By NEIL ZOLOT
MELROSE – The commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday got underway on the eve of the holiday with a free concert by The Folk Collective at the Unitarian-Universalist Church on West Emerson Street, Sunday, January 14 at 7 p.m. “Preserving the legacy of fighters for freedom like Dr. King is important,” musician Almira Ara said. “He was revolutionary when it came to creating a community and unifying poor people in a community, which is why he died. Community is the only way changes can be made. It’s important to say that.”
“I like celebrating someone who fought for freedom, especially at the day of his birth,” musician and Malden resident Lydia Harrell said about the concert and MLK Day. “It’s important to have discussions with people. I think he would be happy to know conversations are still happening, but would also be disappointed about some things.”
“To be able to stand in this place, united, is valuable, especially to remember someone who fought for us,” musician Cliff Notez said of the concert.
Folk Collective shows are part of the church’s Opening Doors initiative, sponsored, in part, by its anti-racism team. “Music can be a powerful tool to open up conversation,” group leader, Opening Doors co-organizer and Melrose resident Alastair Moock said. “The idea is to engage audiences and open up dialogue around hard subjects. Music lets us get our foot in the door.”
“Melrose has become a community open to everyone,” Opening Doors co-organizer and Melrose resident Stacey Babb added. “Events like these help make it possible.”
The concert consisted mostly of original politically motivated folk songs interspersed with discussion among the musicians about their influences and experiences as musicians. The group sprung from the folk music scene at Passim in Cambridge and some of the discussions centered on inclusivity or lack thereof in folk music circles. “Folk music represents a diverse culture and has roots in black music,” Moock said. “Over the years it became something else and entry into it by people of color was hard. Passim was trying to deal with this and was spinning its wheels. The Folk Collective is a way of opening it up,” a reference to the classification and perception of folk music as acoustic music played by privileged suburban white liberals in jeans.
“You might not think of black people are as connected to folk music as they might be, but the history of folk music comes from Africa,” Notez added.
Musician Kim Moberg pointed out folk music is all music of the people regardless of its style.
A highlight of the show was Harrell singing “Happy Birthday,” a song in honor of King and MLK Day written by Stevie Wonder. “My mom raised me on Stevie Wonder, but I didn’t know the song was about King, even though his name is in the song,” she told the audience of about 60. Its means a lot to me now that I know what the song is about.”
Moock pointed out efforts by Wonder and the popularity of the song “is largely responsible for the holiday.”
In one of the interludes between songs he asked some musicians, all of whom were born after King died, like himself, about their perceptions of King’s work and words. “I see it in radical acts,” Ara answered.
“I’m still hearing him in music,” Notez added. “A lot of musicians are preaching what he had to say.”
Moock feels King’s legacy has been diluted. “We’ve put him on a pedestal and taken him out of time,” he said. “When he died he was the least popular and the most hated person in America. Now the edges have been worn off and politicians who work against what he stood for still use his words.”
Among those attending was Beth Yourgrau, a member of the church’s anti-racist team and a Melrose resident. She called the concert “important in building relationships.”
Her husband Tuggelin, a member of Temple Beth Shalom, said the concert was “absolutely wonderful and celebratory.” He felt the musicians were “fabulous and open hearted.”
On Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 15 there was a performance by the MLK Choir at the church. They have performed in the city’s annual MLK Day celebrations for more than a decade.