GCP is at Chautauqua Institution, for the end of their week discussing “Boys Will Be Boys, Then Men”. This week’s Thoughtful Thursday (the Friday morning edition) comes from the amazing performance here last night of Daniel Bernard Roumain’s symphonic composition of “Meditations on Raising Boys”, featuring Marc Bamuthi Joseph performing spoken word with an all male chorus of 10 men and 10 boys. Roumain and Joseph, two Haitian American Morehouse graduates, have collaborated successfully in the past, recently with a piece called “Blackbird Fly”, which uses movement, narrative, music and Haitian folklore to engage audiences in dialogue about critical issues including tolerance and inclusion. You can read more about Roumain and “Meditations on Raising Boys” here.
The piece was beautiful and powerful. Here is a snippet of the spoken word chorus:
Aamiin atah Adoni Ashe Amen
Our men
Who were once boys
Look closely at these boys
Consider the world that we want them to mend
They will take up the lessons and incinerate the blueprints
Your plans are of no use to them
They are simply seeds…
Believe in them
Boys being boys
And then men
