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Making art in the wake of violence: introducing The Angel Band Project
The exiled Russian poet Joseph Brodsky, a survivor of the Siege of Leningrad, was once asked, "With all of the horrors occurring in the world today, how can you write poetry?" To which Brodsky is said to have replied, "How do you eat breakfast?" His response was part challenge, part statement of fact. The creation of art in the wake of violence was, at least for Brodsky, as essential as air: the way that he made sense of his own painful history, the means by which he confronted the damage still being inflicted on citizens all over the world.
When we first heard the story of rape and murder victim Teresa Butz, and as we've watched her extraordinarily musical family (her brother is Grammy and Tony winner Norbert Butz, Jr.) come together to create a Voices and Faces Project benefit album in her honor, Joseph Brodsky's words came back to us. The Angel Band Project -- like Brodsky's poetry - has the feel of the essential. It's an album that honors Teresa Butz, and challenges the rest of us to fight for a world in which violence in all of its forms finally ends.
For those who have lived through or lost someone to violence, the past can seem ever-present (and perhaps it should). The gift of music is not that it helps us to forget, but that it allows us endure. Thank you in advance for supporting our work by downloading or purchasing this powerful tribute to Teresa.
