So I wrote this song after being inspired by the book "Half the Sky". Originally it had these sort of verse/choruses and in-between them we (The Pacha Mamas) would each do a monologue- taken from the stories of real women from the book and their journey of empowerment coming from very oppressive situations. In an effort to arrange the piece so that not only we could do a powerful recording of it, but also so that it would fit into our "Touch of Goddesspell" concert, we took the monologues out and replaced them with poetic, rhythmic spoken word pieces with the same themes. We (The Pacha Mamas - including Anahata Iradah- in other words the ensemble for "A Touch of Goddesspell") performed this piece for the first time at The Revolution of Love concert in February. Even though it wasn't perfect - it was strong and we got lots of great feedback about it. We will be recording this song at the end of this month and subsequently creating what we hope is a very powerful, moving music video to go along with it. So keep posted!!! And here is the spoken word verse that I created/performed, just to give you a little taste/preview;-)
Her words of wisdom
Her acts of courage
Her poetry have all
touched me deeply
And set my soul free
And The Caged Bird Sings
Everyone:
And The Caged Bird Sings!
And I think about the fact
That Maya grew up black
In a segregated south
Other side of the tracks
Scorned. . .
For the color of her skin
And the Caged Bird Sings
Everyone:
And The Caged Bird Sings!
And at the age of seven
Raped. . .
By kin of kin
When she spoke his name
Death came to him
And she took the blame
Didn’t speak again
For (everyone) 5 Years!
5 Years of listening
5 Years of reading every book in sight
Shakespeare became
Her first love of white
And finally
it was the poetry
That set her voice free
And the Caged Bird Sings
Everyone
(And) The Caged Bird sings
Creating beauty from pain
A woman she became
Whose words found Their power
from within
And touched the souls
Of thousands
and thousands
And the Caged Bird. . . . .. is. .. .. (sing) FREE!
