to the meanings of the words of songs when we were young, even if we sang along. We use music for our own reasons and miss some of its elements. That's okay. Now, looking at the words, and in this context, it's surprising and illuminating to look at the words and see the messages. And, it's wonderful to talk about it with lovely, open-hearted friends.
I'm including here a video of a dancer, THE D SoraKi, dancing to I'm Coming Out. It's astonishing and fantastic to see dance that is so brilliantly original! It reminds us that beautiful and good are ever-changing concepts, that creativity is hugely important, and an open mind is vital.
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