“Rosa Parks had a dream and it lifted her
Of simply how much better life could be
She lit the flame and the fire is still burning
Inside every heart that's longing to be free
Woman singing a freedom song,
Woman showing us the way
Woman singing a freedom song,
I'd love to hear that voice today”
- From Freedom Song by Luka Bloom
Rosa Parks’ was born 100 years ago today and in another 100 years she will still be remembered as the ordinary woman who lit the flame
and changed the world.
Luka Bloom is Christy Moore’s younger song writing genius of a brother and I love this lyric because it is about songs helping social transformation which was the subject of my MTh dissertation, that I
would love some publisher to ask me to make into a book!
I was chatting to Kevin McCullough, then working for Christian Aid, at the Greenbelt Festival. It was just before I started the MTh and I asked him, as we sat on the grass in the middle of an arts festival, if he thought art could change the world. “No,” Stocki, he said, shocking me with his unbelief, “It is people sitting on buses that change the world.” Of course it is but my question back to Kevin is, “What songs was Rosa Parks singing that gave her the courage to sit on that bus?” Martin Luther King Jr himself spoke about the importance of songs, “An important part of the mass meetings was the freedom songs. In a sense the freedom songs were the soul of the movement.”
So what part did those freedom songs, that Luka Bloom eventually placed Rosa Parks in, have in the life of a woman who sat on the bus?
I read this to my daughter (age 9) who has been very interested in Rosa Parks for the past couple of years! Is there a recording of the song by Luka Bloom?
Thanks Steve! Hope to see you again soon!
Posted by: Julie Morgan | 04/02/2013 at 10:29 PM