Hello my name is Rodney Whitaker.
I picked a piece that I wrote 20 years ago 
for the great pianist John Lewis.
And I wrote it for him as a prayer.
I selected this piece primarily because
I wanted it to offer it as a prayer to our nation
and especially to our students of color, 
and community of color
Just so that they, in the resistance and to fight for
freedom and equality, that we're able to 
also reflect and meditate in prayer
because we need as much of 
that as possible, we need wholeness.
In this piece it's really
about meditation, I think about,
when I think about performing this piece
I think about our ancestors that have come before us people like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.
And freedom fighters like 
Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman.
And what they must have had on their
mind and what they must have reflected on
in the struggle for freedom and equality.
I think the the most important 
discussion that we have to have
is that all people deserve to be free,
and we have never
in the 400 plus years of history in America.
Black people don't live with the freedom that other
Americans are afforded, and so the
discussion has to be about
equality, and freedom, and justice.
So in the civil rights struggle there's so
many musicians that were inspired to
write music during this time,
but one that I suggest folks listen to is a piece called "We Insist, Freedom Now"
written by Max Roach and Oscar Brown Jr.
which featured vocalist Abby Lincoln.
And in this piece it's an examination of three things:
one is slavery in America,
the freedom struggle in South Africa,
and then the Civil Rights Movement.
And in this piece, there's a prayer protest piece
there's so many things that are examined,
issues of slavery, issues of equality, Juneteenth.
And so I think this piece is the most 
profound written from that period.
And i think it will
help us all to understand better, it's
like a book it's like reading a book
on human rights and civil rights.
This video is important
for the College of Music primarily
because it makes a statement
that we're committed to equality and freedom for all.
And that black lives matter.
And I think, that it is important during
these times that we enlist allies.
Because how things have always changed in
America is when people stand together.
Not black against white, but black and
white against racial injustice and inequality.
