PeaceBang

HONK Festival

I went to the HONK Festival today in Davis Square. In case you didn’t know that there’s a whole subculture of “activist street bands,” I’m here to tell you that there is indeed!

They had names like Brass Liberation Orchestra and Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble and Hungry March Band and they came from as close by as Providence, Rhode Island and from as far away as New Orleans,Lousiana and Rome, Italy. My favorite group was the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, which had the best choreography and oom-papa kick-butt music and message.

It was one of those “Hush, Little Baby — Mama’s Gone Hunting a Sermon” outings — I already wrote 90% of my sermon on “Can These Dry Bones Live: Singing, Dancing and Laughing-In The Revolution” on Thursday and knew I’d get my first page or so from attending the festival. We’re hearing “Stories From the Cha Cha Cha” by Vern Huffman (in Paul Rogat Loeb’s marvelous book of essays, The Impossible Will Take a Little While) as our contemporary reading and Ezekiel 37:1-9 as our ancient reading. I’m referencing “Hairspray” and Baby Suggs’ Sermon in the Clearing from Beloved in mysermon:

“Here,” she said, “in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it. … This is flesh I’m talking about here. Flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that need to rest and to dance; backs that need support; shoulders that need arms, strong arms I’m telling you. … hear me now, love your heart. For this is the prize.” Saying no more, she stood up then and danced with her twisted hip the rest of what her heart had to say while the others opened their mouths and gave her the music. Long notes held until the four-part harmony was perfect enough for their deeply loved flesh.”

I’m singing “Our Father (The New, Revised Edition)” by Susan Werner as the Prelude and the choir is doing “The Fire Of Commitment” by Jason Shelton. The music will all be fun, irreverent and contemporary. My Music Director is going to play “You Can’t Stop The Beat” from “Hairspray” as the postlude!

I used Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy as research reading.

My message is basically this: one of the most tried-and-true ways to oppress a people is to control their laughter, dancing and singing. The work of social change must reclaim these things. There’s a lot my sermon about colonialism and Western attitudes about the place of the body in spiritual practice (ie, none! ’til very recently!). We will remember the African slaves who sat in the choir loft of our own church building with their hands properly folded, having been taught that their own embodied forms of worship were demonic. The sermon concludes with the (somewhat inaccurate but by now legendary) words of Emma Goldman, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.”

Take and use as you like. I believe in sharing liturgical materials.

I’m really excited about this service. It has the potential to be a failure, and I think it’s important to take those risks now and then.