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.

About the Songs:

Rümeysa, written by journalist Victor Feldman, is based on the story of Tufts Turkish graduate student and Fulbright scholar, Rümesya Öztürk, who was 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 asking the administration to consider divesting of Israeli bonds which were supporting the war in Gaza where thousands were dying of starvation and war-related deprivation. While in prison, her fellow women inmates helped her to survive. Her lawyers eventually got her released.

The Reporter, 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17, 2025, spoke of a recent visit to South Sudan where he saw children starving as a result of USAID being suddenly withdrawn.

Don’t Comply, by author, poet, and hornist Ann Ellsworth, was inspired by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s instructions posted on her website in the early months of 2025: “Don’t comply in advance!” At times funny, at times, serious, this song covers all the chaos and craziness we face today.

From the Sky, is by Palestinian American poet Sara Abou Rashed, who was born in Syria to Palestinian refugees originally from Haifa. “From the Sky” appears in Abou Rashed’s debut collection of poems, Theories of Return (Diode Editions, 2026), which documents displacement, the occupation, lineage and homemaking away from home.

Judy Blume’s Bookstore, written by author, librettist, and theater director Stephen Kitsakos, is a humorous tale about celebrated young-adult author, Judy Blume, whose bookstore in Key West, Florida, proudly displays and sells banned books.

Free Speech, by playwright Lucile Lichtblau, is a mostly comedic mini-opera or “scena” for two singers: an elderly mother and her daughter. The mother has made a Facebook post about “you know who” and is now 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 as someone really does start pounding on her door.

May We… poem 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.”

Media To Come.