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
The Big Deception
Text by Irene Da Silva and Ivete Souza, adapted by Cerise Jacobs
Music by Oliver Caplan
Irene
The letter said, “You are approved
For a green card
Go back to Rio for your interview
And get your green card.”
Ivete
I bought my mother a round trip ticket
To Rio and back to Boston
I put her on the plane to Brazil
To get her green card
Irene
The American embassy man in Rio said,
“You overstayed your visitor’s visa
You can’t go back to America for ten years.”
Ivete
But she was approved for a green card
We didn’t know she had to renew
Her visitor’s visa
Irene
But the letter said
I was to come to get my green card
I’m seventy-nine
My family is in America
How will I survive by myself?
Ivete
We believed what the letter said
We believed what the government said
Irene
“We don’t care about you,” he said.
“Don’t care, don’t care, don’t care”
Ivete
I am guilty
I bought my mother that ticket
I put her on that plane
I sent her into exile
Irene
I waited it out
Year after year after year
Alone in one room
With a small fan
Sometimes the temperatures
Reached over 100 degrees
Sometimes we had no running water
Ivete
I sent money every month
For a girl to help my mother
To buy her medicines
And her food
Irene
I gave up hope
My heart cracked open
I would die
Without seeing my children
Or grandchildren whom I raised
Ivete
The grandchildren she raised
Had children of their own
Who grew up never knowing
Their great grandmother, their Biza
Irene
I told my neighbors
“Don’t tell my daughter I’m sick
Sick with grief, sick for the baby smell
Of great grandchildren I’ve never met
When I die, call my daughter
Ask her for money to bury me”
Ivete
I gave her an iPad
To help her live
I Facetimed her every night
For ten years, we never missed a night
I had to keep her alive!
Both
I/She returned to America
When I/she was 89 years old
My name is Irene Da Silva/Ivete Souza
Irene
I hope to make up for lost time
The cracks in my heart
A forever reminder of separation
And the importance of family
Both
We are survivors