Description
When Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now, came to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Great Speckled Bird, Atlanta’s radical newspaper, she spoke of the need to “break the silence.” I was sitting in the audience with my friend Murphy Davis, longtime advocate for prisoners on death row, and co-founder of theOpen Door Community, serving Atlanta’s homeless. This song was born then and took shape when I was invited to sing at One Billion Rising, Eve Ensler’s Valentine Day global wake up call to stop violence against women and girls. With my students from the Global Village Project, a school for teenage refugee girls from Afghanistan, Burma, Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iraq, Sudan, and Somalia, we sang this song on the steps of the Georgia state capitol, and in Troy Davis Park, in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Our voices that day were joined with voices all around the world, singing and dancing for an end to violence. May the singing of this song bring peace to your community. Please feel free to add your own verses!