Back at Maltz!
It’s been just over a year since Renovare’s debut at the Maltz Performing Arts Center in January of 2022, and we were thrilled to be invited back! Our second appearance at Maltz took place on Thursday, March 30th with four amazing artists - spoken word poet Vision (Nailah Muhammed) and drummers Ali Boyd, Rashon Blake, and Derick Barnes. In a world where we are often siloed by differences, we’re grateful to have had the opportunity to create something beautiful with this terrific group.
Click below to watch the full video of the performance!
During this concert we had the pleasure of performing another song by William Travance, one of the violinists in our ‘Unmuted’ program at the Grafton Correctional Institution. In addition to being a wonderful violinist, William is a hip hop artist who released an album titled “Still Life”. With William’s blessing and help, we remixed his song “Blood Runs Black” from that album. William asked us to share the following words about the song along with our performance:
I am thankful for the opportunity to have my music presented to you all. The first verse came in a moment of self-reflection that was directly related to my current environment, which is a place where I have crafted a mental space of solitude and seclusion. It is an expression of the cause and effect that has created the socio-economic plight of African Americans. The second verse expounds on this social construct, its history, subjugation, and discard of Pan African life on a global scale. The inspiration came from a well crafted piece of fiction, titled: “Little Bee, by Chris Cleave.” Being that all fiction relies on some fact, a seed was planted and some research had led to facts about the mining of precious metals and minerals in Nigeria. It is my hope that these lyrics provoke contemplation and conversation and that you are just as moved by the rhythm and melody.
Blood Runs Black
I see the cowardice dwelling with the hearts of men
I found it first within myself and deemed it ignorance
The cost of living’s tuition is that you pay attention
So many go to their grave leaving indecision
Some say the road to hell is paved with the best intentions
I say the road to hell is paved with the justice system
Rather see us enslaved than see us self-sufficient
Or in a position to see ourselves and make a difference
Take a vision and bring our dreams to fruition
Take a vision and bring our dreams to our children
Diagnose our condition as being self-conditioned
Poverty and psychology as self-inflicted
Stereotypical images keep us depicted as degenerates, recidivists, recipients
As if acquitted…original sin that was committed
From manacles to mechanisms, we still on the fringes
Chorus
And it runs, and it runs… And it runs, and it runs
And the Blood runs and it runs… Oh the Blood Runs Black
I see our degradation weighting on a global scale
Corporate Scale, profiteering more than GlobalTel
Turn Nigerian villages into oil fields
Massacre the indigenous, no one to tell
Leave no witnesses, erase the corporate trail
Cost of doing business…another oil spill
Arm the mercenaries, fund the warlords
BP-British Pound found behind the sword
Behind the wars, behind the horrors,
Robber-barons running drills for that oil
I hear the screams dating back to Leopold
Do your history, we’ve seen these things before
Those that colonize, still colonize
Using minors as miners up-in-them diamond minds
Gold mines and some of mine sold mine’s
The same sin that stole us off the coastline
Chorus
We also had the absolute joy of performing the Documentary Song “Journey Through the Jordan” on this concert, which we wrote with a group of women from the Jordan Community Resource Center last year.
Journey Through the Jordan
Standing in the rain
no shoes on my feet
I was scared with no direction
Treading through the water
I once was drowning in
Now I emerge into a new land
Trafficked in the streets
I had prayed for months
For God to show me the way
Police picked me up
The court sent me to treatment
So I follow in God’s way
Chorus
Been lost for so long
No way to go but up
Struggling through the murky waters
Starting to cross over Jordan
Finally see the light
Step by step
Ask. Seek. Knock.
Waiting for my plane
Passed out before boarding
I woke up in the ER
And it wasn’t the first time
I know it was God
Who was waking me up
Chorus
At home in the dark
Drinking taking pills
Hurting everyone, so ashamed
I Wanted to die
but asked God for help
Now I have freedom
Chorus
Drinking by myself
I could not quit
Had an old school landline
Knocked it on the floor
The operator sent help
Those angels brought back my faith
Chorus