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Yes is a World is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit
organization dedicated to promoting peace and social change through new
music, and the collaboration of young artists.
From our inception in 2002 through 2008, we produced
several large-scale performances integrating text and music, with a
focus on art addressing themes of activism and awareness. This website
holds an incomplete archive of these performances. For more
information, please contact executive director Ted Hearne.
BODY SOLDIERS
In January 2008, thanks to generous funding from the Henry J. Kaiser
Family Foundation, Yes is a World produced BODY SOLDIERS. Our latest
exploration of the ways black South African choral music is being used
in the struggle against HIV-AIDS was a huge success. Here are some
sample clips:
SAPHELA ISIZWE
traditional Xhosa
taught to us by the Durban Westville Prison Women's Choir
and Bongani Dubazana, director
sung by Allison Semmes, Aviva Mitchell, Josephine Lee, H. Roz Woll
Mollie Stone has made a
translation of this text:
Our nation is failing
from HIV.
Our Lord, save us, give
us a cure.
What have we done, my
Lord?
Our Lord is here, the
epidemic must pass.
Our land is in trouble,
Lord, our God.
MAKE IT OUT
by Ted Hearne
lyrics by SKIM
performed by Josephine Lee and SKIM
David Hanlon, piano; Ron Wiltrout, drums; Nathan Koci, horn
David Hanlon, piano and Jody Redhage, cello
BODY SOLDIERS
Music and HIV in South Africa
Sun 13 January 2008 7pm
Church of St. Paul and the Redeemer
4945 South Dorchester Ave.
TICKETS $15/adults; $8/students
In 2006, thanks to a generous grant to Yes is a World
from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Mollie Stone led a
coalition of students of music, film and medicine to South Africa in
search of people using choral music to fight the spread of HIV. Drawing
upon the activist tradition of anti-apartheid music, new songs are
helping many people accent their status, while educating and inspiring
those most at risk. People of all ages use music as a powerful tool of
communication. Tradition, strife and hope are embedded in each song,
transmuting the decades of struggle against apartheid into
determination and perseverance in the fight against AIDS.
BODY SOLDIERS is the first full performance of the
material we collected in South Africa, and a melding of American and
South African traditions, integrated throughout with documentary
footage from our trip by Anthony Morrison and Charlotte Royer.
Featuring a fantastic choir, new music by Ted Hearne, and the brilliant
poetic stylings of SKIM.
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