Cultural Event #1

This past evening I attended a concert hosted by the music departments entitled "Tuba Voce: Tales from the Gay Tuba Songbook". The concert was select pieces performed by Dr. Daniel Burdick from Edinboro University. 

Dr. Burdick started the evening talking about how he also hid the fact that he was gay until he attended a concert one night. he said that this concert an African American women was singing tradition spirituals in order to get in touch with her past and with herself. He said at this moment he realized that he should not hide who he really was but express it instead. The collection of works in his performance were his was of expressing his inner self rather than hiding it from the world.

Dr. Burdick started the performance with a recitation of "Live Oak, with Moss No. 6" by Walt Whitman. He then played selected pieces from "Songs from the AIDS Quilt Songbook", a few spirituals, a selected Vivaldi piece, and a few works from "Songs from the Gay Tuba Songbook". Between each piece spoke about civil rights, equality, his past struggles with his sexuality, and other stories, insights, and reflections from his past experiences. 

The most moving part of the evening was when we played the Tuba Spirituals. While he played each song, a slideshow newspaper clippings of recent hate crimes against the LGBTA community was displayed. The evening ended with a slideshow of pictures of gay couples who were finally able to be married the day California passed the law allowing gay marriage. Every single person in the pictures had faces of immense joy and relief as they were finally able to do something that they have been denied for many years. 

Overall, the evening was very moving and very worthwhile.  Dr. Burdick opened my eyes to many struggles the LGBTA community faces. Every day they are denied things that many straight people take from granted, they are ridiculed, shunned, and are abused and killed just because of their sexual orientation. The most striking thing I took away from the evening was a quote by Martin Luther King Jr's widow, Coretta King: "I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice," she said. "But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'" "I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people," This  quote caused me to realize that the fight for civil rights and social equality is not over and that when most people think of civil rights they think of race, the issue goes far beyond race alone.