Each year when Thanksgiving rolls around I think back to a year when I had no roof over my head, and no table for food. That was a long time ago, and yet it often seems like only yesterday. I give thanks not only for food during this season, but for those who gave me shelter during those hard times.
I woke up with the simple words and melody of Natalie Merchant’s song, “Kind & Generous” in my head. It isn’t always easy to remember to have gratitude when things look bleak, when going through loss and grief or fear about the future.
It is also easy to forget to say—a simple thank you.
You've been so kind and generous I don't know how you keep on giving
for your kindness I'm in debt to you
for your selflessness, my admiration and for everything you've done
You know I'm bound ... I'm bound to thank you for it
Every area in our nation has artists who have not only been dedicated to their craft, but who have used it to support issues that affect us all. In my part of the world in New York State’s middle region, we have, among others, singer-activist Natalie Merchant, who some of you may know from her lyrics for the green anthem, “Poison in the Well,” sung with 10,000 Maniacs. With issues in front of us like those of Standing Rock, and with Flint, her song from 1989 rings even more true today.
Merchant has used her music to draw attention to many issues in our area, and globally—the environment, fracking and clean water, as well as to issues close to home like domestic violence.
Domestic violence is an issue that crosses the lines of race, ethnicity, class. It is happening all around you—every day. This short, powerful documentary speaks to this issue using narrative, testimony and music.
*Note: Trigger warning for survivors.
In this short film directed by musician-activist Natalie Merchant, a group of women living in the Mid-Hudson region of New York State respond to the crisis of domestic violence in their community with compassion and creativity. Musicians, advocates, criminal prosecutors, victims and survivors all take to the stage, illuminating the darkness surrounding this public health epidemic. Filmed on June 2, 2013 at The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard College. All proceeds generated by this concert were donated to domestic violence shelters: Grace Smith House Poughkeepsie, NY and The Washbourne House, Kingston, NY.
Having been subjected to extreme domestic violence in the past, winding up homeless and in a shelter is something that I will never forget. I will always be thankful for those people, women and men who were there to provide both services and support. I am thankful to have survived.
I can remember being thankful when I got help—to have a roof over my head, a bar of soap and a place to shower.
To all of those people who got me through what was the roughest period in my life—I say thank you.
In the years following being without a home, I found a way to give back, by gathering a group of people with no place to go, no welcoming family, to come and share a meal in my tiny Lower East Side apartment in NYC which was across the street from a homeless shelter. A majority of those who came to help cook and share food were gay, transgender and HIV positive. Their families didn’t want them at the same table or touching dishes. Most had also been victims of family and partner abuse.
Today, living in New York’s Hudson Valley, on a small farm, life is superficially different from the noisy streets of lower Manhattan, but the issues confronting the population here are the same.
We have acute poverty, we have homelessness, we have HIV-AIDS and we have domestic abuse and violence.
Thank you—to my neighbors who share what they have from the bounty of their small farms and harvests with those who have not.
Thank you to all those who gather here, at Daily Kos, to highlight issues, to fight for what is right, and to help and support other members of the community when times get rough. You know who you are, and you are too many to name.
Thank you Markos, and staff for providing this space and platform from which we make it happen.
Merchant puts it so simply:
I want to thank you show my gratitude
my love and my respect for you I want to thank you
I want to...
Thank you thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you thank you