our final guest this month is no stranger to Black newvo last year his black string triage Ensemble was the focus of Maris Ma's black strring documentary that was available throughout the PBS system airing here on black newvo the black string triage Ensemble is a group of black and LAX musicians violin viello upright Bas that play at the scene in the immediate aftermath of tragic events we in Milwaukee have chosen to prioritize shootings reckless driving occurrences and Drug overdoses David Hallman joins us now as the executive director of the black diaspora Symphony Orchestra which will be in concert on June 14th performing cries from our soul David welcome thank you all right first off talk about Christ from our soul what uh should we expect from that performance cries from our soil is a brand new world premiere piece written specifically for this occasion uh it is written in tribute to Jeffrey dmer victims their families uh sha Robinson and others that have been lynched um the composer of it is otum Maria Reed the poet supplying the text is Britt Nicole uh soloist Michaela Usher and visual artist Brooks and Lloyd Dixon chorus director Lee stovel so it's it's a lot of parts together uh it's designed to be it's a song basically sung by Orchestra there short work not long um and it focuses not so much on the grief part but on the remembrance and honor and Humanity of lives lost with an eye towards hope and that we have an obligation to come together to make that real so I've heard of a few of the pieces of course saw it um uh at the uh Film Festival but uh thinking what's the motivation behind uh focusing on the Jeffrey dmer victims and uh just why go there as far as uh you know something uh you know that is so uh traumatic for a lot of people still here in Milwaukee so I I I realize there are people that say why is such a horrible topic for juneth I think that's a valid question but if we look at the history very closely what we see is that once the Emancipation Proclamation came out and words spread through the land whenever your state wanted to act right uh that lynching had a very massive uptick in this country and so as we celebrate now what I believe will be what the second official juneth in this country as others bat around and kick around the phrase Civil War we as black Americans in particular have to keep in mind that our freedom comes with a cost it isn't just Christmas addicts in terms of the American re Revolution it continues it's lynching it's the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Angela yon Davis makes a wonderful point about racism she says racism changes it transmutes itself right so when we look at God forbid saying his name dmer Maxwell Anderson in their actions it isn't necessarily the same as what we see with imit till but historically they are right in line in ter of that pattern there are similarities there are echoes and so the purpose of this is not to focus on the as salant the purpose of this is to uplift the victims so other than the mention of those two names that I just said before that will be all all right now uh plenty more pieces to talk about seven last words of the unarmed by Joel Thompson talk about that and uh what that piece means Joel Thompson is an absolute genius in my opinion uh his work written in 2015 seven last words of the of the unarmed is the last words of seven black men before they were shot by police why include this in the program well if you look at the history of lynching law enforcement plays a role sometimes overtly and sometimes very passively by not stopping it from happening there are those that would argue perhaps that in the modern era as we understand lynching today that what we have seen with police violence would fall in line with that so in in that right it makes sense to include that on the program I'm impressed by how Mr Thompson uh thinks about and uses the idea of pulse in terms of the music in terms of the loss of life of a person as it is occurring um there's one particular movement that is very dreamlike um and the words are Mom I'm going to college and you're you are forced to confront the fact that this is a human being that that is someone's hope epap of a man who dreamed uh that's the next one we're going to talk about that there and owe to Dr Martin Luther King yes so Dolphus hail st's uh depiction of people coming to the grave of the Civil Rights leader uh grieving and walking away realizing that they have an obligation to carry the torch and then uh Symphony Number Four uh William Grant still talk about that William Grant still Symphony Number Four is a symphony in name only four movements uh and you get little bit of gospel Blues Jazz but at the very end of it his closing statement it is strictly Soul music and he actually calls the theme from that the spirit of generosity of the American people so all these pieces what do you hope people get from this experience as a whole we need something I think uh in this particular moment that acknowledges the history that uplifts our humanity and in America's most segre segregated City uh confronts racism but also brings us together and what better way to do that than the unexpected space of classical music and when and where can we see and experience this Friday June 14th at the Washington Park Bandshell at 7:00 p.m. concert will last approximately an hour and 45 minutes no ticket free familyfriendly David thank you so much for joining us always welcome here thank you