In the early months of 2025, I began to think about composing a set of songs — based on news events of the day — that would reflect resistance, resilience, and courage. While I found two of the texts, for the others I asked writers to contribute and discussed with each of them what they might like to do. It was exciting to have texts written specifically for this work. Conceived and composed between April 2025 and February 2026, the songs celebrate human ingenuity, kindness, and passion in the midst of tyranny, chaos and cruelty. I am deeply indebted to my authors for giving me such powerful and diverse material to set to music.

To download complete texts, click here.

About the Songs:

Rümeysa, written by journalist Victor Feldman, is based on the story of Tufts Turkish graduate student and Fulbright scholar, Rümesya Öztürk, arrested by ICE on March 25, 2025 and sent to a prison in Louisiana for writing a student Op-Ed in the Tufts University newspaper advocating for human rights and freedom for the Palestinian people. While in prison, her fellow women inmates helped her to survive. Her lawyers eventually got her released.

The Reporter was adapted from an online presentation by New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, who, in a J Street webinar on April 17, 2025, spoke of a recent visit to South Sudan where he saw children starving after USAID had been suddenly withdrawn.

Don’t Comply, by hornist and author Ann Ellsworth, was inspired by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s instructions (inspired by Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny) posted on her website in the early months of 2025: “Don’t comply in advance!”

From the Sky, by Palestinian American poet Sara Abou Rashed appears in Abou Rashed’s debut collection of poems, Theories of Return (Diode Editions, 2026), documenting displacement, the occupation, lineage and homemaking away from home.

Judy Blume’s Bookstore, written by author, librettist, and Sheila’s long-time collaborator, Stephen Kitsakos, is a humorous tale about a “Mom for Liberty” who makes a discovery in Judy Blume’s bookstore in Key West, Florida, where “banned books” are proudly displayed.

Free Speech, by playwright Lucile Lichtblau, is an absurdist comedic “scena” or “mini-opera” with two characters: an elderly mother and her daughter. The mother has made a Facebook post about “you know who” and is afraid that “someone” is after her after having received a threatening email message. The mom reminisces about her student protest days in Berkeley in the 60’s while the daughter humors her, but in the end, a terrifying situation ensues.

May We… by environmental journalist, activist, and poet Rob Lewis, celebrates the interconnectedness of all Life on the planet while yearning for a kinder, more loving world –– “May we be saved, by what we save.”

Songs of Resilience was conceived and created with the support of the following people and organizations who shared my vision and helped create the “World Premiere Season” summer of 2026. To each I give my deepest thanks.

About the Authors:

Sara Abou Rashed is a poet, speaker, and storyteller. Born in Syria to Palestinian refugees originally from Haifa, she emigrated with her family to Columbus, Ohio in 2013. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her works appear in over 20 publications, including Poetry Magazine, Poetry Wales, The Kenyon Review, the LA Review, and the language arts curriculum by McGraw-Hill.

Ann Ellsworth performs internationally on French horn, Wagner tuba, and Alphorn.  A published author, her memoir about adopting five foster kids is distributed by Simon and Schuster. Using art for social change, Ellsworth likes to take on difficult subjects through music, words, balladry and dance.  Not only has Silver composed a horn concerto for her, but Ellsworth wrote the text for Silver’s “If Trees Could Talk,” a multi-media piece for 4 sopranos.

Stephen Kitsakos is active as an opera librettist, author, theater writer and director, novelist, and educator. A long-time collaborator with composer Sheila Silver, he wrote the libretto for three of her operas including A Thousand Splendid Suns, based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini. His work as a writer includes the novel, The Accidental Pilgrim (ASD Publishing), and co-editor, with Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, Key West Noir for Akashic Books. He has been a contributing writer for The Sondheim Review and ABC-CLIO’s Music in American Life.

Nicholas Kristof is a renown American journalist and political commentator. A winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he is a regular CNN contributor and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. Born in Chicago, Kristof was raised in Yamhill, Oregon, the son of two professors at nearby Portland State University. He still maintains Kristoff Farms, an apple orchard and grape vineyard in the Willamette Valley.

Victor Feldman is a journalist based in Washington D.C., covering Congress and campaigns for Roll Call. Previously, he wrote about local government and agriculture for the nonprofit newsroom, The Daily Catch, in upstate New York. His work has appeared in numerous newspapers and journals throughout the country including the Miami Herald and the Hartford Courant. He holds a B.A. in philosophy from Brandeis University and was a Hansard Society Scholar at the London School of Economics. 

Rob Lewis, poet, environmental journalist and activist gives voice to the more-than-human world. His writings have appeared in Resilience, Dark Mountain, Atlanta Review, Counterflow, and others. He is the author of the poetry/essay collection, The Silence of Vanishing Things and writes the substack, The Climate According to Life.  

Lucile Lichtblau is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and recipient of the MCA Fellowship in Playwriting.  Her plays have been produced nationally and internationally including at: 59 East 59th Street Theaters, Centenary Stage, The Road Theater, Theatre Exile, Stageworks, And Toto too, etc. Twice nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, she won in 2011 both the Israel Baron Award and the Susan Glaspell Prize for her play, The English Bride.