Hiawatha Music Festival
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Rhiannon Giddens and Liberation Songs: When the Blackbird Talks to the Crow
What I’d give to sing just one song in hope-filled voice with Rhiannon Giddens. I’d heard her in Michigan when I sat on the ground; right, there, ten, feet, away — watching and listening — my mouth agape, ears drunk with the power blasting from her body, her banjo, and her SOUL as the Carolina…
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DRUMS: The Language of Time (an excerpt).
Five days ago, I went to a drum circle attended by about 50 people. It brought me back to my essay in progress. Drumming takes place through the night until a last tired thumper wanders away in the fog of exhaustion. Their fully-charged reptilian brain shifts to the goal of finding their tent. Some can’t…