Tracing Connections
Text by Heloiza Barbosa
Music by Anais Azul
I remember Logan Airport in 1994:
its corridors like an elongated centipede and the air outside chillingly cold.
I remember I remember
So many things
I remember I remember
Too many things
So I am tracing connections
Between who I was
And who I am today
I remember my first snow.
I opened my mouth and let it melt inside me.
I too was transforming into something else.
I remember I remember
So many things
I remember I remember
Too many things
[Spoken]
On May 14th, 2018, I stood with one hundred and eighty-seven other immigrants from fifty-seven countries to be naturalized as U.S. citizens. The journey had been long. Looking around me, I remembered that it was in Boston that I first tasted food from: Afghanistan, Armenia, Barbados, CapeVerde, Cambodia, Guatemala, Greece, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Korea, Malaysia, Mexica, Russia, Spain, Tibet, Vietnam. There, I remembered that there is no life that is not constructed inside a system of constant interconnections and differences. Viruses, bacteria, cells, animals, us all: we are all connecting. Transformation is a migration within.
Three Steps Forward
Text by Chun Yan Lin
Music by Sheela Ramesh
I did not love to learn English
Whenever I had difficulties
I chose to try to escape
It was always three steps forward
Two steps back
Now I use English
As the second language of my life!
A Spoonful of Hate
Text by Jorge Sosa, adapted by Marina Lopez
Music By Marina Lopez
Let me feed you a spoonful
You look thirsty, you look hungry
How will you sleep in the cold night?
Let me swathe you in a shroud of ignorance
to comfort you.
Let me feed you a spoonful of hate
You look thirsty
Let me quench your thirst with a fresh drink of fear
You look sweet
You look thirsty
You look cold
You look hungry
How will you sleep through the cold night?
Let me swathe you in a shroud of ignorance
to comfort you.
Listen to the song of the siren
Listen to those long sweet tones
Let yourself get lost in its sweet embrace
As he drowns you.
I Can’t Understand a Word You’re Saying
Text by Helen Zhibing Huang, adapted by Cerise Jacobs
Music by Michele Cheng
Twelve years old, three days from China
First day at Pocahontas Middle School
Home room teacher showed me my locker
Blah blah blahblah**#@@!
What is this?
Blah blah blahblah**#@@!
I can’t understand a word you’re saying
Blah -–blah- -blahblah- – **-#- @@!
Blah -–blah- -blahblah- **-#- @@!
Class time! It’s Fa la la la la la la la Chorus time
I’ll be good at this, I know
I started singing and playing the piano at three
Blah blah blahblah**#@@!
I can’t understand a word you’re saying
Blah -–blah- -blahblah- – **-#- @@!
Blah -–blah- -blahblah- **-#- @@!
Reading, science, math!
Blah blah blahblah**#@@!
I can’t understand a word you’re saying
Blah -–blah- -blahblah- – **-#- @@! [slower]
Blah -–blah- -blahblah- **-#- @@! [And louder]
You’re swinging your arms
Shall I swing my arms too?
You’re trying to tell me something with your arms?
I can’t understand a word you’re saying
Can’t understand, don’t understand
I will never understand
Lunch time! The worst time
Got my food
Tried to find a place to sit down
I sat silently, alone
And ate my tasteless food
My classmates laughed and chatted