 This song began when I laughed out loud at a quote I found in a book I dropped while packing things for moving out of the cabin I've lived in for 25 years. I had been in a rather hurried/harried "end gaining" state of mind, and when I read Ramana Maharrshi saying that the search for peace outside ourselves is: "an impossible quest, and causes all this trouble," it seemed completely hilarious to me. All my trouble, and all the world's troubles, come from that one trick of the ego's misdirection. The spell was broken and I started to sing: "It is an impossible quest, that causes all this trouble. All this trouble, it causes all this trouble." The melody, someone in my chorus said, sounds a bit Disney, and I totally agree. A goofy little tune that came out of the humor of that moment. Here's the entire Ramana quote that became the lyrics to the song: ”For health is our nature. Likewise peace is our nature. Indeed, we are peace. Forgetting that, we seek peace from external sources. It is an impossible quest, and causes all this trouble. The moment you withdraw your mind from external objects and turn inwards, you taste real peace and feel happy.” Ramana Maharshi I continued singing the song while packing and carrying things. I was just carrying boxes of books, and they were getting into my car somehow. I was with myself along the way, enjoying the strength to carry boxes of books and laughing at the succinct way in which Ramana had cut through my pushing and brought me to a "chop wood, carry water" state of not trying to get anywhere. Like dancing with boxes of books, with quietness inside and all around me. Impossible Quest
© K Hannan It is an impossible quest and causes all this trouble All this trouble It causes all this trouble For health is our nature Likewise peace is our nature Indeed we are peace Indeed we are peace Indeed we are peace Indeed we are peace Indeed we are peace Indeed I am peace Stop the search Indeed you are peace Look into your heart Indeed we are peace  The man in the foreground of the photo above is the brilliant, visionary and kind master drummer Khalid Abdul N'Faley Saleem. That picture is from the 1990's, probably in Durham, NC, where I met Khalid when we both lived on Burch Avenue. Not long after I recorded this song Khalid moved from Durham to teach at Stoney Brook University, New York, where he wroked and played until recently. I learned this month that Khalid is currently teaching at Appalachian State in Boone, NC. You can read about about his connection to this song in my post below the lyrics. Drummers on the recording are Beverly Bottsford, Robin Burdulis, Karen Kelley, Jaqui MacMillan, Beth Shulman, and Sonya Stewart. Other musicians: Toddie Stewart on bass, me on piano, Ariana Lightningstorm, Diana Sunday, Rachel Ann Cross, and myself on vocals. Redemption Song (excerpt) © Bob Marley I made a few small changes to sing it as a white person: "Africa was made strong" rather than "my hands were made strong" etc. All pirates yes they robbed her Sold her to the merchant ship Minutes after they took her From the bottomless pit Oh but Africa was made strong By the hand of the Almighty She followed in this generation, triumphant Won't you help to sing these songs of freedom? 'Cause all I ever had redemption songs Won't you help to sing these songs of freedom? 'Cause all I ever had redemption songs Redemption songs, redemption songs, redemption songs Drums of Africa © K Hannan 1997 White man brought the Africans in chains across the water White man swore he'd make a brand new world upon this shore White man drank the whiskey, to try to drown his shame He swore the drums of Africa would be heard no more 'Cause the drums could tell a story across the night time sky The drums could play a freedom that would make an angel cry! And the white man feared the power made a people move that way So he tried to stop the drumming He could not stop the drumming! But he swore he'd stop the drumming He made made it a crime to play 'Cause Africa was made strong, Africa was made strong Africa was made strong The drums of the Almighty carried Africa along And the drums were in the fields, the drums were in the street, The drums were in the tapping of a thousand dancing feet The drums were in the churches, the drums were in the jive Every pulse of every heart beat kept the drums alive 'Cause Africa was made strong., Africa was made strong Africa was made strong The drums of the Almighty carried Africa along And it wasn't just Aretha, or just Malcom, or just King In a thousand little churches, you could hear the drummers sing Singin' Africa was made strong.... The story of Drums of Africa begins way before the 1990's of course, but the direct inspiration for the Drums of Africa song was in 1996 when Khalid Saleem led a two hundred person drum circle for a Unity In The Community Earth Day Celebration in a parking lot near Duke University. I was astounded in joy to hear the drum rhythms thundering out, to see that huge circle of African American men, women and children along with people of other races, playing and dancing the powerful and joyful music of Africa. In Durham, as in all corners of our country, slavery, segregation and oppression have left a trail of injury and injustice that still affects us all today. And yet, in my heart that day in 1996, I felt that the sounds and sights of the music and movement were an expression of freedom itself, pure and simple, a freedom that is untouched by time or the savagery of history. Music can do that! And African American music in particular, forged in the crucible of terrible cruelty and suffering, feels to me particularly liberating because of the miracle of its beauty and improvisatory freedom arising despite centuries of oppression. There is in the human heart/soul something indestructible, and it was shining out in Durham, in a state where for centuries Black and Indigenous people had been forced to work in bondage, and where the "NC "1715 Code" prevented enslaved people from gathering in groups for any reason, including religious worship, and required white people to help capture escaped freedom-seeking enslaved people. " I went home that Earth Day deeply inspired by Khalid's powerful and gentle leadership, and his commitment to community music. And Bob Marley's Redemption Song started humming in my mind... "Africa was made strong by the hand of the almighty. We followed in this generation, triumphant." That's what that Unity In The Community drum circle felt like to me, triumphantly free. the Drums of Africa was born shortly afterwards in deep gratitude for the inspiration and joy I felt that day. I'm posting this in honor of Khalid and the other musicians and dancers who inspired me so deeply that day, and in honor of all the singers and musicians who powered the Civil Rights movement in the US. And I dedicate the song today also to the young people In Florida and around the country who in February of 2023 are standing up to injustice once again, in the form of suppression of African American history. I feel certain that as hard as humans may try, we cannot keep freedom down because it is what we all are at our core. So in the middle of oppression everywhere around the world, freedom rises, and rises, and rises again. And musical/artistic freedom, political freedom and spiritual freedom intertwine, elucidate and strengthen each other. During his 27 years in South Africa's prisons, Nelson Mandela spent a lot of time contemplating freedom, and he discovered, as many people do who dedicate themselves to justice, the spiritual freedom at the very core of our human desire for personal, cultural and political freedom. The freedom to be aware of being Love itself. President Mandela beautifully expressed his discovery:  "The hunger for my own freedom became
the greater hunger for the freedom of my people. The chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of my people. It was during those long lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated as surely as the oppressed. When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor, both." Nelson Mandela in Long Walk To Freedom  I wrote this while living on Terry Road in Hillsborough, NC. There was a long red clay driveway through woods that I loved, although in the rain or snow it sometimes was very slidey! Sadly, I did not have a camera then to take pictures of the crows that I wrote about in the song. The photo above is from the internet with my clumsy photoshopping the road a bit. Sorry I don't know who to credit for the photo, but my guess is that she or he had an experience something like mine. The vividness of the crows against the red clay, and in fact, the vividness of crows in general, woke us up to the beauty of the day. Blue Black Crows
© K Hannan 1995 Blue black crows on a red clay road Oh the morning sun Blue black crows on a red clay road Oh the morning sun Blue black crows on a red clay road Oh the morning sun.... I took my trouble to the riverside I had nowhere else to run Blue black crows on a red clay road Shine in the morning sun Blue black crows on a red clay road Shine in the morning sun Blue black crows on a red clay road Shine in the morning sun.... I lost my lover but I found my Love See what the Earth has done She twirled me high on a bluebird's wing See what the Earth has done She called my name in a whipoorwill's song See what the Earth has done She showed my face in the midnight moon See what the Earth has done Now my heart is full of the colors of the world My life has just begun My... life has just begun!  Bismillah Er Rahman Er Rahim Those words are the first verse of the first chapter of the Quran, encouraging humans to bring our awareness to God/Love/Compassion/Mercy before we begin anything. The translation for these words that I have learned in the Dances of Universal Peace is: "We begin in the name of Allah, most Merciful and Compassionate." This week I came across Neil Douglas Klotz's translation widened my sense of the Bismillah, and I did my best to express that experience in this new song that came through. I believe the word remembering is not about remembering with our minds, but re-membering in our bodies and spirits what we know in our core.... that the essence of the One is in us and in all things. Here is Mr. Klotz's beautiful translation: We begin by remembering the sound and the feeling of the One Being, the wellspring of Love We affirm that the next thing we experience shimmers with the light of the whole universe We Begin by Remembering
melody © K Hannan 2022 words based on Neil Douglas Klotz's translation of the Bismillah We begin by remembering the sound and the feeling of the One being the wellspring of Love the wellspring of One Love your Love my Love Bismillah Er Rachman Er Rahim Bismillah Er Rachman Er Rahim everything is shimmering everything is shimmering everything shimmers with the light of your Heart  In the early 1990's I wrote this song after reading about Guara Devi and the other brave women who stood up to loggers who had come to cut down forests nearby their town. The Chipko movement went on to spread across India and around the world.
Here's what Wikipedia says about the day when the villagers hugged the trees and saved their forest: Gaura Devi came to notice in 1974 when she was told by a young girl that local loggers were cutting the trees on 25 March. The men of Reni village had been tricked out of the village by news that the government was going to pay out compensation for land used by the army. And, on this situation, Gaura Devi and 27 other women decided to tackle the loggers. She confronted and challenged the men to shoot her instead of cutting down the trees and she described the forest as "Vandevta" (God of Jungle) and her maika (mother's house). Finally, with the help of other women they managed to halt the work of loggers by hugging the trees despite the abuse and threats of the armed loggers. The women of village and Gaura Devi kept guard of the trees that night and over the next three or four days other villages and villagers joined the action. The loggers left leaving the trees. After this incident, the Uttar Pradesh Government established a committee of experts to investigate the issue of felling of trees, and the lumber company withdrew its men from Reni. The committee stated that the Reni forest was an ecologically sensitive area and that no trees should be felled there. Thereafter the government of Uttar Pradesh placed a 10-year ban on all tree-felling in an area of over 1150 km Chipko Andolan © K Hannan 1991 In the town of Gopeshwar, in the north of India The lumber company came, came to cut the forest down When word got around, the people of the town, called a meeting right away They said we will go, put our arms around the trees They will not take these trees today Chorus Chipko Andolan Don't cut this forest down Living trees give us clean water and air Living roots grow deep in the hills And hold the soil there Living roots grow deep in the hills And hold the soil there The lumber company men had brought with them a gun They aimed it at the crowd, tried to frighten everyone They said, "Foolish people, you do not understand All the money that this forest will bring." The people were scared, but they held on to the trees And all together they began to sing Chorus One of the women there, very brave and very wise (Guara Devi) She stepped up to the gun, she had fire in her eyes She said, "You may call us fools, but we live upon this land And we know what a forest is worth And when your money's gone, these trees will still live on Reaching up into the sky and down into the earth Reaching up into the sky and down into the earth Chorus  Lal Ded is a beloved saint/mystic of North India who lived in the 14th Century. She sang her poems in the streets and sometimes left her clothing behind, hence she's sometimes known as Crazy Lalla. She was loved during her time, and she is loved today in India and around the world, because her beautiful poems speak directly and simply from her heart. This song is based on the lyrics of several translations of her poems. We danced this song at my CD release in 2013 and some good friend took the picture above. I do not remember who that was, sorry to say! The lyrics are by the North Indian 14th Century woman mystic poet named Lal Ded Thanks so much to the band and singers on this cut who really brought it alive: vocals - Billy Coleman, Donovan Zimmerman, Jude Casseday, Lauren Martell, Lea Clayton, Nick Alam, Ron Moss, Sheila Fleming electric guitar lead - Raymond Smith; bass - Xopher Thurston; dumbec - Jude Casseday; tamborine - Donovan Zimmerman; acoustic guitar and lead vocal- Kathleen Hannan The Soul Is New song, music and dance © Kathleen Hannan lyrics from poetry of Lal Ded, beloved 14th century woman saint from North India from translations/interpretations by Coleman Barks, Kathleen Hannan, N. Kotru & R. Nagar The soul is new and ever new again Like the moon, like the moon The soul is new and ever new again Like the moon, like the moon My teacher said just one thing, "Live in the soul!" When that was so I left my clothing by the road And began to dance clap: X X XX X X XX The soul is new and ever new again Like the moon, like the moon The soul is new and ever new again Like the moon, like the moon And I have seen the ocean always creating When I look deep into the truth of my own heart Even I am new!!! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Feel free to use the dance instructions and sheet music below to share this dance. 
 Depot Day © K Hannan 1981 St Augustine, FL. This is the saga of the Depot at Malaga St. Hot food, cold food, good food that’s hard to beat Hungry stomachs gather round for a special treat Y’all come down to the Depot, it’s time to eat! There’s art on the walls and on the ceiling When you walk in the door you get a comfortable feeling Baskets, and banners and flowers too Let you know good folks have been passin’ through Ned’s on the grill in his new straw hat He’s cooking somethin’ good you can bet on that And we’re all lookin’ cause he’s really bookin’ And when I say fast, I mean whizzin’ past Oh Depot Hooray hooray… Another Depot Day Out in back where the water swishes Let’s say hooray to the washers of the dishes Doris, Al and Loretta with smilin’ faces Keep those dishes movin’ through on a regular basis Cause it’s basic to the scene that the dishes be clean And they wash ‘em by hand, cause there ain’t no machine Lots of great people bring your food to you Leslie, Al Jill, Tom and Doris too Workin’ together in some tight situations Usin’ uncanny powers of concentration They make it look easy, they make it look fun Well let’s give em a cheer when the day is done Chorus For the cakes and the breads give Joy the credit Try Maureen’s lasagna, you won’t regret it And James helps clean at the end of the day When the customers have all gone on their way And on every customer’s smilin’ face You can see that the Depot is a magic place Where hugs and smiles are freely given Where people celebrate their daily livin’ Chorus It’s a meeting place of friends & neighbors It’s a circling energy of love’s best labors And now this song is nearly through Just want to say Depot, I love you Thank you Depot Hooray Hooray Another Depot Day *************************************** On Winter Solstice of 1980 I moved to St Augustine, Florida with my then partner Tom Santoni. We fell in love with the town, not in small part because of Ned Pollock and Joy Delia and all the other people who made the Malaga Street Depot restaurant shine. In the video above Ned & Joy tell some of the stories of the Depot. I wrote the song above for a Depot celebration in spring of 1981. Ned went on to run the Gypsy Cab Company in St Augustine, which is still winning awards for Ned's creative and oh so delicious cooking. And just tonight I found out that Ned is releasing a cookbook this week! I just ordered one. If you'd like some recipes of the kind of cooking you might wish you'll get to taste on a vacation in St Augustine, this is the book you are looking for. I just ordered one here: https://www.facebook.com/NedsKitchenCookbook
 Here's a beautiful song to sing or dance as you walk along. Pieces of Cloud
From Dances of Universal Peace repertoire lyrics: Rumi music: Susan Nechama Sheely and Oraea Varis This is how I would die into the love I have for you This is how I would die into the love I have for you As pieces of cloud dissolve in sunlight As pieces of cloud dissolve in sunlight La Illaha Il Allah, La Illaha Il Allah La Illaha Il Allah, La Illaha Il Allah Hu Allah Hu, Hu Allah Hu Hu Allah Hu, Hu Allah Hu |
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