Social Justice Choir: Activism through music
All songs tell a story and some of these stories come together to raise awareness against injustice. The Social Justice Choir in Vermillion seeks to use the art form of music to fight discrimination.
On Thursday, May 7 at 7:00 p.m., the choir will host their LGBTQ+ Rights Concert at the First United Methodist Church. During the performance, the choir will sing music from LGBTQ+ composers. The initial thought for the concert was to include mostly transsexual composers, but there were some difficulties in putting it together.
“It’s really hard to find music that’s always accessible to the community choir, so I included gay, lesbian and bisexual composers as well,” Chris Larson, Director of Music at the First United Methodist Church, said.
The choir does only one concert a semester, so they rehearse weekly, about 14 hours in total. They focus on specific social issues at a time. This semester’s topic was chosen after much consideration.
“I try to keep things topical with what’s going on in the world,” Larson said. “I was kind of seeing towards the end of last calendar year more threats to the rights of LGBTQ+ persons.”
The lineup of songs is extensive, ranging from happy tunes to more serious songs, therefore, showing the variety of music of LGBTQ+ composers.
“Lavender Song is kind of a choir favorite,” Larson said. “It was written, I think it was around 1920 in Germany, and it’s considered the first gay anthem.”
During the concert, people will not only listen to the music, but also be educated about the history of the LGBTQ+ social movement through it.
“I’m hoping that everybody feels a bit more sense of empowerment to either embrace your own identity or feel empowered as an ally, and to also just enjoy the variety of music that queer composers have written,” Larson said.
The Social Justice Choir has created a space for people to come together and, through music, call out injustices.
“I think that people have been finding a nice sense of community, finding people who share similar ideas, beliefs and it’s open to anybody,” Larson said.
With their concerts, the choir hopes to bridge the gap between differing opinions and make a safe space for conversations about social issues. With the concert coming up soon, Larson is already thinking about what to do next semester.
“For next semester, the idea that I have right now is peaceful protests, so some protest songs, songs about peace,” Larson said.
The choir takes a break during the summer, but members and anyone interested may join the United Church of Christ and Trinity Lutheran Choirs for the Vermillion Pride church service on June 21.
