[Carter]: capacity in constituencies for sustainable cities, neighborhoods, and initiatives. Most recently, Dave served as a deputy of Echo Innovation for the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation. That's in Dorchester, for those of you that are new to the program. My wife and I lived in that area for a number of years, not too far from the Dorchester Courthouse. He currently serves as an associate park commissioner for the city of Boston. and served on the mayor's Go Boston 2030 task force. Dave received Clean Water Action's 2014 John O'Connor Award for grassroots leadership and Walk Boston's 2016 Golden Shoe Award. So thank you all for coming. Thank you, Dave. Thank you, Daria. Thank you, Mariangeli. So as we're still in the waning days of Poetry Month for 2023, I have to at least go there one time. Now, you all know me, and I've written a lot of poetry that speaks to the legacy of the Mystic River in greater Medford. One particular piece was, in many ways, inspired by my friendship with Patrick Heron and the folks at MIRA. It takes a little time to unfold, so bear with me. This piece is called, A River Runs Through It. Our valley is a place of legacy. Monuments of wood and bronze and stone. Stories we tell and make our own. Colonial towns that stand the test of time. Old graveyards that reckon our lost prime. Thoughts that bring a poet to a rhyme. And a river runs through it. Our valley is a place of history, heroes that fought in foreign wars, Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Corps, pride and service that extends their tours, courage seeping, sweating through their pores, death and loss that bravery ignores, and a river runs through it. Our valley is a place of misery. Native kindness lost in exploitation. Liberties for some through subjugation. Faith distortions used to build a nation. Confinement to the distant reservation. Hopeful spirits lost at every station. Museum cases filled with infiltration. And a river runs through it. Our valley is a place of shame, treaties that were violated, tribes that were decimated, disease that was initiated, environment that was devastated, trust that was annihilated, greed that is still celebrated, and a river runs through it. Our valley is a place of industry. Iron was smelted, tallow was melted, ships were built, frames were gilt. Leather was tanned. Bridges were spanned. Fabric was dyed. Fish was fried. Rum was distilled. Barrels were filled. Glass was blown. Crops were grown. Meadows were stamped. Soldiers encamped. Milk was homogenized, pasteurized, and fortified. And a river runs through it. Our valley is a place of industry. Lies were told as papers passed. Covenants never intended to last. Stolen lands, great wealth amassed. Rampant corruption now put on blast. How did it get so bad so fast? This silent guilt that sanitizes. Race unrest that paralyzes. Black lives trying to matter. Brown skin made to scatter. Red blood spilt and splattered. Homes that only sell to some. Banks don't lend to everyone. Police don't look to serve and protect. Fear and loathing breed disrespect and a river runs through it. Our valley is still a place of denial, for graves undug to drive a pile, for landed gentry remains on trial, for sins committed in the church's aisle and failure to turn equality's dial, for actions thought both vain and vile, no small amount of desecration where progress interred the bones of First Nation, with never a notion to a real preservation and a headlong rush toward contamination. Where is Missituk's compensation? Are bluebacks and herring a standing ovation? The watchers gather around the formation and a river runs through it. Our valley is a place of nativity, indigenous braves or slaves in captivity, immigrant enclaves in exclusivity, a treacherous path to beloved community. Each clan wears a kindred face, covets a homeland's warm embrace, coveting gospels of time and space, every religion and every race, tribal spirits of fire and ice, a thousand types of beans and rice, and a river runs through it. Our valley is a place of fertility, verdant shores by the sandy beaches. Nature grows what the soul beseeches, ash and elm and maple preaches from the silent spring to the epic speeches, yet poisoned into the soil leeches, open wounds and ugly breaches. We've yet to learn what nature teaches and a river runs through it. Our valley is a tapestry. Threads for every color and shade. Stripes for every soul displayed. Winter and spring. Summer and fall. Translucent rain that showers all. Rainbows await the heart's desire. Together we face the cleansing fire. Families grow strong with true resilience. Schools invest in each child's brilliance. Each one brings their gifts and talents. God's design puts the scales in balance. Neighbors embrace a common will despite the screaming fool on the hill. Poems are written that resonate still and a river runs through it. Our valley is a place of revolution, where new voices seek a new solution that doesn't begin with a cash contribution, that doesn't end with filth and pollution. Voices that hush when justice calls and push when progress slowly calls, presenting new and clear demands with concrete 10-year master plans and a river runs through it. Our valley is a place of revelation where cooperative efforts rebuild and the local folk join the highly skilled to reclaim, rebrand, and re-engineer with the local folk who volunteer to pluck the refuge from marsh and shore with only the thought to refresh and restore so future folks embrace and explore and the river runs through it. Our valley is a place of vibrancy that takes great pride in its energy, that seeks out moments of synergy, that wraps its models in honesty, that guards its resources zealously, that seeks its level with urgency, and a river runs through it. Our valley is a place of true rebirth, as we try to protect our precious earth, where good people meet to set things right, and the cleanup ensues through the waning light, and then the party takes over the night, and the food and the music is out of sight. We gather our kin at the father's shore, and labor together to open the door, and a river runs through it. Okay, so I know it was a lot. I know it was a lot. You know, I'm still teaching myself to write shorter poems, but I'm not a very good teacher, so. Okay, so I want to start with Beyond the Bend of the Stream. Let's have a friendly chat with our folks. Dari, can you talk a bit about the work, your work, and how it engages and impacts young people in the MIRA service communities.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, definitely. Young people specifically or everybody? We're all young at heart, I guess, right? Definitely. So a large part of my work is working with volunteers, which there's a few awesome volunteers in the audience today. It's always great to see your faces and hear your stories and how you connect with the mystic and what working with the mystic with your hands means to you. We do a lot of activities and a lot of the work is powered by volunteers. We started off our organization fully volunteer with people who just noticed that the river was polluted. It had endured, you know, a lot of history of damage, which you just spoke to in your poem, and it was just these concerned residents who just decided We can't change what we don't know. And so they started collecting data. And that's kind of where our community science programs were born. It's people who care and people who say, I need to get more information so I can make this change that I want to see. So that's kind of where we started and we've just added more and more onto that. We collect data around the herring migration, the river herring migration, which you mentioned alewives and blueback herring, our favorite fish, unapologetically, which have just started their migration. Just this past week we saw our first ones. And it used to signal the new year for the indigenous people who lived here. kind of bringing in the new year with this amazing migration of animals and so we have volunteers going out every hour from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week which is just a huge amount of dedication and love and for the species that we know supports such a diverse and vibrant ecosystem here. So those are a couple of things that are happening right now. We also, of course, clean up trash where we can. We remove invasive species. We're doing more and more planting, trying to establish healthy meadows, healthy trees for shade and for habitat and for so many other things. So, yeah, I guess all I do is help send emails so that everyone gets to the same place at the same time, but it's really the volunteers that are doing amazing, amazing work with us.
[Carter]: Just, just, just, can you give folks a sense of, in the typical herring run, how many fish we're talking about?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, definitely. So way back when, they used to say that the herring were so plentiful that you could walk across the river on the backs of herring, which, can you just picture that? That would be amazing. So definitely overfishing was a huge issue, habitat loss because of dams. And so at the lowest, they really dipped down to around 200,000 coming through our river. And with the establishment of fish ladders, our highest number was around 700,000. which is huge, they've tripled in population. Last year we had the largest river herring run in Massachusetts, which is remarkable because we're the most urbanized watershed. Our river runs right through the middle of a city and a ton of impervious surfaces and yet these river herring are still coming in big numbers. And we're hoping that with a fish ladder or a fish passage installed at the next big obstacle, which is Scally Dam at Horn Ponds, that the Mystic River herring migration might reach over a million fish, which would be huge. Yeah.
[Carter]: Wow. Wow. So it's, it's, it's not a small thing, and I know they have an army of volunteers. I've, I've received some of the solicitations myself, I just haven't been out to get out there and count some fish. But you know, that's, that's one of my future ambitions, is to get out there and count some fish. So Dave, I'm gonna switch it over to you for a second. So professionally, you're kind of a Boston guy. And yet, you know, you kind of, you made your way north and got involved with the work of the association. What, what kind of, you know, prompted you to make that decision?
[SPEAKER_03]: Good question. I just saw an opportunity to work with an organization that was doing comprehensive work. You know, the work that I was doing in Dorchester was at an affordable housing organization, and I was kind of the outlier, if you will. I was like the green nag, I'll call myself. I was the guy that was always poking and prodding us to do more around sustainability, but the chance to come here was a chance to really do what I cared about, which was working at that intersection of science and climate and people, and do it in a place that really needed it. You know, do this work in an urban area really is where my heart is. I've always liked working in urban circumstances. Always have. Well, not always, but... for a long time now, several years. So it just feels like something I wanted to do and have a great team that I get to work with every day. They inspire me. So it's just wonderful to be around younger people who are actually doing this work, but also bring some knowledge and bring some awareness to the organization.
[Carter]: Okay, so, so, not that there are any for anybody, you know, in these professional environments, but kind of a typical day. What does it look like for you?
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if there is a typical day. That's a good question. You know, a typical day could mean anything from working on a grant proposal, to working within municipality and people who care about trees in a particular city or municipality. A lot of my work right now centers on dealing with heat, urban heat. In 2020, we did a big study called Wicked Hot Mystic. We looked at all 21 municipalities in the watershed on a really hot day. It was a 90 degree plus day in the middle of a heat wave. So we figured out, and that was done with a lot of volunteers, figured out where the hot spots were through the whole watershed, and then we said, how do we begin to cool that, those places off? So that's now called Wicked Cool Mystic. Very Bostonian. Wicked Cool Mystic. So now we're trying to figure out, as Daria related to, trees. Where can we put trees? Where can we put cooling centers? What can we do? splash pads, playgrounds. So a lot of my work is grant writing, some of it's kind of figuring out the policy and where we're going around tree policy and planning. It's managing a few staff in the organization. You know, Myra's grown from five to sixteen staff now in about three years, and we're about to jump again, so. Some of my work just involves day-to-day management of the organization, along with Patrick and Shelley, the other deputy director.
[Carter]: Wonderful, fantastic. So you set me up perfectly for the question that I have for Mariangeli, because I wanted to ask you, Mariangeli, is that not reaching? No.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay. I can use this one.
[Carter]: Okay, very good. Sorry about that. Okay, so most recently, what has made you say, What the heck are we gonna do about how hot the weather is getting and how it's changing the river ecology?
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay. So I will say that what has made me think, what the heck are we gonna do with climate change and heat, is a personal experience. Last summer, I had the greatest idea to drive my bike and go to a friend's house and do it in the middle of a heat wave. Because in the Caribbean, I'm from Puerto Rico, you are used to going outside when it's very hot. and you just do activities, go to the beach and spend time with friends. But here the heat is a little bit different. It's more like sticky, more humid. So I decided to go to my friend's house and driving my bike. And then in the middle of the way, I just had to step on the side and drink a bunch of water because I felt like I was going to die. So I was like, OK, there's a lot of things that need to be done about this. And that's by personal experiences, but also by listening to people. I was like, OK, there is stuff that needs to be done. And that's one of the things that actually inspired me to study public health and then also to start engaging in work with Mayra. And also finding ways of how not just people can be protected, but also the environment. Because at the end of the day, when we think about healthy communities, it's one health. It's the health of the people, but also the health of the environment, because it's everything interconnected.
[Carter]: Fantastic. So that's like a significant crossover between what you do and what you do, Dave, in terms of addressing that concern.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, in fact, we're starting to talk internally about how we begin to cross-fertilize across teams. A lot of the work that Mariangeli is doing is around health equity. A lot of my work is around tree equity, but how do we begin to kind of combine those? We're looking at a big air quality grant, for example, right now. How does that intersect with her work and my work and the rest of the work in the organization?
[Carter]: That's amazing. We have one of our particular members that comes here on a regular basis, and trees is her, that's her big thing. So I'm surprised she's not here this evening because she would have lit right into that part of the discussion. But good, I'll tell her that there's folks out there that are working on tree equity. Absolutely. Yeah, and that will be very exciting to her. I'm telling you, you might get a volunteer out of it. Okay, so, Daria, I want you, if you will, to talk a little bit about... Dave's talking about equity, but, you know, in a little different way. Can you talk about, kind of, the people equity side, diversity and inclusion in presenting the river's resources to the local community?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, definitely. I think it's pretty blatant in this watershed that certain communities are facing environmental burdens more than others. And I think certain communities have access to nature much more easily than others. Our watershed is, it's amazing in that it's 21 different municipalities, but it's also, you know, 21 different areas experiencing very different environments and different realities. So I think a lot of what we're trying to do is figure out, by asking community members who live there, kind of, what do you need? What do you want to see in your environment? And seeing where we can kind of plug in and help with that in any way we can, yeah.
[Carter]: So in in terms of some of the things that you're hearing with regard to, particularly, you know, folks, you know, who may be considered, you know, kind of underserved or underrepresented, what kinds of things are they asking for? If you can, you know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, definitely. I think Maria Angelou hosted a really great series of workshops asking communities just that question, so I might pass it to Maria Angelou if you don't mind to answer that one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will say that one of the first things that people are asking, and this project was hosted in Everett, so a lot of the things that people are asking first is to be heard and to be included in the process of like planning for initiatives that are related to environmental justice or related to climate change, because at the end of the day, the people that should be also expressing their concerns are the ones that are experiencing, for example, extreme weather conditions, the heat waves, flooding because you have the stories and it's your live experiences and that should be informing the policies and the programs that are created. But then in terms of on the ground work, people are asking for a lot of trees to be planted, public spaces where you can have fun with your family and your friends, but at the same time they can serve as spaces that you can not only socialize but also get cool during the summer. like having more water parks, water amenities. So yeah, a lot of green spaces, places to hang out, but at the same time get protected.
[Carter]: I had done some poultry work with the group over in Malden, Malden River Works. And that's really an amazing project that they're kind of more in the development stages of. I don't know all of the nuts and bolts of it in terms of where they are now, but I know they had a big series of public meetings and, you know, different gatherings where they elicited a lot of public testimony. And there's so much of what everybody was asking for woven into the rubric of the program that they're developing. So, you know, so it works. It really does. It really does. Yeah, please, Dave.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just wanted to add, so we're really using the approach that Mayor Angelou mentioned. throughout all of our work now. So we center with the community. We talk to community. We say, what is it that you want? We try to figure out ways to do that. So our Wicked Hot Mystic work, when we looked at all the hot spots in all the communities, that's just one layer. We go back to those communities and say, okay, this is where we think it's hot. Where do you think it's hot? Where, when you're walking on your street, would you say you wanted shade, or do you want a splash pad, or something, or a cool block? So, We circle back to the community a few times now, as a matter of course, in all of our work. And it's really critically important to center those communities that have been left out for so long. A lot of the neighborhoods we work in were places that were redlined, historically. So they never got parks. They never got trees. They got a lot of asphalt. They got a lot of driveways, but they didn't have a place to go cool off. And so, we're trying to begin to rectify those situations. And then, Throughout all of this, we have 25 miles of greenway we're trying to complete that connects all these communities in different ways. And we want to make sure that those greenways are also cooled off as well.
[Carter]: Absolutely. So, you know, and you spoke about, you know, a lot of the neighborhoods being redlined, and that's really how West Medford began. I mean, a lot of people don't realize it, but at the outset of probably the late 1880s, 1890s, there were only three streets in all of West Medford where people of color could live. There was this street, Arlington Street, the next street over Lincoln Street, and then the third street over was Jerome Street, and for many years it was like that. And then eventually a couple more streets got added, and we moved a little bit closer to the railroad tracks, but generally speaking, after you cross the railroad tracks, Medford was primarily a white city, and this was the African-American neighborhood. Medford's a lot more diverse now, but in ways that diversity has impacted neighborhoods of color in a negative way because all of the development has pushed people out from places that used to be the only place where you saw black and brown people. So it's a thorny but interesting problem. Very good, very good. So, Mariangeli, what do you, what do you say, I mean, because you've got to meet them sometimes. What do you say to the climate change deniers and folks that don't believe that global warming and heat spots and all this good stuff that Dave is talking about are real things? What do you, what do you tell them?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a very good question. I will say that it's something that we're already experiencing. I know there's a lot of people that are in denial of what is happening, but if we look back last summer, we had like three back-to-back heat waves, and then just like last week, it's April, and it was like already 88 degrees, which was a record. So I feel like pulling on a lot of data, which is something that also our organization based on, we do a lot of research because it's very important to have data to show out there. But at the same time, just like also sharing the stories that we hear through the watershed. Because for the people that still have trouble thinking that this is real, sharing what people in the watershed has said that they have experienced. For example, being in a heat wave and having a person that has a disability at home that maybe is one of like on the second floor of the house and it's difficult for them to have an AC there, just sharing what people live in their daily basis and mixing that with data is a very impactful way of like giving a message. But as we have been saying, We have some experiences, but people in the community are the ones that have more of the experiences. Also providing forums and spaces where people can share those stories by themselves, because we're just here as an organization that is trying to do work, but at the end of the day, this is something that is part of the community, and we are just helping on the way.
[Carter]: Very good. Very good. And what we've done here at the community centers is, you know, we've become part of Medford's network of cooling centers. So, you know, in the heat of the summer, you know, if people need to, if they don't have air conditioning, or if they find they're living in a, you know, in a hot zone, in a hot house, they can make their way down to the community center. They can sit in 68 degrees comfort and not get heat stroke. So it's real. It's real. And I'm just happy that there are folks out there that are collecting the kinds of data that can be impactful as people make decisions about whether or not they want to believe this thing. Because it's real. It's very real. Okay, Dave, what, what, what MIRA projects and programs are you most excited about right now?
[SPEAKER_03]: Everything? Mm-hmm. Um... Well, I'd say our education programs have really expanded exponentially. Natalia, who's not here tonight, has just become a really great educator, and she gets help from Daria, and Mariangeli, and Marissa, and my team, and so we've kind of expanded our outreach to more schools, which is great. The stuff that I'm working on in trees is really pretty exciting. We've been able to get some funding for trees. We were able to get an earmark from Senator Presley's office. And we're actually, I think some of that money's actually gonna come to Medford. We've been talking to Trees Medford about planting trees here, both public and private property. So that will probably happen this fall. We also have gone after two very large pots of money. about $2.5 million and $4 million in earmarks for next year. So, you know, Congress is kind of, despite what you hear in the press, Congress is somewhat in our favor right now. So, we hope to kind of be able to move some money our way and be able to do some more tree planting. I'd say the air quality study, which I'm not totally involved with, but the air quality work again is, it kind of speaks to what Mariangeli was saying. It gives us a backdrop in terms of data, and allows us to say, look, this is the reality on the ground. This is the reality in the air. What do you want to do about it? What do you want to change in terms of policy? And that policy piece is something I think that's important for everyone to think about is, What do you want to say to your municipality around policy? You know, should you have more cooling centers? Should you have more trees? What's your policy around seniors and emergencies? How are health centers involved in emergency management? So you all as residents get to make the difference around that stuff. And I encourage you to kind of work through your politicians and make things happen that you want to see happen.
[Carter]: A lot of important stuff, really. Very good. Daria, can, can you, can you talk a little bit about, you know, your favorite moment or few moments of being part of the organization so far?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my gosh. That's a big question. I think there's been a lot of them. I think that whenever we do these really fun community events that really have no goal except for people just having fun by the river, that's, those are my favorite. For example, we did a Project Misik. It's a drumming workshop next to the river and just seeing different ways those spaces can be used and enjoyed by the community. I was working with a youth, a collection of youth groups, and I first came to them with the idea of like, what if we had a forum and you could all talk to each other? And they all said, what's a forum? We don't really want to do that. So they said, let's call it a celebration instead, and let's just bring soccer balls and volleyballs and big drawing pads, and just seeing that come to life from their vision, those are some of my favorite, absolute favorite moments. Yeah.
[Carter]: Well, you know, one of the things that, you know, it's been kind of my aim to do is to, is to incorporate some of the work that you do with youth into some of the youth initiatives that we have here at the community center. So, like this summer, for instance, we do a program called Hoops and Hope. which is, revolves around basketball. But, you know, having a table and having materials to be able to give out to the young people and talk about climate resiliency and talk about, you know, school education programs, and that would be a good opportunity. And I know we've already talked with Michelle Lieberthal about Juneteenth and, you know, having you be a part of the Juneteenth celebration that we're going to do here at the community center. So there are lots of opportunities for kind of a cross-pollination of what MIRA does and what the community center is doing, particularly as a resiliency hub in the city of Medford. So we can definitely talk some more about that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that sounds amazing.
[Carter]: Very good. So Mariangeli, what new climate resiliency initiatives are you excited about in this particular program year?
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the initiatives that I get very excited about every summer is that we have a partnership with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, where we partner to provide funds to community-based organizations and municipalities in the watershed to create projects in their communities that are addressing extreme heat. And this is something that is very exciting because it varies greatly of the different projects that are created through this program. For example, planting more trees or doing a community party where people can go cool down, but also build a network with your neighbors and with your family. But at the same time, it gives money to community-based organizations to provide social services, like utility bill assistance, because we know if you have an AC and have access to one, turning on the AC during the summer can be also stressful. So it provides some extra funding for people to give that to the community and also just programs to actually access an air conditioner. So it's a great initiative that we have and we're trying to also figure out how this can become a long-term program because it started during COVID-19 as emergency funding. But we're trying to make this program longer so it can actually keep serving community-based organizations and municipalities.
[Carter]: Okay, last time I checked, West Medford Community Center was considered a community-based organization. So if you want to hang out with us and some of that funding that comes through you comes through you and comes to us, that wouldn't be a problem for us, okay? I just thought I'd say that, you know? Seemed to make sense to me. So, David, as you think about collaborations and youth development and community building, How do you think Myra's, you're gonna have to dance the next time that happens. How will Myra build on the successes of the past year?
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, we'll continue expanding our outreach. We've kind of, like I said, my work has been focused on some of the communities like Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Somerville, Medford, so how do we begin to expand outwards to other communities that are facing these same issues, facing the same issues around heat? that have the need for trees or some other cooling amenities. So I think that's one thing I'm thinking that we're gonna do. What else? The greenways are starting to really take off.
[Carter]: Now, does that include the Clippership Connector?
[SPEAKER_03]: Is that part of the... Clippership Connector is part of our, part of the network we're trying to complete. So there's a bunch of things coming. There's a bridge that's going to be built, not this year obviously, but in the next few years, over the Mystic, along the Orange Line connection, between the casino and what's called Draw Assembly Square. So that's gonna, that's got funding, that's gonna happen. So if someone has to jump off the, a bridge, it'll be a little bit lower than the Orange Line bridge.
[Carter]: I guess that's one way of looking at it, yeah. Yeah. But just the notion of taking these disparate locations and figuring out ways to connect them along the river, it's pretty exciting. And I've been, you know, to various places, you know, along the river. As a matter of fact, with a landscape architect by the name of Carolyn Lewenberg. We just developed, well, we didn't develop the space. The space is already there, but it was capped because there was some environmental damage. It's behind the Andrews School, and it's a new, it hasn't been dedicated yet. It's a new meditation space. It was very exciting, and she did low landscape sculpture with stones in a maze. And then at three positions in the maze, there's a post and tablet with poetry. And I, that's where I come in. So, you know, I did the poetry. I think the dedication is on April 26th, whatever that Saturday is. and it's called Mystic Meditation. So you can walk around in the maze, and you can read the poetry, and you can, it's very, very peaceful, and it's right along the river, so you can hear the river kind of talking in the background, and you can, it's part of the Clippership Connection, so you can continue to walk that path for miles and miles and miles, so.
[SPEAKER_03]: That sounds like a great project. It's gonna be a great thing. It's gonna be a great thing. That makes me think we should be doing a little bit more with connecting people to art. and the river, just somehow thinking about ways to incorporate art more into our work. I'm your guy.
[Carter]: Yeah, I'm your guy. Okay, all right, very good. So, and I want you all to, you know, take a crack at these last couple of questions that I have. What do you absolutely, Dave, you go first, what do you absolutely want the people to know about Myra tonight?
[SPEAKER_03]: We're really focused on equity and engagement of community. That's at the core of our work now. I think when we started, we were focused primarily on the river, but the river isn't just the river. The river is the river, it's the communities around it, it's the people in those communities. So, how do we help you get what you want, connect you to the river in stronger ways, and really try to create a more vibrant environment for everybody who lives in cities in particular, in this city, in these neighborhoods, in your neighborhood. How do we work with you to do that? I think that's the one thing that I really wanna accomplish by the time I leave MIRA, which won't be for a long time.
[Carter]: And you know, follow up on that, I didn't know that there were actually 21 municipalities that were in your catchment area. You know, Malden, Everett, Medford, and Somerville, and Arlington, Winchester, but that's probably where I stopped.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. What else is in there? All the way out to, there's a little bit of a sliver in Reading, I think, actually, Daria's got the map, so. Okay.
[Carter]: There are these maps back there on the table with other resource materials that Daria and Mariangeli brought with them. So please avail yourself so you can kind of familiarize, if you're not already, familiarize yourself with all of the geography that Myra has in its catchment, because it's very significant, again, more significant than I even knew about.
[Unidentified]: Okay, thank you.
[Carter]: Okay, so, Daria, one thing you absolutely want the people to know about Myra.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's so hard of a question. I think, kind of building off of what you just said, we are a municipality of, or we're a watershed association, and in our watershed, there's 21 different municipalities. So you might be wondering, you know, first, what is a watershed? I would love to talk about that. It's just an area of land where if a drop of water lands in that area, it drains to the same place. So with that definition, you might be wondering, why is a watershed association doing this kind of work? I think that it's just a great kind of regional unit where we can all think together. You know, the water that affects you affects me, affects our neighbors. So I feel like just that the Watershed Association is here to be kind of a facilitator for collaborating across these boundaries where, you know, flooding doesn't stop at Arlington and not go into Medford. It's all together. Um, so just as a resource and as like a, you know, a place to build collaboration.
[Carter]: Absolutely. I remember when there was a gasoline or oil spill down here by the rotary, and it had, you know, a damaging effect on, particularly on that part of the river, and I remember how active Myra was in talking to folks about that and getting folks' opinions and disseminating information, getting that information back to the state and federal agencies that were dealing with the cleanup and everything, so So it's important. It's important to have an advocate and to know that, you know, that's a primary resource that MIRA provides can be pretty comforting to folks. Mariangeli?
[SPEAKER_01]: So one takeaway from Mara, I will say that we care about climate change, but even though climate change can be this scary term, or we are not really sure what's happening and what's gonna happen in the future, we approach this with a very positive lens. Initiatives that are addressing extreme heat, flooding, they don't need to be boring or scary. They can be fun, they can be beautiful, they can be places that community can come together and we can become stronger. So, having in mind that this is a work that, as Dave was mentioning, can have art involved, we can have festivals, we can just make it beautiful and fun, and that's a takeaway that I will say. We're trying to do this work in a very positive mindset.
[Carter]: And I've been to a couple of the celebrations that you have, and, you know, they are fun, they are very engaging, so, yeah, you're doing a good job in that regard. So I always, you know, well, more recently than before, but I kind of like to flip the script and, you know, we're sitting here as, you know, an organization of record for the, you know, the historic African-American community of West Medford. So, do you have any questions for us?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'd like to hear more of that history. I don't really know it very well. One of our staff actually used to live a couple blocks away, so that's how I first heard about West Medford Community Center. I've always wanted to learn more, so I'm grateful to be here tonight, but I'd like to hear more of the history from folks who've lived here a long time.
[Carter]: Well, we got that, so you can come to any one of the senior lunches that I host Tuesday through Thursday, from 12 to 1.30, say. And, you know, if you sit down and talk to anyone there, they'll regale you. They might give you more than you bargained for. The other thing is that the building itself will tell you a lot of the story. We have two exhibits. One is the Afro-American Remembrance Project, and those are the plexiglass-covered exhibits all the way around and upstairs as well. And they really tell the more contemporary history of West Medford. I'd be certainly, well, I'm happy to, you know, have lunch with you, right? I won't make you pay. But anyways. And then the upper, on the upper, those are, that's the West Medford Elder Photo Project, and there are 28 portraits of folks who have made a significant impact in the latter-day history of West Medford, a number of whom are still with us, still doing great things, and then many of them, you know, who are deceased, who have passed by. but all of them represent significant history of this community. So yeah, we can, we can, we can, we can help you with that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I will come back and I'd love to hear some of those stories.
[Carter]: Absolutely, absolutely. Daria. You got a question for me?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, definitely. I think one of the things that we're acutely aware of is this idea of green gentrification, which is, you know, we make the environments, you know, we build these beautiful parks, we bring in more trees, does it just displace the people who are currently living here? And it's, you know, a conversation at every conference we're going to, and people are still trying to figure out the best ways to improve the health of environment without you know, displacing the people that live here, and especially the West Medford community, which has been here for generations and generations. Yeah, just kind of, what would be your take on that, and what would you want to see that would, you know, make you feel good about it?
[Carter]: It's, you know, it's interesting because, you know, in, It's not so much green gentrification here, it's bricks and mortar, much more so, and it's development gentrification, because, you know, there are a number of very, very aggressive developers that have come into this community and really, really targeted it as a place where they can buy houses on the cheap, renovate them, and then sell them for, in all honesty, ridiculous amounts of money. And so, again, we're retaining a good number of our trees and green spaces, and we're even having them, you know, be, you know, spruced up to a certain extent, but we're losing a lot of the history of the community because of the, you know, really rapturous development that's been taking place. And there's, you know, there's a couple people, I'm not gonna name any names or, you know, try and shame anybody, but everybody knows, you know, who's in the neighborhood buying up all the houses and turning them into, you know, million-dollar condos that don't look like million-dollar condos, but that's another story for another day. Yeah, so I think we're doing pretty well with regard to the green spaces. But West Medford is a very desirable neighborhood. It has access to public transportation. It has access to all of the major roadways in the state. It's a place where a lot of people wanna live. A lot of people who are moving from those high-rise towers that want a little bit of green space where they can barbecue and drink Zinfandel with their friends. They're coming to buy places in West Medford. and a lot of the families that I grew up with are long gone and hard to find, so. But, um, but yeah, so, so, green's good. Brick and mortar, not so much. Okay. Mariangeli, what about you?
[SPEAKER_01]: My question is kind of related to what Dario was mentioning, but also, Myra, I joined Myra, and I have a public health background, and we're really trying to incorporate that aspect, because as I was mentioning before, everything is related, the health of the people, the health of the environment, So I would like to know what are the concerns of the community, what are the concerns in terms of health, because we know climate change, extreme heat affects the health of people, and especially people that are older adults, children, people with disabilities are especially vulnerable. So I would like to know what are the concerns of the community in that. but also what other social issues are of concern. For example, housing also plays a big role. As I was mentioning before, utility assistance, conditions in your house, all of those social factors also influence your well-being.
[Carter]: I think for a lot of folks, you know, and I've, you know, seen, have had, you know, various conversations about it, but I think mental health is always an issue, particularly with aging populations where you get into, you know, the spectrum, Alzheimer's and dementia and so on and so forth, memory loss, so I think that that's always a concern. I think that one of the other concerns folks have, you know, the heat zones and global warming and creating uncomfortable situations for people, and how do they keep themselves cool, how do they ward off heat stroke and things of that nature. And then, you know, the other area of public health that's a concern is, you know, kind of the changing nature of the healthcare industry, consolidations in big hospitals and the loss of, you know, local health centers where folks, you know, with Medicare and various different types of health plans, can feel as comfortable going and getting quality services as they might get at Mass General Brigham or, you know, one of the larger hospitals. Because we, the principal hospital in Medford for many, many years was Lawrence Memorial. And, you know, in the consolidation, the nature of what takes place at Lawrence Memorial is very different these days. And so, you know, so that, that kind of loss, the changes at Melrose-Wakefield, changes at, you know, various hospitals in the area, you know, that, that's, that's been concerning. So, I think those would be some of the things.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to add that I brought some resources for what to do when it's very hot outside, and they're in the table. So if you're wondering how you can keep yourself cool and protect yourself, your family, and your community, they're in the table at the back.
[Carter]: Fantastic, fantastic. Well, we've run a little bit over what we scheduled to do, but it's an important conversation, and I'm really so thankful that you guys came here to have it with us. And, you know, sometime in the future, we hope to have you back again, and we'll take up a little bit more of what we talked about tonight, and I'm sure there'll be new things to talk about as well. So, folks, could you show some love to Daria and Mariangeli and Dave? Thank you very much. OK, so we're going to take a pause. We're going to break the set down so that we can get ready for the musical entertainment. And then I'll be back to do some promotional stuff. And then we'll keep it rolling. OK, thank you.
[Unidentified]: All right.
[Carter]: Hello hello hello. All right. If I can get everybody to take their seats so we can keep it rolling. All right. Very good. Very good. Okay, all right, so I do wanna just... share some promotional information on what's going on uh... with the community center of late uh... obviously we have our uh... elder services program so feel free to join us each week tuesday through thursday for nutritious lunch and a vibrant fellowship lunch is served at twelve noon you can call ahead seven eight one four eight three three zero four two to make a reservation and all are welcome Wednesday, April 26th, we'll host our monthly senior movie at 1 p.m. The movie is to be determined. Friday, May 5th, we'll be back on our normal first Friday to do words and music. Friday through Sunday, and I forgot to write the dates down, but I believe it's May 26th through May 29th, the West Medford Family Reunion is taking place. and you can contact the WMCC office for tickets and additional details. This used to be a function that was separate and distinct of the West Medford Community Center that biannually brought together folks from the historic neighborhood of West Medford, African American community, and it was always a great convening of Folks who come from across the country and in some cases from the Caribbean and from Africa who have resettled. They get together here in West Medford for a weekend of enjoying company and reconnecting with friends and family. So, Saturday, June 3rd, Medford PorchFest, okay, will have a site here at the community center. And if you don't know what PorchFest is, basically what it is is musical entertainment all around the city. It's almost like open studios used to be where the homes of local families was where you would find the artwork. uh... in this case the homes of local families in different venues will be where you'll find the music so there'll be music here uh... we're still working on exactly who the bands will be but there'll be a couple bands here playing at at uh... right out on our back porch the patio out back so june third save the date for medford porch fest June 11th is the annual Hoops and Hope basketball fundraiser and silent auction taking place right back there at Duncan Park. Also featuring the Brandon Bolden tournament basketball tournament and boys and girls are participating. And then Saturday, June 17th, we will host our annual Juneteenth celebration. This time out back and at the park, it's going to be a nice event, a bigger event. And, you know, on down the road, just something to kind of keep in your mind will be the annual on August 26th. the annual Labor Day block party, and the Lobster Fest, so another combination event. Okay, so just one Poet Laureate plug. You can join me and a few other great adult poets at the Medford Public Library for the final night of my three-part Poetry Month series at 7 p.m. That's next Tuesday. April 25th. So how can you help us? I'm glad you want to know. Your tax-deductible donations help to support the mission of WMCC. Partner with us in carrying this mission forward. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to this vital community organization. You can make your donation by phone, online, or by check. please contact Lisa Crossman 781-483-3042 for more information or to become a member and membership definitely has its privileges. Okay, now it's time to turn our attention to the outstanding and commanding presence we've engaged for this evening's musical side of The Ledger. So tonight we go to a well-established and highly professional performer that has gained a huge following and that has become a favorite daughter of Medford, Boston, and New England. She frequently does her thing with an a cappella flair, and she's graced our makeshift stage several times before. It gives me great pleasure to introduce my friend and Fisk University sister Donna McElroy. Donna is a recently retired tenured professor of voice at Berklee College of Music where she was a guiding force behind many student vocalists who are now emerging as local, national, and even international singers and musical performers. Donna McElroy is herself a Dove award-winning gospel and contemporary singer, arranger, and background vocalist. She has performed on gold and platinum releases by, like, Why Haven't I Heard From You by Reba McEntire, We Shall Be Free by Goth Books, Addictive Love by B.B. and CeCe Winans, one of my favorites, and House of Love by Amy Grant. She also has several solo recording projects, including a Grammy-nominated title called Bigger World that was recorded on Warner Brothers back in the day. She has been a musical missionary with international Christian artists reaching the earth in Ghana, Africa, and has appeared as a performer on the Arsenio Hall Show, Blast from the Past, The Night Show, and grammy award broadcast on it is a again a uh... a former voice professor at boston's renowned berkeley school and was one of the famed in nashville historic historic nashville fisk university jubilee singers ladies and gentlemen spring has truly sprung and it's about to take you with it first friday's words and music presents the inimitable donna mcellroy
[SPEAKER_05]: Hi, everybody. Old friends, huh? I missed you guys. You know, I don't plan what I'm going to sing. I just write down a bunch of ideas and songs. things that I want to talk about in my life and experiences that I've had. So I wrote down a bunch of hymns and church and fellowship and spirituals. And then I thought, good morning or evening, friends. Here's your friendly announcer. I've got serious news to pass on to you. What I'm about to say could mean the world's disaster. could fill your joy and laughter into tears and pain.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's that love's in need of love today. Can I get an amen? Amen. Don't delay. Send yours in right away. And I say, hey, it's going around breaking many hearts. Stop it, please, before it's gone too far.
[SPEAKER_07]: And then he said, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm
[SPEAKER_05]: 19, let me see. Oh, I'm older than most people in here, okay. Let's see, no, 19, I think this might have been 1962, 63. This was during the pre, this was on the way to being Civil Rights era. There was a young girl in Louisville, Kentucky, who was eight, nine, 10 years old, who was building the library of sounds in her mind, who had two parents who were diametrically opposed stylistically. My father was Johnny Hartman, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Johnny Hartman, oh my God, Johnny Hartman, Billy Eckstine, you know, he was the jazz head. My mother was Tennessee Ernie Ford, Mahalia Jackson, George Beverly Shea, you know. And then in between, somewhere in between there, Leontyne Price sprung up. And then, you know, all of a sudden I'm eight, nine, and I'm starting to listen to It's your thing. Do what you want to do. And my mother came to the room and she said, girl, what are you listening to? You better turn that mess off. I don't want that. That's not going to be in my house. You're not going to play that kind of music in my house. So I'd be in the back. bedroom with my little turntable and I'd have no such thing as earphones back then. You just had to play it real soft so that she couldn't hear it because she wasn't having it. It's your thing, do what you want to do. I can't tell you who to sock it to. She was not having that. Now this is 1963-64, so this was the birthing of soul music, of pop music, of R&B, of the Beatles crossing the road, of crossing the river, of all of the bluesy related stuff. And it started to infiltrate my mind.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then all of a sudden, ain't no way for me to love you if you don't let me.
[SPEAKER_05]: And she said, and it ain't no way for me to give you all that you need. You know who I'm talking about, don't you? Aretha, and once, and I, what you want, baby, all right. And once she's without respect, and she started spelling stuff out, my mother said, ooh, that has an educational slant to it. She said, and her dad's a preacher too? Ooh, I wonder how he feels about her leaving the church. And then, you know, she started to warm to the style of music other than her favorite style. My biggest inspiration during that time was a woman who sang a song that went like this. ♪ Who made the mountains ♪ ♪ Who made the trees ♪ ♪ Who made the rivers ♪
[SPEAKER_04]: flow to the sea.
[SPEAKER_05]: And who's in the rain when the earth seems dry? Somebody bigger than you and I. Who made the flowers bloom in the spring?
[SPEAKER_04]: Who writes the song for the robin to sing? And who hung the moon in the starry sky? Somebody bigger than you and I. He lights the way when the road is long, and he'll keep you company.
[SPEAKER_07]: With loves to guide you, he'll walk beside you just like he walks with me.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. When I'm weary. And I'm filled with despair. Who gives me courage to go on from there? And who gives me faith that will never, never die?
[SPEAKER_07]: Somebody bigger than you and I. Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, and I tell Terry, we talk about growing up black. How many had a grandmother that they stayed with? Anybody that they got exposed to the grandmother's way of thinking, singing, cooking, working, dealing with life? I had a grandmother who was amazing. She taught my mother everything she knew. And my grandmother would get up and walk from Lower West End, Louisville, Kentucky, all the way up to Second and Broadway, which was about, I would say, three and a half miles. And she would drag a basket behind her because she was going to the houses of white people whose laundry that she had washed, dried, ironed, creased, folded and packaged to come up to their house and carefully place them on their beds. And she took no extra money. She got paid a very menial salary, and she fed four children, working with different Caucasian families in the Louisville area. But you know what kept my mother going? My grandmother going? Every Sunday morning, she'd be in that church, and she'd be taking them notes, and she'd be writing those scriptures, and she'd have her red marker pencil, and she'd be in there marking those scriptures. She needed help in navigating how hard this life was gonna be. It already was hard, but she saw nothing but hardship coming. My grandfather had a, he was a porter, a porter? A porter. And his maybe first month on the job, he inadvertently hit something which fell off the train and rolled over in front of somebody that caused him to fall. And because he was black, and I'm talking really, really black, they fired him. And he also was injured in the accident. And this was maybe 1930, 1932. He never worked again. And my grandmother had four children to raise and my grandfather. So, you know, it was a lot of hauling of laundry. up and down Broadway to get to white folks' houses. But one thing that she did, what she'd get paid extra if she could bring a couple of peach pies, a couple of cobblers, a couple of chess pies, some of those smothered pork chops. Show me how you do the, show me how to cook those mashed potatoes because I tried, Ada, I cannot do it like you do it. So her secrets she kept close to the chest because she knew that was something of value that she could market and live off of. And she did. Oh, I forgot to take my glasses off. You told me you were going to say something. But this was, I would stay with her sometimes. She would be in the kitchen snapping beans on say a Sunday morning. I'd go over on Saturday night and I'd be upstairs when she finally got a house that had a second floor. Or, you know, even before then, I'd stay with my grandmother, and we called her mom. And it would be like 8.30 in the morning, just really an hour before church is supposed to start.
[SPEAKER_07]: And I'd wake up and I'd hear, ♪ Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
[SPEAKER_05]: Anybody know this?
[SPEAKER_04]: Free to all the healing stream. flows from Calvary's mountain.
[SPEAKER_05]: And here's the chorus.
[SPEAKER_04]: It says, in the cross, in the cross, be my glory.
[SPEAKER_05]: Where is that coming from? What is that that's happening?
[SPEAKER_04]: Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.
[SPEAKER_05]: She snapped them green beans. And she put that pasta on, the macaronis. She let them boil. She put the beans on low. She'd have a hen or a ham or some kind of beef roast or something. Maybe she'd have her chicken cut up and ready to fry when she got back from church, which was right across the alley. That was an advantage. And then she'd put on her clothes. She'd roll up her stockings. she'd still be humming.
[SPEAKER_04]: I will trust in the law. I will trust in the law. I will trust in the law until I die. I will trust in the Lord. I will trust in the Lord. I will trust in the Lord till I die.
[SPEAKER_05]: When she got through humming and singing and chirping through all of those songs, we were ready to go across the alley and go to church. And she'd sit there with her red marker pen, and she'd mark up all the scriptures. She was a church secretary. She'd take notes. This was an amazing, phenomenal woman. Meanwhile, she bore these four children who were all part of the church as well. All of them sang. My mother was a soprano. My auntie was an alto. younger uncle was a tenor and my older uncle was a bass and they'd get up and they'd sing as a, as a quartet and it was amazing. It was amazing watching that growing up and I didn't realize how important it was. I never realized it until I start talking about it. Because then I realized, this is why you are who you are. Because this is not just you, Donna. This is John, and Larry, and Gene, and Imagine, and my sister's name. She changed her name to Falasha Day. It's Falasha Day, and Felix, and Fred. And this is all your family members. This is Ada and John. And did I mention my father's mother and father were church people too? Pentecostal. Hallelujah. Yeah. Yeah, so it was kind of like, what are you going to do, Donna? Well, I don't know. I think I want to sing blues and jazz. And my grandmother would look at me like, mm, mm, mm, just snap them, snap them beans, snap them beans, snap them beans. And she'd go into it. There's a sweet, sweet spirit.
[SPEAKER_04]: in this place. And I know it is the spirit of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, I'm going to imitate my grandmother.
[SPEAKER_04]: There are sweet expressions on each face. And I know that it's the presence of the Lord. Sweet Holy Spirit, sweet heavenly joy, stay right here with me, filling me with your love.
[SPEAKER_05]: And for these blessings, Donna, get up, girl. You're supposed to be in the bathtub now. We lift our voice. You better be ready by the time I finish singing this song. And she'd just sing and sing and sing. And then by the time I was ready, she was ready to leave. She'd pull my hair up, tie it up into the little ponytail. That's why I got this ponytail thing. It's an old tradition in my family. And we'd walk across the alley to the church. and come back after that, and my mother and my father and my sisters and my brothers and whoever else from the church was hungry, they would come and have dinner with my grandmother. And it was always enough to go around. You hear me? Uh-oh. That's my grandmother telling me, girl, you lying. Why are you lying on me like that? Why? It's a meaning to everything. The prophecy is timed exactly right. Yeah, and so that was my upbringing. I grew up a Christian girl. I had no doubt in my mind I was gonna make it. When I decided I wanted to be an entertainer, I just knew once they decided, once they heard me and they discovered me, that I was gonna be a star. A star. I had no idea what a star was. I had no idea. And I think many of the people that I was emulating, that I was admiring, that I was wanting to become like, many of them didn't know what that meant either. especially the African-American artists and entertainers. They did not know the industry, the business, the money, the exploitation that was behind the joy that they brought to the stage with them. I'm just up here singing. I'm singing because I love music and I love God and I love life and I love my woman and I love, I wanna tell y'all about it. And somebody was recording them and made billions of dollars that are still flowing today off that joy. Now, do you say there's something wrong with that? Is it like, what are you gonna do though? You gonna allow it to steal your joy? What joy you have left over? And what did their money do for them? Look over there and see that man. He's still got scoliosis. He's still recovering alcoholic, drug addict, gambling addict. He's still got a wife who is divorcing him. His life is no better off than anybody else's who are going through stuff. I can't feel bad about him, because I see what having the money did for him. Absolutely nothing. And I say, well, OK. Go ahead. Go ahead. Be rich, baby. Be wealthy. I'm rich. That's what I say. Be wealthy. I'm rich. All right? You can clap for that if you want to. If you feel me, clap it. That's right. So I decided at an early, early age, songs like this would help me through. And this song is called, If I Can Help Somebody. Does anybody know this? If I can help somebody as I pass alone.
[SPEAKER_04]: If I can cheer somebody with a word or a song.
[SPEAKER_05]: If I can show somebody that they're traveling wrong, then my living shall not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a Christian heart.
[SPEAKER_04]: If I can bring back beauty to a world uproot, if I can spread love's message as the master taught, then my living shall not
[SPEAKER_07]: Then my living shall not be in vain. No, my living shall not be in vain.
[SPEAKER_04]: I can help somebody as I pass along.
[SPEAKER_05]: Then my living, then my living, I don't know about your living, but my living,
[SPEAKER_04]: shall not be in vain.
[SPEAKER_07]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm so inspired. I'm going to go home and write a tune tonight. Yeah, well I do have a tune, it's called Dear Heavenly Father, I'm gonna sing it for you. It really goes better with piano, but everything else is going better with piano too, so I'm gonna let my pretty songs hang out here by itself. And it's called Dear Heavenly Father, and I wrote it back when I had been derelict in my faith. Right after Fisk, I kind of went like left field and started hanging out, getting high, getting whatever, whatever, whatever. Okay? And it was the day. It was back in the day when I came just after the Afro scene and the Black Power and the, you know what I'm talking about. I, I came just after that movement. And that meant all the drugs were around, all the craziness. And I was 16, 17, 18. I had never been exposed to any of that kind of stuff before. And I just thought, well, if you're going to be gone, you're going to grow up. You're going to have to use. You're going to have to do all of this stuff. You're going to have to see what it's like to be so absolutely incapacitated that you wake up somewhere and you don't even know where you are. How about that? See how that feels? OK. But I did it. I did it. I put myself through that. And when I decided that I wanted to somehow, if God would allow me back in the greats, I would let him bless me. And I would work in his favor. And I would talk about him with people. Even though I have, Terry can tell you, I have a little bit of slippage from here. No, I have a curse in front of you. Now, he said not lately, because he was on campus. No, I'm just kidding. That's more information than you need to know. But the song goes like this.
[SPEAKER_04]: It says, dear heavenly father, I want to say something to you.
[SPEAKER_05]: I know. You're looking down on us.
[SPEAKER_07]: And you see what we're going through. So while you're looking down on your children,
[SPEAKER_05]: Won't you please bless the ones who choose to ignore you? And just remember us. Deliver us.
[SPEAKER_04]: Remember us in your blessings. Ooh, dear. dear heavenly father i don't know if you're listening to me you see it's been a long time since i last talked with you for too long
[SPEAKER_05]: haven't seen so while you're looking down on your children won't you please bless the ones who choose to ignore you and just remember us deliver us
[SPEAKER_04]: please remember us in your blessings dear heavenly father
[SPEAKER_05]: OK, I'm going to get you to join in with me. This is a congregational song. And it says, I will trust in the Lord. I will trust in the Lord. You know that song? I will trust in the Lord till I die. And then it does that again. And it says, then the second verse says, I will watch, fight, and pray. OK? And it does all of that the same way, the first verse. I'll lead you through it. And then it says, I'm going to treat everybody right. Very hard today. So hard to remember what you said. You said that, didn't you? You said you're going to treat me right, right? Mm-hmm, yeah. I'm gonna stay on my bended knees okay here we go I will trust in the lord I will trust in the lord I will trust in the lord till I die i will trust in the lord i will trust in the lord i will trust in the lord till i die i'm gonna watch fight and pray i'm gonna watch fight and pray I'm gonna watch fight and pray I'm gonna watch fight and pray until I die I'm going to watch, fight, and pray. I'm going to watch, fight, and pray. I'm going to watch, fight, and pray till I die. I'm going to skip to the fourth verse. I'm going to stay on my bended knees. I'm going to stay on my bended knees. I'm gonna stay on my bended knees until I die. I'm gonna stay on my bended knees. I'm gonna stay on my bended knees. I'm gonna stay on my bended knees till I die. Now hum with me, because you know what they say about humming, don't you? They say if you hum, the devil can't tell what you're talking to God about. So you just hum through them.
[SPEAKER_07]: ♪ I'm gonna trust in the Lord till I die ♪
[SPEAKER_05]: Amen. Well, now, I have to check with, I have to check. Is it time? Do some jazz? Do some jazz? Okay, let me see. Well, there's one that's, you know, I did this the last time I was here, the Come Sunday one by Duke Ellington, right? Remember, y'all remember Duke Ellington? Okay, so I won't do that this time. I'll do something that really, really, really is a, very, very lovely jazz ballad. And it's written by a classic jazz composer and keyboard player named Bill Evans. Anybody hear of Bill Evans? And this song was made famous or beloved revered by his duet with Tony Bennett and that's how I learned the song was listening to Tony with the purest of dulcet sounds just really rush into my soul with this lovely melody and it says now she said she started saying no I'm kidding When lonely feelings chill the meadows of your mind, just think if winter comes, can spring be far behind?
[SPEAKER_04]: Within the deepest snows, the secret of a rose,
[SPEAKER_05]: is merely that it knows you must believe in spring. Just as the tree is sure its leaves will reappear. It knows its emptiness is just the time of year.
[SPEAKER_04]: The frozen mountain dreams of April's melting streams.
[SPEAKER_05]: How crystal clear it seems you must believe in spring.
[SPEAKER_06]: You must believe in love and trust it's on its way.
[SPEAKER_05]: Just as the sleeping rose awaits the kiss of May.
[SPEAKER_04]: So in a world of woe, of things that come and go,
[SPEAKER_05]: Where would you think you know you can't be certain of?
[SPEAKER_04]: You must believe in spring and love.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I am finished for tonight. Uh-huh. You think that's enough? Unless I want to do one more. What you want? No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. I am weak, but thou art strong.
[SPEAKER_07]: Jesus, keep me from all wrong. I'll be satisfied as long as I walk.
[SPEAKER_05]: Let me walk close to thee. If you know it, you can join me. Just a closer walk with thee. Granted, Jesus is my plea.
[SPEAKER_06]: Daily walk with close to thee. Let it be, dear Lord.
[SPEAKER_05]: Let it be. One more verse. When my feeble life is o'er, time for me will be no more.
[SPEAKER_04]: Guide me safely, gently o'er,
[SPEAKER_06]: ♪ To thy kingdom's shore ♪ To thy shore ♪ Just a closer walk with thee ♪ Granted Jesus is my plea
[SPEAKER_07]: daily walking close to thee.
[SPEAKER_06]: Let it be, dear Lord. Let it be, dear Lord. Let it be, dear Lord.
[SPEAKER_05]: in the church today, amen. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much. Oh, a standing ovation, Lord have mercy. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, now here's what I'm gonna do. I'll move all my stuff out of the way. Get all my house.
[Carter]: So I don't know if Donna realizes this but that that particular hymn the last hymn that she sung was really a signal hymn at Shiloh Baptist Church. Conrad Sharpton and Levi Adams man they used to sing that song and light the church up you know so so you you bring in that particular song. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, yeah, Billy Thompson, absolutely. Thank you, Rachel. And so that really kind of brought home what this community has always represented in terms of the spiritual life of a neighborhood, you know. Come on with it. When I talked to her about maybe, what was it, January, February?
[SPEAKER_05]: When I think about the soul that I've seen on the wall, I'm gonna start crying and I'm sorry. And I think about the people who have made this community the strongest that it is. I think about the commitment, the love, the need, the dedication, the eye contact. I start thinking about what am I going to say to these people? What am I going to share? Am I going to write a poem, or will I write a prayer? I didn't mean to rhyme. But I start thinking about you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, even though I don't know you yet. Because I know that there's going to be somebody who's never heard this, felt this kind of joy, commitment. total consumption of the belief in the Holy Spirit. I know that there's people that don't know that. And they need to see it. And so it's my job to find songs that will cultivate at least a curiosity. I don't want you to be here going, oh, I really like this. a little bit into some of these tunes. The old church. The old church.
[Carter]: It's just good for the soul.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's all it is. I mean, I love praise and worship. Don't get me wrong. I was part of it for many years. But it doesn't touch the soul like the hymns. The hymn writers, they knew. They knew. They knew exactly. I didn't mention any of the composers, but I had their names here because I really respect When I make a copy of something and get lyrics, I put the composer down there because right now, you won't see who wrote the song. You'll see who recorded it. Don't be dismisled. A lot of times you'll type up a song and you'll see this was blah, blah, blah's version of whatever. Don't look further than that, because blah, blah, blah did not write that song. Find out who wrote that song, and how many other great songs that person has written, and what other artists that he's made a star through his songwriting. Because there's a lot of back information that we're never going to be able to get again. That's right. They want to keep us in the dark. Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry.
[Carter]: So let me say this. Imagine you're a sophomore. at Berkeley. You just know that, like Donna said earlier, you's going to be a star eventually. And you sit in this woman's class and she tells you that your A's are too sharp and your B's are too flat. You know, so just sitting under a legendary singer how it has molded so many of those young people as they go out into the world and try and become, quote unquote, famous. So Donna, I don't have the right words to say thank you. Whenever you come to our little community, you bless us beyond belief. So I really, really appreciate you being my friend and coming to our little home in West Medford. And giving some folks who haven't been here a chance to see what you do and how you do it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. So that's a wrap for this new live edition of WMCC's Words and Music program. We're so happy to have you all back here at the center and visiting with you all in your living rooms and other household spaces, those of you who are listening on the interweb. I want to thank all of our guests for allowing us to invade their spaces, showing their faces, and sharing their graces. A few of our guests have left, but I do want to extend special thanks to Mystic River Watershed Associates, Daria Clark, Mariangeli Echevarria-Ramos, and Dave Quilley for their time and expertise. And the grand diva, of course, Donna McElroy for singing Spring Seed Into the Ground. Virtual high five to my man back there, Kevin Harrington from Medford Community Media for helping us. as usual uh... this is a longer night than he usually spends with us are really really appreciate his time and i just wanna out line just a few more programs uh... and then let you go april twenty six come out for the elder services movie uh... at one p m friday may may fifth another addition of words and music i have no idea how i'm going to follow this uh... june third met for porch fast June 11th, annual Hoops and Hope basketball fundraiser and silent auction. June 17th, Juneteenth celebration. In August 26th, annual Labor Day block party in Lobster Fest. And then the Medford reunion the weekend of May 26th, 27th, 28th, 27th, 28th, and 29th. And then if you're in the area and you're interested, I'll be at the Medford Public Library for one final night of my three-part Poetry Month series at 7 p.m. You can help us with your tax-deductible donations to support our mission. You can call Lisa Crossman at 781-483-3042 for more information or to become a member. Thanks to our sponsor, Medford Arts Council, a member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Th-th-th-that's all folks.