Last week I joined forces with two dozen fellow song leaders - organized and lead by a number of powerful women - to sing songs of the Singing Resistance with 700 people at the historic Riverside Church in Manhattan. This song - We Will Protect Each Other - was among the many powerful songs that were taught that night. Martín Urbach, who co-wrote the Spanish lyrics, shared the story of writing them earlier this month while walking 90 miles to San Antonio in protest of the unjust and immoral detention of children in Dilley, TX. A young organizer with The Circle Keepers also taught us the song in Haitian Creole. It was a magical night.
This song is among a handful that are being lifted up as the nationwide canon of core songs for this weekend’s NO KINGS (as is my song, “We Get There Together”!), which is shaping up to be the largest mass mobilization in US history! Where will you be? Chances are there’s already a local Singing Resistance group that you could join but if not maybe you could start one! Here’s the NO KINGS songbook, which includes this one and many others.
Let’s keep the Singing Resistance alive,
JHB
PS If you’re in/near Boston and want to do lots of singing this weekend, join me and Rev. Chelsea at the BIG SING, where we’ll be leading a pod to sing at NO KINGS at the Boston Common on Saturday.
WE WILL PROTECT EACH OTHER
by the Peace Poets with Francisco Herrera and Oona Valle
We will… Protect Each Other
We will… be everything we need
The good land… The wild Water
The whole Sky… is always on our side!
Spanish by Martín Urbach & Lu Aya
Nosotros nos protegemos
Somos nuestra salavación.
La tierra, el agua, el cielo,
Siempre nos guiarán
