spoken word

“The Way is Already” – a protest song from One Day, our new EP

We are absolutely thrilled over the facts that we have a new president and a more progressive Senate. We loved watching Kamala Harris’s historical inauguration and Amanda Gorman’s powerful performance. We celebrated the win in Georgia and gleefully toasted a glass to Stacey Abrams. And damn did it all feel good.

But y’all, as much as we want him to be, Joe Biden is not our savior. He’s obviously an improvement, but if his track record as an Establishment Democrat means anything, he’s not going to end inhumane deportations, secure reproductive rights, protect transpeople, overhaul our justice system, nor begin the long overdue process of dismantling white supremacy – unless we make him.

It’s on us to hold our new president and Congresspeople accountable. Remember, they work for us. It’s also on us, especially those of us who are white, to work on ourselves, on recognizing and undoing our biases and on committing to a life of actively being antiracist.

But guess what? We don’t have to do this work alone. In fact, we can’t do it alone. It’s time to start collaborating, to come together and organize, act up, disrupt. There are so many great organizations and resources out there that make it easy for us to get involved. And what a nice thing it is to be able to use our joy as motivation to keep working!

Not sure how to get started? Here’s a list of suggestions for you:

Follow ResistBot to stay informed of easy actions that only require a few minutes of your time.
Make a donation to and/or volunteer for a social justice organization that focuses on supporting immigrants and BIPOC (see a short list below).
Organize your own protest – if 8-year-old Nolan Davis can, you can, too!
Use this tool to find out what district you live in and who represents you so that you can start making calls and sending tweets.
Join the Working Families Party, “the party of the multiracial working class, fighting for a nation that cares for all of us,” to learn ways to organize with like-minded folk to impact policy change and more.
Make the choice every day to be an antiracist (see list below for additional resources).
Visit this great “Take-Action” site from RAICES to see other ways to make an impact, from simple acts like signing petitions all the way through guidebooks on organizing your own events.
Listen to our song “The Way is Already” to get amped up and ready to act.

Social justice organizations we like (there are so many more):

ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)
Alliance for Quality Education
Black Lives Matter – Take Action
Black Lives Matter at School
Dignity in Schools
Planned Parenthood
RAICES Action Center (the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services)
The Bail Project
Urban Youth Collaborative

Resources for antiracism:

Photo: Martin Luther King Jr. quote on a Pride Flag, available for sale by hburrell

The BPRS only exists because of Susan “George” Schorn, an amazing writer, karate master, self-defense instructor, and activist based out of Texas. Back in 2012, she enthusiastically agreed to read at our former concert series, Readin’ N Rhythm, which sent Becky into a huge panic. A writer for McSweeney’s and all-around badass, reading at our dinky little show? How could we possibly give her the proper welcome? Reciting a bio from Wikipedia and saying “Thanks, George!” didn’t feel anywhere near enough.

Becky and Dave wanted to create something unexpected, something that challenged stereotypes and norms in the same way George did, while also honoring the various aspects of her personality. Their friend and saxophonist Ben Jaffe was always down for some weird improv, so the three got together the night before and ran through a piece featuring Becky, in cartoonish, stylized voices, reading from various texts – a page of the local police blotter, the dream sequence in a sci-fi novel, excerpts from the poem-story The Wild Party, a random sheet torn from a newspaper.

Becky had never performed as a front person before, so when the time came, she tried to hide in the bathroom. But Ben and Dave convinced her to come out and practically shoved her onstage where they erupted into the most bizarre six-minute intro of all time. Two audience members definitely left, but George loved it, and that’s all that mattered.

“Two Deer Stake Out My Tree” hearkens these strange origins while also combining two true encounters – one in the woods, another in a Lower East Side nightclub – that demonstrate the power behind feminine anger. Becky hopes she isn’t on the receiving end of this anger next time, but hey, it was good fodder for the song.