An Invite to STILL, WE RISE

by Ernie McCray

STILL, WE RISE.
We, being my people,
Black folks.
Folks out here
living lives of
forever trying
to just be Americans,
free,
de-colonialized,
so to speak.
But, hey,
STILL, WE RISE.

And STILL, WE RISE happens to be a show of poetry and jazz that I put together with some friends: actor extraordinaire, John Tessmer, of the La Jolla Theatre Ensemble; multi-talented actor/director, Yolanda Marie Franklin, with whom I’ve worked before; one of the great bassists on the planet, Rob Thorsen.

It happens on Sunday, June 27th, at 4pm at St. James-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in La Jolla, 743 Prospect – outside hopefully – across from the Museum of Contemporary Art.

And what you can expect to see is Yolanda and I digging into the marrow and soul of the words of my man, Langston Hughes, the inimitable Sister Maya Angelou, Amanda Gorman, the young woman who shared a poem that sang at Joe Biden’s inauguration, a poet of a generation – with a few of mine thrown in.

And the music is woven in by the Rob Thorsen Trio, a who’s who cast of local musicians, with Rob on bass, Alexander Anderson on keyboards, and percussionist Richard Sellers. These guys can do it.

It’s going to be nice. We pieced this show together in a spirit of love, in brotherhood and sisterhood with Juneteenth, both a celebration of emancipation and resilience and continually rising.

And for me, personally, helping put this program together with such talented artists has helped me immensely in my slow journey back to normalcy.

And anyone helping us celebrate would, I’d venture to say, come away feeling the same way.

I truly feel that way.

There’s a $15 suggested donation to support the artists and the work of the La Jolla Theatre Ensemble but that’s not what this is all about as it’s pay-what-one-can.