Boldly She Lives
Earlier this year Renovare met with 20 incredible women who have overcome life challenges including addiction, poverty, incarceration, trafficking, and more. The voices of these bold and courageous women are often overlooked or forgotten, but as we listened to them tell their story we learned so much from them. In keeping with Renovare’s mission of affirming the value of all people and cultivating reconciled communities, we wanted to amplify these stories so that others could be blessed and challenged by their testimonies as well.
We created a musical component for each story, either by adding a “soundtrack” to their spoken story (recorded by the storyteller herself), or by collaboratively writing a Documentary Song with them. The process of Documentary Songwriting allows someone to put their story to music as we work with them, whether or not they have any prior musical training. These stories were then pieced together with various renditions of “Deep River,” an African American Spiritual that highlights the journey that each woman - and indeed, each of us - have been on. The culminating concert we entitled “Boldly She Lives,” part of our “Voices” programming area that shares stories of injustice, pain, love and hope to foster understanding and build bridges between people and communities.
Read the narratives and lyrics to all of the songs by clicking below!
We’ve had the honor of performing this concert six times since May, in venues ranging from a church to a community garden to an art gallery. Most of these performances were followed by a panel discussion featuring one or more of the women who helped write the Documentary Songs with us, giving audience members a chance to go even deeper in their journeys of learning and reflecting. What a privilege it has been to bear witness to their stories and help share them with the broader community.
Renovare with the co-writers of “Journey through the Jordan” following a performance of ‘Boldly She Lives.’ (Faces blurred for security reasons).