True Blue Island

It’s been a week.

transitioning from plant and dog sitting at Andreas to Cpt Joe’s where I’m going to build out my tiny house with chop saw and table saw stored in his barn.

Mon/Tues 🏥🏥

Tuesday Naomi got sick at school and the school nurse asked me to come home and pick her up concerned she had a stomach bug/virus . She puked once more, rested up and then got a good night’s sleep and was back at it wednesday.

We spent after school Wednesday enjoying the last moments to craft away on sewing machine and playing music that I was to practice for a rehearsal Thursday am. Naomi sewed her friend a “peace beagle” I got her pants together, I mended some holes in jackets and reviewed songs on piano — we shall overcome, ain’t nobody, Oh freedom, the storm is passing over.

Thursday morning I attended choir rehearsal to find out how songs as presentation would line up Saturday night . We are to accompany Nicole D’Entremont , a student of Dorothy Day, recount her time in Selma, Alabama. She was there amongst the masses , working alongside the likes of MLK and John Lewis. She stayed in the Carver Houses , put up nr a black family with four little girls, and was fed outside the home on Tropicana orange juice and eating bologne sandwiches. trying to support the movement and march of non violence from Selma across the Pettus bridge into the capital , Montgomery , AL .

Read more: 008 The Long Haul

She has coordinated us as a choir to sing interludes of music between the slides chosen to recount (and somewhat recreate) that place in time . The time being when The world was trying to shift toward equality, voting rights for all. Marching toward an end to segregation and looking for freedom for all to be treated kindly as the are.

many people violently opposed these efforts and it was white folks like Nicole saying they would risk being targeted and would show up to support black voices who went out of their way to actively stand in solidarity with those being mistreated by those in power. Nicole witnessed the jeers, gestures of violence, the kkk and government officials that pushed, injured, attacked and threatened the lives of black people at that time. those targeted learned a tactic to self preservation — they sang to ground themselves and keep a non violent stance. Nicole reminds us world changers do not keep their voices down in asking for the world to change nor do they accept violence as the status quo. Lives were lost. And that struggle was and is the real long haul .

Nicole was moved to get in touch with Joanne Bland , a little girl at the time Nicole was in Selma years ago. The area has recently been struck by hurricanes and in taking a look at what is going on there now, Nicole realized Joanne is raising funds to create a park , in the name of her friend John Lewis, and a learning center in the spirit of non violence and in memory of the many foot soldiers who participated in the march of 1958.

www.footsoldierspark.org

Tonight I have the privilege to sing with Jan Thomas’ choir in order to give a sense of the songs folks sang during the time . We hope to help recreate the feeling of what people who were there held in their hearts as Nicole narrates her experience. 7pm new brackett church , peaks island . Or send your donation direct to website above. . Thank you.

Amidst these short rehearsals I have been cleaning and reorganizing a house filled with cobwebs and dog hair, a gorgeous jungle of plants , and a beautiful baby grand piano. here I plunked out the melody and harmony to the choir songs I’ve been trying to learn to sing. I am grateful to be able to have stayed here with my daughter in this past month.

In cleaning up, I found a lifetimes worth of my friends great collection of collaged cards she has pieced together from photographs, paintings and drawings. I really loved the cards that had photographic portraits of people in them.

One such card is very fitting to how this week has felt preparing to sing with the choir

Tonight we sing.

Finally finished cleaning and transitioning to cpt joes while leaving a back parlor of housewares full at Andreas awaiting a new destination. Joe has internet here so I can sit down and write and upload images. It’s nice to have a moment to breathe and ground myself into this next moment before I have to go back to work at 🏥 tomorrow.

Was gifted a beautiful amount of faux shiplap plywood paneling that was excess in someones yard🙏thank you Owen.

Ran into Heather who told me the membrane I need for interior finish over pink insulation and before the paneling is a permeable layer to source through performance building. Another grateful moment for having knowledgeable and accessible neighbors.

Naomi secretly ordered me a gardening book that was at our p.o box today when i went to look if the title to the green Saturn had arrived. She said she wanted me to have it to read in my bunk when it got built. ☺️I’m a lucky mama.

The snow has started to fall and my ambitions of being more Hemingway-esque have not quite come into effect… Not sure my manliness will prevail, yet, I’ll keep working on it.

This entry was posted on March 23, 2023 at 7:03 PM and is filed under Thoughts.