Songwriters Sessions
Our songwriters sessions provide the opportunity to gather, critically analyze text and music, and create a piece of art.
Session #4: It is upon you
You shall not. This is not a question, neither a riddle, nor a request. It is a command, an imperative. We are compelled to love those around us. To see to their wellbeing. To see the image of G-d in everyone and act accordingly. We are commanded to not let our blessings be a burden on the backs of the less fortunate. We cannot take from others what deprives them of dignity, nor blindly receive without acknowledging those on the periphery of society. It sounds comically simple: be kind. But this requires a fierceness of character, a brazenness of Malchut (kingship or divine presence) to look into a world where every manner of misdeed is available and to choose to not ignore the grievous injury of injustice…
Session #3: On Wings
What do you want? What do you want? It’s the easiest question to ask, but, often, it is a quite difficult question to answer. We ask people to define what they want without preconditions. But almost nobody can answer without passing the information through a series of socially acceptable, tone-policed, considerate filters to be as judgement-proof as possible. Similarly, we filter our hopes through the lens of possibility. Sometimes out of caution, or fear, but nevertheless sitting in the silence of knowing that hope can be misconstrued as feckless wishful thinking, lacking agency or willpower. The reality is that hope is a muscle that can atrophy when it is not used and a strategy to create possibility when possibility defies logic.
Session #2: The One Righteous Man
One righteous man, the only of his generation, asked to bear the cost of destruction wrought by a generation of lawlessness, he acquiesces without question. We see a dissonance arise among the texts between willingness to be a faithful partner bound to a demanding relationship and the loneliness of obligation in the face of a society that mocks fidelity strikes as a fierce battle of internal and external pressure. Facing an impending winter, in the form of a flood or the departure of known quantities, we see a sense of resignation to an inevitable collapse. We are asked to see the blessings in being where we are; even when we don’t want to be there.
Session #1: In the beginning…
Here comes the sun…and the moon, and the stars, the day, and the night. All separated by purpose and necessity. Each entity providing it’s own creative force. Alternating, perhaps battling for dominance, the goodness of light and the difficultly of darkness is acknowledged endlessly in both religious and secular texts. Darkness is often described in desolating terms, but is not deprived of creative force nor purpose. Clarity comes in the night through rested eyes as easily as in the brightness of day.
