Singing a Brave New Song

How joy can shift dread of the future into a happy dance.

As many of us adapt to a new world, a new now, it’s a good time to reflect. What matters most? What lifts your spirits in a darkening time? I’m grateful for today’s story of singing gospel with people of color, which transformed my fears for the future into joy.

So grateful for this view and the sunlight dancing on the Salish Sea.

It’s 9/11/2001. Terrorists attack on US soil. Our world tilts to Fear.

Along with millions, I watch in horror as the planes crash. We’re all in shock. In the weeks of uncertainty that follow, every single client who hired me to build their website cancels. With no work, I dread the future and despair our country’s aggressive response as we raise a 6-year-old daughter and teenage son. Will my son go to war?

In early October, I join a workshop with Seattle’s Total Experience Gospel Choir. As a preacher’s kid, I grew up in church choirs. As a singer from St. Louis, I’d sung plenty of gospel-style music. But I had no idea singing gospel could heal my fears. My heart soared as choir director Pat Wright¹ chose me to solo on the classic “Amazing Grace.”

Pat hires me, a white lady, to perform in the cast of “Black Nativity” at Seattle’s Intiman Theatre. Every night, I get to sing and dance alongside the amazing grace of amazing people. Every night, I’m lifted by a powerful energy of love through song. Every night, Rev. Samuel McKinney’s words of resilience and joy move my heart:

We’ve lived with terror since they stole us from Africa. How do we persevere? Joy. Joy is our birthright and our medicine. They can’t stop us from expressing our joy.

Me, happily surrounded by some of the beloved cast of Black Nativity.

Our stories, our songs, and our love are a force greater than we know.

This commentary on the election zeitgeist feels right to me:

“America, culturally… abandoned a politics of decency and respect and has embraced instead a politics of resentment, revenge, false nostalgia, and bullying…

This would be time for the arts, broadly understood, to step in. The arts can change hearts and minds.” ²

When we make things that matter, or show up for others, we get out of our future-spinning heads and start crafting a better world.

When we sing together, we feel better (in spite of fears about how we’ll sound).³ Singing reduces stress, as it releases endorphins and oxytocin. Singing is bonding and creates a sense of unity.⁴ It’s “an internal therapy tool that engages several parts of the brain at once.” If you’re feeling down and have any desire to sing, now is a great time to start!

I’ll leave you with this rousing song, “Yes” from Black Nativity:

“To sing Gospel, you work the lyrics out of you like an emotion welling up in the heart,
like a situation that needs fixing, like a journey with oppression on the back end and hope on the front end.” ~ Partrinell Wright, Founder, Total Experience Gospel Choir

🗣️ I’d love to know…

1. Ever sung gospel, or in a choir? How did the experience effect you?

2. Is your creative voice important? Or do you feel squashed by current events?

3. Do you agree that joy and creativity can survive and thrive and move hearts now?

Thank you for being (Mostly) Brave, and for being You. 💗 Please like this post, comment, or share with a friend so more of us can feel braver in these times.

Check out my FREE library of creative healing tools for brave Mind, Heart, Body, and Soul. More to come!

1. Pat Wright was a brave, inspiring, force of nature who left a large legacy.

2. Reflections on the 2024 US Presidential Election by Christopher Robichaud, Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

3. 10 Ways that Singing Benefits Your Health

4. The neuroscience of singing: How choirs help our brains and bodies recover from burnout