Peace/Violence

K’naan the Humanitarian

Posted on by stephen t berg / 0 Comment

There were a number of good "folk" moments at this year’s festival. David Gray surprised. Cockburn was his stellar self. The Neville Brothers were tight, polished and took us to New Orleans. The Wailin Jennys, Baka Beyond, Sarah Harmer and others were great…not too many disappointments.

A personal surprise was K’naan, a young Somalian rapper. At a folk festival you say? Exactly my thoughts…but K’naan and his three band members fit the Fest perfectly. A line in one his songs sums up his philosophy. "Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."

As far as I can tell–I’m no expert–"gangster rap" is all about cursing the darkness. On the other hand K’naan’s rap, while jagged at times, is political, poetic, occasionally melodic, and hopeful.

Growing up in Mogadishu in a neighbourhood dubbed the river of blood he is fortunate to be alive. Neighbours, friends, and family have been killed in the prolonged violence among warlords. He was able to get out in the late nineties and settle in Harlem. Much quieter there. Since then he’s moved to Canada and is living in Toronto.

To come from such a place, witness what he witnessed and still exhale hope, reflects an indomitable spirit. To take his experience and work for peace through his own brand of self-deprecating protest songs, is light for us.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Christianity/Peace/Religion/Violence

Real-folk and Fake-gospel

Posted on by stephen t berg / 0 Comment

This was me at the Folk Fest last night. But I loved The Waifes. raining-792956

Had one of those Folk experiences…the rain let up, the sun was insinuating some deep mauve into the city skyline and the Waifes were playing something CSNY-esque. Those are moments you go for, rain or rain.

…then I came home to the "news". And while we were all relieved that the London airport terrorist plot was caught, we were all implicitly asked to ratchet up our fear because of what might, could, eventually will, befall us because of the terrorists. Witness headlines like…"Day to rival 9/11".

Thomas Merton however would call events like this and 9/11 etc., "pseudo events". He would say that we get sucked into investing false meaning into"acts of terror", and as a consequence unwittingly add to the world’s stock of fear while invigorating the pseudo forces of power.

There is nothing creative, nothing of meaning, in an act of terror. It poses as a sacred act, an act of sacred revenge, supposed redemptive violence. Hooked, we dance around it, animated by the pseudo forces that have been awakened by our failure to see. We begin to take sides, our hatred is justified, and so redeemed becomes virtuous. And our unity is strengthened for a while. Fear may even get us to go back or renew our commitment to church or get serious about spiritual things. But all of this of course, is smoke and anti-gospel. As long as we’re controlled by these false powers, unable to look away, failing to "renew our minds", fascinated by "shock and awe", we will keep generating false unity and apocalyptic violence.

For an understanding that exactly nails what I’m trying to articulate here, check out this article by James Alison.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Peace/Poverty

Big-hearted Folkies

Posted on by stephen t berg / 0 Comment

I’m heading off to the Folk Fest tonight (Edmonton); got a weekend pass for the first time in many, many years. In fact at the last time I got the whole package Doc Watson was middle-aged and still touring with his son Merle. Possibly the two greatest flat-pickers of all time. Here’s a taste. And when they teamed up with Bill Monroe or Grisham…well that was grass…Blue Grass at its break-necked shimmering best. docwatson

The way I see it, the world needs more folk festivals. They produce an ameliorating effect on the earth’s ether. They’re not the big solution of course but I bet there would be far fewer wars and less tightfistedness if there were more folk festivals. As fan Mary Pipher put it, bluegrass festivals, country fairs and public libraries are the world’s support system.

Of course Live-8 and the concerts put on by Make-Poverty-History are doing there part, and good on them. But in my experience, Folkies have always been big-hearted people. That’s just the way they are. Something in the music connects them back to terra firma. Something in those musical roots refuses to underestimate the power of one person sharing and giving.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Peace

Ecclesiasticus

Posted on by stephen t berg / 0 Comment

Some mornings mercy comes to you in the face of every person you pass. Some days, an infinitely small movement of acknowledgement is all you need. Some days you can be the "great acknowledger".

Some days you glimpse what could be if we all just put down our arms, folded our hands and went for ice cream. On some mornings a stranger’s glance is the most familiar thing. Sometimes beauty is found inside, in that place you forgot to look, and when you do look, you also find all your lost toys and socks.

I wanted to be great once. Wanted to be so many people. Now all I want is to become me. Or at least a better copy of who me is.

There is room for the blues. There is room for Raffi.

There is room for overweight six-foot women with butch-cuts in Canada post uniforms. There is room for grey-haired, tan-suited business men carrying white umbrella’s. There is room for sweat-suited middle-age grandmothers jogging with ipods. There is room for white socks and sandals holding up skinny white legs, an extra-large Kelloggs t-shirt topped off by a tattooed jaw, jet-black mascara and a pompadour. There is room for every kind of child.

There is room for grumpy people as long as we’re not all grumpy at once. There is room for disco, as long we’re not all playing it at once. Room for ecstasy, as long as were not all ecstatic at once. That would be silly.

There is room for accordions. But there is no room for hate.

Technorati Tags: , , ,