Indigenous peoples continue to be the original stewards of forests, deserts, mountains and grasslands around the globe. Native cultures in various climates engage with the earth through music that venerates land, water, sky, and all living beings that share this planet together. Preserving and growing the world's repertoire of indigenous music and thought has been a core goal of The Multicultural Music Group (MMG) since the organization's inception almost thirty years ago. MMG organized and produced "The Indigenous Peoples of the Americas" Encounters series in 2016, honoring the diverse native cultures of the global hemisphere containing the North and South American continents. One of the concerts in this series was "Indigenous Blues: The Eroded Land of the Gulf," which featured a panel discussion that gave voice to the native peoples living in the Gulf Shores of Louisiana. Dr. Rain P.C. Gomez, Assistant Director of The Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas, was present on the panel at the Lovinger Theater on June 17th, 2016 when she delivered the following statement:
"So much of our language, from traditional plant names, place names and familial names, all come from the land. When that land is impacted, how is it possible to even talk about moving on? The Katrina and Rita Hurricanes were very devastating. We lost not only vital historic records, but a diaspora was created through the removal of African American, American Indian, and Creole communities from Louisiana. The separation pulls on the umbilical cord tethering the land to its people: the further we move away, the tighter it stretches."
Crucially, Dr. Gomez includes African Americans in the list of populations most impacted by the destruction of natural resources in Louisiana. Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Voices, published by the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, defines the term, indigenous peoples as "non-dominant sectors of society who are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their historical continuity with pre-invasion societies that consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories." By that definition, members of African diaspora throughout the world fit the criteria of indigenous peoples, particularly those whose ancestors were forcibly torn from their homeland as a result of the horrendous capture and sale of human beings during the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
American musician, composer, educator, and visual artist whose varied works are informed by Black history, identity, spirituality, and unity. Mr. Purse is MMG Board of Director's most recent acquisition, as well as a Symphonic Youth Program teacher involved in MMG since 1995. His original compositions have been performed by the full MMG orchestra several times over the years, including "Ode to Dr. Watts" and "50 Lashes 50 Bullets", a symphonic piece linking current police brutality in the Bronx to the shameful legacy of violence against Black people throughout North America.
Mr. Purse spoke on the panel of the African-American Music Traditions Encounters presentation that took place in the Black Box Theater at Lehman College on June 16th, 2013. In conversation with Dr. Richard Harper, who is a Jazz and Contemporary Music faculty member at The New School, Mr. Purse discussed "Dr. Watts Hymns," which are uniquely Black renderings of authorized Euro-Christian hymns intoned one line at a time by a leader among plantation field-hands, in a calland-response format that can still be heard in modern-day Black churches throughout the South. These hymns became an important vehicle for coded communication between enslaved people that contributed to liberation efforts, such as warning or giving directions to groups of runaways. Learning the lyrics of Dr.Watts Hymns was also a conduit for Black literacy at a time when teaching slaves to read was punishable by death in most states in the North, as well as the South. Mr. Purse and Dr. Harper even sang a live demonstration of Dr. Watts Hymns at the event in 2013; though neither planned on singing that night, their example expertly conveyed the profound pain of Black people who harnessed their voices as instruments of self-determination in a political context that only permitted AfricanAmericans to imagine freedom in death, among the stars.
In 2022, the Symphonic Youth Program Orchestra performed the Colombian song, "El Pescador" or "The Fisherman," by the prolific composer José Barros. Barros was known in Colombia as "El Compositor del Río" or "Composer of the River" due to his lifelong bond with The Magdalena River, located near his hometown of El Banco. Barros exhibits his love of the Magdalena River in the lyrics he wrote for "El Pescador". Roughly translated into English, the song begins with the words, "The tide is rising. To get to the shore, talk to the moon. The Fisherman has no fortune. He talks to the water. He talks to the shore. He talks to the moon." Barros' "El Pescador" pays homage to the indigenous traditions of respectful communication with the natural world, instead of pillaging its resources for profit as evidenced by the statement "The fisherman
IS AN ECO-SOCIAL PROJECT FOR AN EIGHTEEN-PIECE JAZZ ORCHESTRA THAT USES THE SONIC PALETTE OF THE NATURAL WORLD TO COMMUNICATE AWARENESS ABOUT CONSERVING AND PROTECTING NATURAL RESOURCES. THIS CONCERT WILL FEATURE MS. GARAY'S ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS, WHICH COMBINE COMPOSED AND IMPROVISED MUSIC THAT EVOKES THE SOUNDS OF NATURE IN HER NATIVE COUNTRY, MEXICO.
