Dear Holly,
My name is Kat, and I am 14 years old. I just wanted to thank you so much for helping to raise me. I have been listening to your music for all 14 years of life, and I can definitely say you have been one of the biggest influences in my life, and one of the best role models.
I recently went to your concert in Sabastopol California on the November 10th 2006. It was an amazing experience. I am often moved hearing your music on the many cd's that my family and I own, but hearing you in person almost brought me to tears. You are such a strong and powerful woman, and your point of view on the world to me is not only beautiful but empowering. You have the courage to say what others can not, or will not. Holding your head high you speak (or sing) your mind, changing people lives. In my eyes, you are not only a role model, and an amazing woman, but you are a hero.
As I was at your concert, I learned of The School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. I have never been one to get up and take a part, but more simply listen. So when you spoke about this school, it sparked my interest. So once I got home I looked it up on the Internet, and spent hours reading into what it was. Who supported it, who was against it. I read the history. And I read the articles not only of the people who want the school shut down, but also of those who want it t stay open. This gave me a better and more rounded perspective of the situation. And once I understood what the school was, and what was going on, I looked up information on the protests, and different ways to be active about it. I found an SOAW (School Of Americas Watch) site, and I found that they were having a protest in Davis California, which is close to my area (I live in Sacramento California).
So once I got all the information compiled about the protest at the Methodist Church, I went to my mom and presented the idea that her and I should go together. So she called the woman in charge of the protest to make sure it was appropriate for a 14 year old, she agreed that we could go together.
I am proud to say now that I am going to be able to attend the protest against The School of the Americas.
The protest is going to be at 4 p.m. on November 18 2006. The speaker is going to be Charlie Litkey. There should be a march through Davis if it does not rain.
I am really excited to be taking a part of my first protest. I don't think that it is even so much the protest that is making me excited, I think it is more that I am going to be able to speak my voice, and possibly make a difference. I am proud to say that I am contributing to a good cause. And I owe that to you.
Thank you so much Holly, for everything you have done for me through out my life. You have given me courage, and strength to be a part of something. You also gave me a voice when I had none, and lifted my spirit when I was down at my worse. Thank you so much for all that and more. You are truly and amazing and inspiring woman. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kat
Hi Holly -- Chris Garrett here -- one of the Kansas City / Willow / All Souls women you met here recently. Wanted to tell you about a little, but wonderful, bit of activism a number of us participated in over the weekend. We had our annual women's retreat this weekend -- went to a lovely rustic camp and conference center not too far west of here in Bonner Springs, KS. There were a couple other groups there as well as our All Souls group. On Friday evening, the men's group did the blessing before dinner. As you can imagine, it was pretty darn patriarchal and a bit (way big bit) more than we UU women could swallow. So we asked if we could do the "blessing" on Saturday evening, and the camp folks were happy to have us do it!
So ... here's where you get proud ...
We went back to our cabin, and at various times during the evening and during the day on Saturday, we practiced and practiced and practiced singing, "I am open, and I am willing ... ."
At dinner on Saturday, we stood in a circle and all held hands (which we hadn't planned -- it just happened spontaneously) and we sang our hearts out -- and WOW did we sound good! Harmony and all!!! And the men's group and the group of Baptist young people all listened very attentively -- and a few even joined in once they got the hang of it.
Then, when we finished, one of the awesome women in our group turned to me, and said just loud enough that perhaps a couple of the youth could hear, "And that, kids, is what menopausal women sound like!" I cracked up!!!!!
There were 12 of us -- Ellie, Chloe, Kathy, and I all were with you part or most of your time here in KC -- and the other 8 learned and loved the song in no time.
Thought you'd like to hear this story of just one little act -- one that meant so much to those of us who now know how much even the smallest bits of activism can matter.
Thanks, again, for being with us in KC!
Chris
Thank You:
For the most awesome concert and biggest kick in the ass that one could ask for! I have always loved your music Holly....since I was introduced to it when I was 15. It's always held special meaning to me, especially in those tender years when I was coming out.
But more recently, I have been shying away from the boredom.....not waiting patiently and listening to what I need to know. It's easy to feel overwhelmed and think that there really isn't a way for me to do something that matters. You have done so much in your life, made such a visible impact in ways that I could never do.
But, having my children there last night to listen to you. Having my very republican mother-in-law and sister-in-law (who flew up from Florida that morning) there to listen to what you have to say is what is making a difference and helping me find my voice. I don't want my children to grow up in a middle class existence where they aren't exposed to the things in this world that they need to know about.
My 14 year old was thrilled to meet you last night. She told me later that she couldn't believe that a famous person would care about her and her karate. It's all she has talked about since she spoke with you last night. For the first part of the concert, my 3 year old sat wide-eyed and amazed, listening to you. She asked me later, "Mommy, how does that lady get in our radio and sing?" Unfortunately, she fell asleep and was quite mad when she woke up and she was in bed and not at the concert anymore!
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you again for the music Holly. You impacted my republican relatives in ways that I never thought possible. You influenced my children and as always you influenced me!
Wendy Knafelc Schmidt
Dear Holly:
I am writing to tell you how thrilled I am to have re-discovered your music after many many years. I then only had home-made cassettes made for me by a friend, and so subsisted on 'Hang In There' and 'Imagine My Surprise' for quite awhile. "No More Genocide in My Name' always made perfect sense to me; in a way it was my coming of age'.
I saw you live in concert at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA in about 1975 or thereabouts. The fellowship of the woman in the audience, even as we left the auditorium, fanning out over the square on a chilly fall evening (as I recall it) en masse quietly singing "ahhhOOOO, you're no longer a stranger...." will always stay with me. We all fell in love with you and your music that night. Tremendous concert!
Recently I was at a conference for business, when one woman from New Mexico said that her father used to get a call in the middle of the night to go out and release the water for the irrigating ditches. . . that was so familiar! Where had I heard that before? Who said that to me? On the way home, "Water Come Down" seeped into my brain and I at once knew all of the long lost lyrics. Alas, I do not own that particular song on those old cassettes, but some research (isn't the web wonderful?)led me to your site where I saw what I needed and so much more! You're still "Hanging In There", thank goodness, still< active, still touring, still YOU.
Unfortunately you are not so far touring anywhere near Arkansas, where I am currently living. I will be watching your webpage for more locations, as I so want to see you perform again. And I have introduced your music to the woman in New Mexico as well. She now has the song "Water Come Down" and others on her MP3 player!
I currently work for Heifer International (www.heifer.org). While I am in no official position to say so, I think your work and ours fit perfectly together. If you get the chance to see what we do by way of our web page, and agree that there is work that we could do together, please reply to me.
Have you seen Sarah McLachlan's 'World On Fire' video? Those animals in the video are Heifer's animals, we give them and training to impoverished communities so that the poor can sustain themselves with dignity. Many celebrities, in varying ways, partner with us to help the hungry learn to feed themselves, grow a business, educate their children. Gender equity is a big part of our work, worldwide.
This was not meant to be a 'Heifer promotion'. I just wanted to tell you hello and thank you for all you have done for me, my heart, my awareness, my early philosophies and the development of all I am. I owe you much.
Most sincerely,
Kathy Overton
Holly received this letter from a person attending The Clearwater Folk Festival with whom she had spoken after her performance:
As I mentioned, it has been 25 years since we managed to bring you to Wesleyan for our ECOSFair conference on Social Ecology. I just came back from our 25th reunion at Wesleyan and some friends of mine and I were reminiscing about the conference.
I heard you on-stage yesterday telling us how to talk or write to performers about doing a benefit without the performer feeling like a bake-sale item. I don't have a benefit to ask you to perform at right now, but I thought: why do I have to wait for that time in order to tell you - or remind you - what your music has meant to our movements and to our lives?
It was the spring of 1978, my freshman year at Wesleyan. I was at a rally of the South Africa Action Group, that was educating us about the need for Wesleyan to divest itself of holdings in corporations that invested in South Africa. One of the leaders of the South Africa Action Group, a year ahead of me, was Salih Booker, who now runs Africa Action. This was back when Zimbabwe was still Rhodesia. At the end of the rally, someone starts singing this song: "It could have been me, but instead it was you?."
I was blown away by that. It reminded me of Phil Ochs' "There But For Fortune," but was incredibly melodic, and incredibly up to date, including a verse on Kent State and Victor Jara! "What IS that song, and who wrote it?" I asked. Then, "Who is Holly Near?"
I grew up surrounded by folk music. My music teacher in elementary school was Margot Mayo, who had introduced Pete to Toshi Seeger back in 1940 or so. Arlo had gone to the same school years before me. (Come to think of it, Pete's daughter graduated from Wesleyan, a year before I got there, but we never met.) I had heard Pete and Arlo, together and separately, dozens of times by the time I was 18. But I had never heard of you. Were you "old," like Malvina Reynolds? The song had the wisdom of age to it. Who was this mysterious person who wrote this one, phenomenal song? That song became the anthem of social change in my college years, as we fought apartheid as best we could, and fought the Seabrook nuclear power plant with our bodies in the cold of New Hampshire.
My sophomore year found a housemate who had "A Live Album," and I discovered that you had a wonderful, strong voice, and used it to sing about many important things. That housemate saw you in concert, and broke the news that you were now singing to "women only" audiences. My loss. I discovered "Imagine My Surprise" and was greeted with some more incredibly powerful songs: "Hey Una Mujer," "Mountain Woman," and the rest. Who was this amazing woman? I started finding out as much as I could, and discovered - much of it the hard way - about Feminism, and about sexism, and where I fit in between. ;-) Then "Sweet Honey" cut a tornado-like path through Wesleyan and I was never quite the same again!
I worked for NYPIRG that summer, and on the "No Nukes!" rally that coincided with the big concert series at Madison Square Garden in September of 1979. At that rally, where Battery Park City now stands, is where I heard you sing live for the first time. A month later, I was taking a semester off at a Settlement House in St. Louis, and a bunch of my friends got to see you in concert, with an interpreter for the hearing impaired, and it was amazing and profoundly moving.
So when it came time to look for music for our ECOSFair, in May of 1981, we wanted you, Sweet Honey and Tom Paxton. We couldn't get Sweet Honey, and we almost couldn't get you, but working with Joanie Shumacher and Jo Lynn Worley, we were persistent and patient, and you capped off the conference perfectly.
In between, a friend and I saw the Weavers reunion concert at Carnegie Hall, and couldn't wait to call you all up and tell you that the Weavers had sung a couple of your songs! Ah, naive youth to think that you would not have already known! But you were in the studio recording "Fire in the Rain."
In that short time, you had gone from "Who is Holly Near?" to being featured on Sesame Street with your sister (getting drenched by Oscar the Grouch after singing "Water Come Down" and inside People Magazine. Don't ask me why I remember all this, but I do. And I saw you on stage with the Weavers at Clearwater a month after our conference, and a dozen times or so since then.
Having children slowed down my activism a little bit, and after a while I lost track of you for a little bit. My older children (17 and 21) have been raised properly: reading Greg Palast, and listening to Dar Williams (Wesleyan, '88). My youngest, 21 months (second wife), found the heat a bit much to bear yesterday, but clapped along with you nonetheless. ;-) A few years ago, when I was dating my now-wife, I showed her the video "Wasn't That a Time." Your impromptu duet of "Hay Una Mujer" was her introduction to you, and it moved her to tears.
You mentioned that you were glad to see that I am still doing cultural work. Yes, I am too. We were invited to write something for a reunion commemoration book, and asked what our graduating selves would say to us 25 years later. I wrote this:
On my application essay to Wesleyan, I wrote of a radicalizing event in my life when I was in seventh-grade, and ended the essay with "...and when this influence ceases, I know that there will be another seventh-grader like me who will rebel against my actions, because I will have become what I was rebelling against." My 1981 self saw that 7th grader as his moral compass, and my 2006 self still does. My 1981 me would have preferred that I earn a living by making a difference. Instead, I earn a living so that I can afford to make a difference. I am still here to help make the world a better place, even if it's often one person at a time.
I am a small pebble that can make some ripples in a pond, and I am heartened to know that the ripples can create a profound effect. You, however, continue to write amazing songs, and to spread your message with wisdom always far beyond your years, and you help encourage thousands of us pebbles to create ripples. And your voice - always brilliant - has somehow managed to improve with age. Your music helped change my life, propel our movements way back when, and you continue, as forcefully and as beautifully, as you ever have.
It is an honor and a pleasure to continue to cross paths with you as we all work to take back our country and words like "freedom" and "democracy."
David
Dear Holly,
I have been a fan of yours for many years. I wanted to share with you an experience that I had Saturday night. My thirteen year old daughter, Sarena, sang "1000 Grandmothers" at a Celebration of Women event for a crowd of 200 people in Chico. Many of the women were grandmothers and there was many a tear shed. She sang with a passion that belies her young years. She dedicated the song to her grandmother who was in the audience, along with my husband. At the end she received a standing ovation. It was an amazing experience and I was so proud of her and very grateful to you for bringing the song to us.
Thanks,
Susan Kirk
Dear Holly, I have written to you before and you have answered. The thing is, it seems to me like I sound like a gushing mushy idiot but then I read others letters and know that many many others feel the same way. Your music, your works, your political views and stands are so important and set such a great example for the rest of us. It isn't that I use you as a role model and yet- you are.
I have been listening to your cd's going to and coming from work, church First Existentialist Congregation and I want to go to a park, call out for all other women to come join me -old, middle aged, young and sing together and demand that the wars be stopped. It is what I have believed all along. I especially like your song asking the grandmothers to come lend their ears, open their arms and know that they would volunteer. I am not a grandmother but I am of that age and would love to open my arms to the masses- especially the people who are hurt, aching, locked up and need understanding. I bought a book about two unrelated grandmothers who go to a park and just stand there. They say nothing, they do nothing but it gets the whole community's attention. Then it spreads. And while all these people in all these communities are standing in the park, war is NOT happening there.
In Georgia, we are asking for a moratorium on the death penalty until we can get things straightened out and stop targeting the African Americans and other minorities . Frankly I would prefer to totally DEMOLISH the death penalty as I don't believe it solves anything and it simply too big a punishment that is too often wrong. That is, we have punished too many who were innocent. If they were to ask me what a fitting punishment would be, I just don't know. Restitution for those crimes where that is possible. Education. Training for employment. I don't know but I do know that the death penalty does not deter crime.
Perhaps, I am naïve but it seems to me that even our language is violent. We talk about War on drugs, Battles against crime, war on poverty. Let's FIGHT against this or that. Why can't we have language that talks about promoting peace. Eliminating war!..WAGE PEACE. Share our goods. Loving our criminals. Guiding our children. Our language continues to promote the very thing that we preach against.
You continue talking about what my grandmother started me thinking about. I was only 9 when I first became aware of racial differences, racial inequality, the civil rights movement, etc. My grandmother Burnett died when I was 10 going on 11 but I did not stop thinking about what she taught me. I must be aware of and help assist people who have disabilities, different abilities, people from other cultures, people from different social classes, people of different races.
I love going to your concerts but what I really wish is that we could get our leaders in each community to go hear you and listen to us, the community. We must change. They must change. We cannot change them but we can let them know that they must rethink their politics.
You also gave me a concept that I hold onto; that of being able to "stand behind or get behind" that which I believe in or NOT standing behind those ideals that offend me or my sisters or brothers. Now I think carefully about those things which I can or cannot get behind. That concept helps guide me in my choices.
Thank you for your wonderful music, for your standing behind what you believe in and sharing that with us and going out to other countries and letting us know what is going on there.
Right now, all I can do, is sign petitions, go to marches, vote vote vote, write my congressmen and women AND I teach journaling and writing and encourage people to write and write and write. AND MOSTLY THINK and QUESTION.
Thanks again
Sincerely,
Jean E. Hughes or Wildjean
Dear Holly,
I first heard you sing in a theater in Hollywood where you would go to practice. The group space belonged to the Improvisational Theater. I won your first album at a Fund Raiser for the Skyhorse and Mohawk case in La. I was a co- chair for this group. I met you years later in Redding California and continued to follow your career and share your music where ever I went. My children grew up on your songs and at times were not too happy about it. I had five children. I came out in 1985 and was shunned by the members of my tribe, and still your songs gave me strength to face the hard times. Still more years past and my daughters grew up to be wonderful, strong Lakota Wimmin. I began to hold a Sundance ceremony for Wimmin and opened up the lodge to all Wimmin, even those on their moontime. Your music and words carried me through those frightening days of learning about myself.
Two years ago I drove across country with my youngest daughter, and my 14 year old granddaughter. The three of us played your CD over and over again, all the while singing each word from the bottom of our hearts. I said out loud, I wish Holly could know how much of an impact she has had on our lives, and I wish she could hear us now, I know she would smile.
So now I have found a way to tell you how much your work has meant to us, just three generations of Lakota Wimmin. Thank you.
I have a website also, it is called Kunsikeya.org It tells about the Wimmin's Sundance that we hold here in Vermont. This will be our 20th year. It is a spiritual event that is free of drugs and alcohol . All Wimmin are welcome and maybe one day you can join us as we pray for peace and celebrate who we are as Wimmin working towards a new future. I have managed to purchase 101 acres of land, imagine, a Native Womyn actually buying her own land back after it was taken. I smile. My vision is that it will remain a sacred space for all Wimmin to come to now and in the future.
My blessings and prayers go out to you daily, again thank you for following your dreams.
Canteciciye, Beverly Little Thunder
Holly, I was at your St. Louis concert, and I enjoyed it so much I wanted to send you a note of thanks - both as an individual who was inspired by your music and as a board member of Catholic Action Network, one of the member organizations of Justice and Peace Shares. When I was at the weekly Peace Vigil sponsored by Instead of War, I was happy to see our numbers swell. Many of those in attendance were new people who had never participated before, but who connected with us Saturday night at your concert. Thank you for being the catalyst to bring us together.
Justice work can be so discouraging, and I often ask myself if I'm doing any good. Your concert and the networking of people it facilated was a shot in the arm, encouragement to keep going. Thanks again, keep up the good work.
Ann Karasek
July 2005
I wanted to let you know what an incredibly important impact you had on all of us who had the amazing good fortune to ask you to join us last Oct. 7th for our first annual day of waging peace conference and concert.
There are so many little things - nearly every meeting someone talks about saying hmmmm... can you say a bit more about that..when something someone else has offered as a strongly held opinion stuns them/confuses them/outrages them etc.
We are less anxious about whether we are doing the right thing - more comfortable with the belief that it is fine that we are doing what we believe to be important...
We are planning our second annual day of waging peace and find we need an army of people to help us play the role(s) you played last year...
Shy but passionate women repeat your story about anti-personnel missiles on the one hand or being embarrassed on the other hand as they risk ridicule and ask their neighbors and friends to sign petitions to create a cabinet level department of peace...
One of the young woman who wrote a peace song and sang it to you and your workshop that day found her sea legs that day - the day helped to ground her and whisk away some of the most painful teenage doubts and considerations. She is now moving with her family for two years to Turkey - and what a gift to the world she will be there. Her mom talks often about the impact of singing her song to you that day.
My nine year old son pulled your cd out a few weeks ago and has been playing it non-stop (Edge). He has the songs memorized. When i asked him what he loves so much about it he said "I don't know i just think it is important - especially the Fired Up song". He has been working for months to save money for a ipod shuffle - and he told me that was going to be the first music he puts on it. On a drive to a lake he and his friend were sharing headphones listening to it and talking about peace - and I am so grateful for that focus - and for his ability to connect to the ideas through your music.
I hope your year has been wonderful so far and that you have a gizzilion opportunities to continue to share your gifts with audiences. I go on your website often to see if you are going to be in the area. Thank you so much for your help/wisdom/kindness and example -
Much love,
Sue Hay
mothersuniting.org
April 2004
Thank you Holly,
It was meaningful and lovely to have you join us in Toledo for our march. I actually had a brief conversation with you before the march and identified myself as a rape crisis counselor. I wanted to say more to you yet it was a busy night and I didn't want to delay you from anything. The first time I heard you sing was back on the UCLA campus where I attended school in the early eighties. Students were protesting the political climate in South Africa and if my memory is correct you were just outside Murphy Hall? So many years ago, and you are still moving hearts, opening minds and mouths. Though, I was not feeling completely well last evening, I realized the importance of individual attendance.
Also, it was really nice to hear you sing live again, too. I realized as we were marching that I wasn't to tired or sick to sing out with my sisters for one extremely important night. I was reminded that it was not about me and it was so wonderful to continue to be a part of something that is huge in human importance. Holly, your direction about the power of a single person putting her effort into motion was a reminder to me to never quit. I am an African American woman and I am certain that my lifetime will be spent in an endless effort of responsibilities but thanks to women like you I will never be alone. Perhaps, in another decade or so I will get a chance to hear the passion of your words. And, I will be a single voice in the night yelling out, "thank you, Holly."
Warmest Regards,
Stacey Stubblefield
PS: Fortunately my supervisor was also in attendance and urged me to attend your workshop in Michigan. I enjoy workshops of human interest and I love writing. Wish me luck! Take good care.
May 2004
Dear Ms. Near,
I wrote to you about a month ago after attending your concert in Northampton. But as I write now, it is 3am, and I cannot sleep. I am currently reading your autobiography and am incredibly inspired. I am a hopeless idealist with the burning desire to repair this broken world, and I want to begin right now. I have a vision (that I probably share with many) of a finally unified left wing. I am growing so tired of scurrying around, making tiny baby steps, as the right wing moves ahead with a big, heavy stride.
When I entered college last fall, I was given a list of organizations on campus. There was the African-American student alliance, the association of Muslim students, the feminist organization, the reproductive rights organization, the queer student organization, the queer students of color, the transgender advocacy group, the workers' rights group, three different environmental organizations, the anti-war group, and the social justice organization, and the list goes on. Essentially, we are all fighting the same enemy, and yet the feminists lock horns with the transgender students who argue with the students of color, who feel misrepresented by the reproductive rights group, and so it goes. As someone who is active in both the feminist and transgender advocacy organizations, I felt the intensity of this conflict quite strongly.
But if each group would only take a step back and look at the big picture, they'd see that they are both fighting the same monster that is societal gender oppression.
As feminists from different generations, I would bet that we disagree on many things. But I am writing to you because when I hear your voice, although I was not alive during the peak of the second wave or during Vietnam, the memories and spirit of that time awaken inside of me. I know that your struggle is my struggle, and that my struggle is the same struggle as the poor woman who cannot afford an abortion, and her struggle is the same struggle as the environmentalist who takes up camp in a treetop, and his struggle is the same struggle as etc etc etc. I have a vision of bridges finally being built because side by side we shall finally overcome.
But how do we build these bridges? One beam at a time. If we bring groups of people together, we can talk about how we are all connected. It will require us all stepping out of our comfort zones but I honestly believe we can achieve this.
We could start by bringing together second and third wave feminists in what essentially would be consciousness-raising groups at meeting places throughout the country. Once the women have united, there will be no stopping us, and we can then meet up with the environmentalists, and then all of us can go talk with the socialists (and surely we will all overlap at some point into different groups and identities) and bridge by bridge there will be a revolution. Will you help me get started?
For unity,
Elizabeth Koke
Holly’s response:
Dear Elizabeth, Thanks for your lovely letter and for your hopeful critical thinking. I believe that it is not a matter of getting started, it is a matter of jumping in whereever you are and adding to that which is already started. I think the fact that there were women from all ages at the march on Washington suggests that we do not have to begin at the beginning. I also think that this upcoming election is a window of opportunity to bring people together.
Perhaps start by writing a letter to the school paper (using your second paragraph to me as a starting point) and asking if there are any students from any of these organizations who feel as you do and if so, would they like to meet at . . . place . . . time to discuss what are the qualities that make unity possible, what is the purpose of compromise when doing cross cultural work, and what kind of guidelines would be appropriate in order to do good collaboration work. See if there is one thing you can agree on. Maybe it is student voter registration. Start there. If you are successful, you can share you process and what you have learned with other organizations on other campuses.
This is just one idea. There are many others. But I think we must begin where we are. I would guess there are lots of books out there that write about these problems and your newly formed study group could seek out these books, read them and discuss them. See how they apply to your own work. I wish you well. You are not alone. You have hundreds of years of tradition behind you so you walk on a well worn path, people who had to deal with these same problems within their own historic context. Your interest in this will add to the evolution of social change, adding imagination and hope to the path. Best wishes. Holly
March 2004
Dear Holly,
What a great invention email is. In the 25 years that I have listened to your music, I have never written you a letter but email feels more like picking up the phone. I was at your concert on Saturday night and I wanted to thank you for being such an incredible inspiration all these years. I am more than twice as old as I was the first time I heard you. I live in the burbs and usually I don't get out much at night but I packed up my 83 year old mother and my two boys and made the trek because I wanted to hear you and I wanted my boys to experience your music. When they are fifty I want them to be able to say that they heard Holly Near in person.
Thank you for singing the Harriet Tubman song. My son Arthur had just given an oral report on her in his third grade class. He is disabled and he can't read but he made me read him every book that we could find on her life. He checked out videos at the library and he gave the report dressed up as a Union soldier, a buffalo soldier. Since he can't read notes, he had a series of pictures that he looked at to remind himself of the chronology of her life. He asked me to buy the cd of you singing Harriet's song and in the last two days we have repeatedly played it. It still brings tears to my eyes.
So much of her life is amazing and I remember studying her in Women's history classes in college, but different things struck me when I studied with Arthur. One was that she was thirty years old when she escaped from slavery. Not a young woman. The other was that she returned to the slave states 19 times before the war and led over 300 people to freedom. This is really extraordinary. She knew the horrors of slavery, she knew that she would be tortured and sold into the deep south if she was ever recaptured but she voluntarily walked back into the jaws of the beast 19 times to lead mostly total strangers to freedom. Shortly before the war she returned and led her own parents (by then in their 80's) to freedom. She had to hide them in a wagon because they were too old to make the journey on foot.
Once Harriet was hiding in a famous white abolitionist's house. It was surrounded by slavehunters and they thought they were finally going to capture her. Then the front door opened and the gentleman and a fine lady walked out, entered his carriage and drove away. The lady was dressed in beautiful stylish clothes, including an elegant hat with a veil. The slavehunters knew that she was a white woman because of her bearing. Actually it was Harriet.
Harriet literally used music to free people. The night before she was going to lead a train to freedom she would walk past the slave quarters in the dark and sing an old spiritual about Moses leading the slaves the freedom. That was the signal to get ready to leave. After the war began, Harriet went back to the south with Union troops and led over 500 more slaves to freedom. The slaves wouldn't trust the white union soldiers but when they saw that Harriet was with them, the famous Moses, they gladly went with her. After the war, she had a home for elderly exslaves. When Harriet was in her nineties, the suffragists held a convention. She sent them a message: "Stand Together."
My husband, Jimi Simmons, didn't come to see you on Saturday because he was visiting the Indian prisoners at Solano State prison. Afterwards I told him what you had said about artists being used a filler at political events instead of being the main message. He told me that at Solano that day, a group of Pomo Indian singers had come in to visit a relative. They were all dressed in their traditional regalia and they brought their relative's dance outfit in so that he could dance with them. They told him that they were singing to heal him and all the Indian men there. They told the prisoners that whatever they had done in the past that they were still part of their community and that it was necessary for them to heal so that when they returned to their families that they could do that in a good way. They told the men that they were needed.
I thought about that, about how singing, chanting, music, gets inside of us in a way that talking and reading can't. Music and dancing does heal us and give us the courage, strength and clarity to go on. Having an Indian partner all these years, I have attended many events in the Indian community and I've seen and felt how music reaffirms us and brings us together. That is true from Buffy and Floyd Westerman, to traditional pow wow songs, to east Oakland Indian rap. In some Indian nations there are songs and dances that must be done by the whole tribe every year in order to keep the universe in balance. I think that music can be that strong. On the left, sharing music transcends the bickering factions and reminds us that we can "stand together".
So I wanted to let you know that your music is being passed on to another generation and that it is much appreciated. Arthur asked me if he could take your cd to his room and listen to it when he went to bed.
In sisterhood,
Karen Rudolph
Dear Holly,
I was one of the few who made it to the concert during the ice storm last night at Guilford College. Thank you for the wonderful performance, so full of energy and life, in spite of the bleak weather. I have always tried to attend your concerts whenever you've been in North Carolina. Last night was different in that, I really needed to hear your words and your views on the world. I am one of many people who have struggled since September 11. After the attacks, I experienced a fear that I had not experienced as an adult. I grew up with violence in my family and felt that I had worked my way through all those horrible old feelings. The fear I felt on September 11 seemed like the old feelings of fear and loss of control. I was very angry and found myself wanting to strike out against those who harmed us. I felt very vulnerable and wanted to be protected, even if it took the military to do that. This has never been my nature. I also discovered feelings of prejudice and suspicion against others within myself - the same characteristics that I have always despised in other people. I realize that these feelings stemmed from my own fear and lack of understanding. It has been difficult for me to look inside myself and acknowledge these feelings-they don't fit with the person I want to be. I am trying to work through them. I know that peace, cooperation, and understanding is the answer to what's going on in our world.
Thank you for your warm spirit and words of wisdom. You do so much for so many, probably more than you could ever know. Thank you for helping me find my way.
Amanda
Dear Holly Near,
I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you a thought within my thank you. I was at Diva Fest this year. In fact I was right amongst you. I was working a camera for IMA. I have spoken to you with my " Shy moments " as I call them...
At Diva fest you spoke of those that are quiet in their work. I am one of these individuals. I am not quiet all the time - it is just the work I do is very complex. I am an activist like yourself. I am as well a performer, like yourself. I have been active in the women's community with my work however I have decided to encompass all of me and combined it to bring communities together as well as speak for social justice through the performing arts.
I am an individual with a hidden disability ( epilepsy ). I am as well a lesbian. And am out in the work that I do. I advocate for individuals with disabilities and produce performances combining professional performers with disabilities with performers without disabilities to assist in a further understanding of community. I sit in an interesting place, you could say. I am unnoticed and have fallen though the cracks. I am however compelled to create a place of understanding. In a way it is selfish because it is a wish for me I have. This is why I am so compelled.
At Diva Fest you invited Bailey to sing with you. This was a highlight for me. I wish to thank you for not only inviting her to sing 
with you but how you introduced her. It was warming to me to hear you introduce her by name. A young woman with strength and persistence. That indeed she is. You created that day what I am working for. A place for Our youth with disabilities to grace the stage with " All " that they are.
I have been working away on my project called Art JUJU. I am working on media's perceptions of individuals with disabilities as well as creating live performances and opening opportunities for others with disabilities by supporting and assisting them with the knowledge I have. My knowledge has come from the community as a whole and from the support I have given to all communities.
There is a song Copper Wimmin released on their CD called "Caboose".< Tenaya wrote it after a conversation we had over the phone. I wish to create a place where one can just be. One does not have to prove. This is my quiet around my work. My life has been a life proving I am here. I know I am. I sometime get frustrated with the struggles of acceptance due to the misunderstandings of my disability. I look positive however with what I do understand and what acceptance has given me. It has given me the vision and understanding to see in a different light. As I continue my pursuit for social justice in all communities as " All " of me, I thank you for the support needed when I get the opportunity to listen to your words and music that comforts a heart that sometimes needs to be
filled.
I just wanted you to hear my voice as I join with you in performance and activism. I as well wanted you to know.... ..." I am here " .
As an interesting note. I work at a TV station as a master control air operator. I have spent the last three years fighting for reasonable accommodation and discrimination on the job. I am here though. I took this job because I felt it was important to make a stand as well as be Me in what I do. As well as to work closer to the media to get a feel for< what I need to do to make a change.
Warmly and Thank you
Helen Walsh
Dear Holly, Over the years, I have written thanking you for your music and your courage. When life was its hardest your song held onto me making my way a little easier. The government, my neighbors and co workers have used the events of the past year to wield terror. Signs like "Proud Vietnam Vet" and american flags pop up everywhere - a reminder that "someone will pay." As a young woman, I was harassed, arrested, spat at, chased and humiliated because of my beliefs. Now at 54, many people just stare because I refuse to sport an american flag and because I have a big sign in my office that says "Proud to Work for Peace." You're quoted there along with Audre Lorde, Aung San Suu Kyi, Dorothy Day, Marion Wright Edelman, Meg Christian, and others.
Everything is connected. Last week my daughter left a message on my answering machine to tell me that the next time "you e-mail Holly, tell her that your not-quite-3 year old granddaughter was playing with a truck and singing "I ain't gonna step down off of that riverboat. . .cause if I step down off that riverboat I don't think I'm gonna float." My daughter, her partner and the other folks she works with act to promote peace.
The work you do is very important: for the help you have given me, for all the songs you have sung, and lives you've illuminated. It isn't necessary that our children and the generations to come do what we have done, but it is important that they know where we've been and what we have done. That knowledge will make their work easier.
Thank you and peace.
KC Bentley
Dear Holly,
I don't know quite what to say. I can't believe you have a web site and that I can write you on it. I was listening to your music (Fire in the Rain, Step It Out Nancy, The Meek Are Getting Ready) before web sites existed....
My name is Sheilagh Polk. I am a 26 year old, bi-racial woman from Las Vegas, Nevada. My mother raised me on her own at a time that was even less-friendly to mixed children and unmarried women than it is now...as hard to believe as that is...:) My mother was what some people would have called a "radical feminist" and I spent my childhood sitting in circles of amazing women listening to them talk and rant and sing and cry. She has devoted her life to the domestic violence movement and had been a key player in changing some tough laws in the Wild Wild West that has helped in the fight to save the lives of women and children, not only in our state but across the country. She is an amazing woman.
I learned about sexism and racism and injustice when most children were learning about Barbie and Leggos.
Anyway, I was raised on your music, my mother and I traveled a lot together and it was always you we listened to. "Started Out Fine" is our theme song...:) Sunday afternoons in the house together, it was you we listened to. Evenings after long days of work and school, it was you we listened to. Tough times, happy times, sad times, it was you we listened to. I knew every album -yeah..album- by heart and used to play your records at full blast and sing my little heart out. I have been singing your songs since I could talk.
Well, years passed, I grew older, did the usual teenage thing and drifted away from my mother, the things she had taught me, dared her to call me a feminist, flirted with every known and possible danger, survived 3 abusive relationships, got my college degree in acting and moved to LA about 3 years ago. During all of this, every once in a while, I would pull out your old albums and tapes to reminisce or for strength or just because I felt like singing.
Today, I work in Los Angeles at a foundation and attended the Liberty Hill Dinner. Your friend at your table probably told you about the near hysterical girl who begged him to tell you that you changed my life and thank you for your music and your songs. To see you live was the most amazing thing that could have happened to me. I was flooded with memories and emotion. I cried the entire time. I called my mother right afterwards (she was So jealous that I got to see you) and thanked and thanked her and thanked her for her wisdom, her values, for making me a socially aware and responsible woman, for loving me and for playing your music. We talked and cried and laughed and remembered...
So, when I saw that you had a website on the Liberty Hill Program, I had to write you and tell you your music does make a difference, it does change lives and thank you for everything it contributed to my life, my mother's life, our relationship and other ways I can not explain and you could probably not understand. You helped birth an activist and are part of the reason I do what I do.
Please keep on keeping on.
Peace, Blessings and Love,
Sheilagh
March 2002
Dear Holly,
I had the great pleasure of attending your concert at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano last Friday. What a wonderfully delightful, intimate space! There you were, not ten feet away. How strange to realize that you couldn't see us, see the joy on our faces as we sang with you and embraced you and claimed you as our own. And then, all too soon it seemed, you had finished and left the stage, and we reluctantly got our belongings together to leave the warmth and community we'd created with you.
Imagine my surprise to find you signing CDs in the lobby! And - even more - imagine my surprise to find that I, who work with words for a living (I teach History and Women's Studies at a local college), was at a total loss for words! What could I say to you in a one-minute encounter that wasn't trite or banal? So here are some of the things I wish I had been able to tell you Friday.
First and last and always, thank you for the gift of your music. Thank you for being a voice of compassion and healing and justice at a time when it appears that we as human beings have a seemingly infinite capacity to destroy ourselves and others. Thank you for speaking to our boundless ability to love and care and create community across all types of borders. Thank you for reminding me that that's what's truly important. Thank you for helping to renew my faith in the fact that what seems impossible truly is possible.
Thank you for reminding me that life is a journey we're all on together, and yet alone. Thank you for reminding me that each one of us can contribute to great change through all of the small, seemingly insignificant individual steps we take. Thank you for echoing my faith in the younger generation of progressive, activist women and men who will follow us and continue the struggle when we're gone. Thank you for helping me to rediscover meaning in my life and my work. Somehow it seemed more than appropriate that the topic for today's discussion in my World History class was Racism and Late 19th Century U.S. Imperialism - and my presentation of the material was more impassioned than it's been in awhile. I doubt my students are aware that they have you to thank for that!
All of this was in my heart and mind Friday night, and it is this, rather than the spelling of my name as you signed a CD for me, that I wished to tell you. And now I have.
In sisterhood and joy and love,
Margot Lovett
Dear Holly,
I just wanted to let you know that I drove up to Wesleyan from New Haven 4 weeks ago (only 40 min.) to go to your songwriting workshop. When I got there I found out that you hadn't been able to get there. [This was the week after the World Trade Center disaster when all flights were cancelled] But inspired by the idea of going to your workshop, I had written a song on the way up. In the parking lot at Wesleyan I wrote it down (music and words, in my own up-down notation) so I wouldn't forget it. And here's the story as I wrote it later:
I had a wonderful experience the past few days, a good experience of teshuvah (turning around), in this case, with a lot of support, turning around a situation that seemed ominous into a more all-life-affirming one, and turning my own unease and low hope to more positive action.
Sunday I had made up a song on my way up to a Holly Near songwriting workshop, as I saw many, many cars with American flags as I was driving. The workshop didn't happen because Holly couldn't make it there, but I had written the song anyway.
ALL PEOPLE MATTER
It's not just we who matter
In the good old USA
It is all of us on this planet
As we're spinning here in space.
We're Afghanis and Americans
We're Palestinians and we're Jews
We're all people on this planet
As we're spinning here in space.
We are Arabs and we're Africans
We're Europeans and Asians too
We're all people on this planet
As we're spinning here in space.
We are Muslims and we're Christians
We are Hindus and we're Sikhs
We're all people on this planet
As we're spinning here in space.
(repeat first verse)
If you'd like the tune, call me at 203-389-6112.
The great thing that happened with this song is that two of us sang it as part of a school assembly in my son's public elementary school, as part of a school Patriotism Day on Friday Sept. 20. The day was announced at the beginning of the week as a day when kids were encouraged (but not mandated) to wear red, white, and blue, they would sing patriotic songs, and say the pledge of allegiance, in response to September 11. I was uneasy because I was concerned that many people take patriotism and flag waving to mean that we are better than other people, and that everyone should support the president, i.e. go to war. I also believed that that was not the intent of the organizers of the day, that they meant it as a way to show support for the people who were killed as well as for each other. So I talked to other parents and friends, and came up with the idea of adding my song, or other peace songs. And the principal and assistant principal were very welcoming to Jake and I singing the song as part of the school assembly that day in between the traditional patriotic songs and the pledge, and all students got a booklet with the words of all songs, including All People Matter. So that's what we did, with the earth flag hanging in the background along with the many U.S. flags. Many of the students sang along. We got lots of positive comments afterwards, including from a parent who had earlier been taken aback by my saying that I was uneasy about all the U.S. flags--afterward she thanked us for doing it and said it had helped to broaden the perspective of the event. I also taught it along with other peace songs (including We Are Gentle Angry People, which I have loved ever since we sang it when we gathered to oppose KKK rallies in CT in the early and mid 1980s) to the music classes, along with the music teacher, on the Mon and Tues. of the following week.
So thank you very much for inspiration, Holly!
Debbie Elkin
Letters continue . . . .
