Tag: Congressman John Lewis

WATCH: Dan + Claudia Zanes, “Let Love Be Your Guide (for John Lewis)”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Dan + Claudia Zanes
Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland
Song: “Let Love Be Your Guide (for John Lewis)”
Album: Let Love Be Your Guide
Release Date: September 10, 2021
Label: Smithsonian Folkways

In Their Words: “The part that says ‘for John Lewis’ tells you how this song originated…. In March of 2020, when the national state of emergency was declared, we started a Social Isolation Song Series. It felt like the right thing to do, release a performance of a song a day until things calmed down. The calming down hasn’t really happened yet, but we did manage to go for 200 straight days releasing a new video every afternoon. Along the way we started having trouble finding songs to say what was on our hearts and we began writing more and more.

“John Lewis died on July 17th. His funeral was held on July 30th at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. We watched the service on TV and read his op-ed in the New York Times that same morning. As everyone remembers, racial justice was at the forefront of the national conversation last summer. For many, this was a time of awakening. For others it was a time of confusion. For many more, a time of frustration. And here was John Lewis, once again at the center of it all encouraging us to ‘walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.’

We sat at the dining room table and wrote ‘Let Love Be Your Guide’ in about 20 minutes. After a quick change into some clean clothes, recorded it for the series and put it out there. We can never sing this song without mentioning John Lewis and his legacy of non-violence, the guiding principal that he called ‘love in action.’ We wanted this video — made with friends from our neighborhood — to be about pure love, joy, and community.” — Dan + Claudia Zanes

Photo credit: Xavier Plater

LISTEN: Crys Matthews, “Call Them In”

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Artist: Crys Matthews
Hometown: Richlands, North Carolina (currently Washington, D.C.)
Song: “Call Them In”
Album: Changemakers
Release Date: March 26, 2021

In Their Words: “As a social-justice songwriter, my approach to songs has always been to lead with love and hope, even when it is hard to do, especially when it is hard to do. That message is at the heart of ‘Call Them In.’ It is so easy for those of us committed to justice to do the work of calling out injustice, but it is much harder to take that next step and try to invite people in. But that is the charge, that is the task before us. Not a lot of people did that better than John Lewis.

“As a fellow Black southerner, I grew up hearing about the freedom songs people would sing (like ‘Eyes on the Prize’) as they marched for justice, and I wanted this song to feel like something they would be proud of and maybe march to, which is why I wanted to build a choir into the song. Fellow social-justice songwriters Kyshona Armstrong and Heather Mae, who are singing on the track, definitely helped me achieve that. I hope that this song passes on a little of the love and hope that he and Dr. King passed on to me and so many others. May we never stop believing in good trouble, or in the vision of America that Congressman Lewis bled for on that bridge all those years ago.

“In the summer of 2020, while the entire world was learning how to live through a global pandemic, America was in the middle of a reckoning nearly 400 years in the making. George Floyd’s brutal killing at the hands of police in Minnesota sparked the kind of national outrage that had been sparked decades ago when John Lewis and so many others were brutalized on Bloody Sunday. And while George Floyd was not the first and, in some ways, not even the most horrific of these all too frequent instances of police brutality, he woke so many people up to the reality at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“In an interview he gave on The TODAY Show, Congressman Lewis said that he thought Dr. King would be very proud of how many Americans were standing up for justice, and speaking out for better. Lewis said, ‘He’s looking down and he’s saying to each and every one of us, keep it up, and never give up, never give in, but to keep the faith and to keep your eyes on the prize.’ At 80 years old, and after having suffered so much cruelty and brutality, this great man was still doing the work of calling out injustice while simultaneously calling in more allies, more willing change agents, more of what Dr. King called ‘drum majors for justice.’ So when he died on July 17, 2020, I knew that I wanted to honor him. It is my sincere hope that ‘Call Them In’ does just that.” — Crys Matthews

Photo credit: Rah Foard

LISTEN: Leigh Nash (ft. Ruby Amanfu), “Good Trouble”

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Artists: Leigh Nash (featuring Ruby Amanfu)
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Single: “Good Trouble”
Release Date: February 5, 2021

Editor’s Note: “Good Trouble” was inspired by the words of late Congressman John Lewis, who fought tirelessly for the social justice and racial equality we are still striving for to this day. His famous “Get in good trouble’ quote has become a modern call to action in dismantling an oppressive system and inspires hope for future generations.

In Their Words: “I had always admired Congressman Lewis and the work he did. I was enamored with a speech of his that talked about good and necessary trouble. I wanted to explore the concept more and once I started working with Matt and Ruby, everything just came together effortlessly.” — Leigh Nash

“When Leigh Nash reached out to ask me to join her and Matt Maher in co-writing ‘Good Trouble’ with them, it felt like a hand reaching out to hold mine. Allyship is so important to me and I believe that it is necessary now more than ever. Writing the second verse of ‘Good Trouble’ came as a natural response to what Leigh was singing in the first verse. I wanted to share my perspective, innermost feelings and the struggles I face walking around every day in a body with brown skin. I am reminded of the poem by German Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemöller, ‘First they came…’ Now is the time to identify privilege. It’s the time for being shaken awake. It’s time to speak up boldly as now-saints such as Representative John Lewis, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and many, many others have paved the way for us to do so. This time of unrest in our country is affecting our generation and many others in a way that we can no longer deny.” — Ruby Amanfu

Photo credit: Allister Ann