In the concert “Women of Courage” there is an unveiling of a monument of words and song. We dedicate our transcendental selves to reverence for those that nurtured our better future.
A friend has dedicated a wall of her living room to her heroes. Each time she walks by, she feels infused by their courage. Wanting to honor and remember the courage of their own heroes, two Salt Lake artists, composer Mary Lou Prince and lyricist Patty Willis, have created a monument of words and song. These songs honor women, known and unknown, who have changed the world through their courageous lives.
On Friday, 17 March and Saturday, 18 March join us for this special celebration of Women of Courage.
FRIDAY March 17 7:30 PM South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society, 6876 S. Highland Drive, Salt Lake City
SATURDAY March 18 7:30 PM First Unitarian Church 569 S. 1300 E. Salt Lake City
Each woman encountered seemingly insurmountable difficulties and each used her unique talents to transform the world into which she was born. Some of our women of courage are well known.
“We dedicate our transcendental selves to reverence for those that nurtured our better future.
At 74 years old, Eleanor Roosevelt is traveling through the Tennessee countryside, a $25,000 bounty on her head by the KKK, a loaded gun between her and the 71 year old white woman driving the car through the backwoods to the Highlander School to teach a workshop on civil disobedience. The FBI will not protect her. She has a commitment.
Etty Hillesum, a Jew and brilliant Russian scholar, living in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, is the beating heart of the barracks of Westerbork where Jews await transport to Auschwitz. She accompanies a reality she cannot change and dares to feel joy at lupines blooming in a muddy field.
Recy Taylor, a young married black woman, gang raped as she returns home from a church service one evening in rural Alabama, will not keep the silence demanded by her violators and continues to demand justice. In 2012, she finally received an apology from the state of Alabama and her town Abbeville. I believe that her courage inspired her advocate, Rosa Parks, and that she had Recy on her mind when she would not move to the back of the bus.
Mine Okubo, a gifted painter interned at Topaz in central Utah when Japanese Americans were rounded up during World War II, uses her gifts to express the loss and daily cruelty of a dark time of our American past. She bids us not forget and not repeat.
Helen Keller bravely ventures onto the dance floor, feeling dance move through her as she explores movement beyond sight and sound.
Malala Yousafzai, shot through the head by the Taliban for daring to go to school, says she lost her fear in that moment and her life work was sealed on her heart.
When the German army invades rural Transylvania near the close of World War I, a young deaf girl, Anna, watches her mother holding her crying baby sister in the midst of villagers hiding in a barn. As her mother reaches the awful decision that the baby must be silenced to save the village, Anna scoops the child into her arms and runs into the forest to hide. Who do we see on the edge of danger?What is within our arms to do?
Harriet Tubman calls to all of us to be free!
Each woman of courage gives evidence of the possibilities that lie within us all. The authors hope that these songs will inspire listeners to courageous acts that are waiting to be born.
REFUGEE PODCAST
Listen to the podcasts of Women of the World for more stories of courage
MODELING OUR WORLD
Women showing the beauty and courage of making it in America
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