FINDING REFUGE — ART SONGS FOR SYRIANS IN EXILE
Tara Khozein and I are making a new album of art songs. It will live up to the high standards of artistry that you’ve come to expect from us. Here’s the story:
Finding Refuge tells the story of five Syrians who left their war-torn homes, seeking safety in neighboring countries. The cycle begins with poem constructed from the words of Huda Khalaf a 32 year-old mother whose husband was shot and killed by the Assad army:
No words can express what I was feeling,
No words can tell what I still feel.
I lost my husband; my sons, their father.
We must walk in the dark.
After burying her husband, Huda fled Syria with her children and her in-laws. It was a harrowing journey, much of it undertaken in darkness, over the course of three nights.
These are stories of resilience and of tremendous bravery. They are also stories of great loss and great suffering. By retelling these narratives in music, we connect to the thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams, and losses of individual Syrian refugees. For us, the war story is no longer dominated by the number of people drowning in the Aegean Sea, the bombings of schools and hospitals, or the cease-fires overturned – it is now about the lives of those who have survived and the lives that can still be spared.
Please join us as we sing, play, think, speak, and act in support of those who have left their war-torn homes to find a more livable future for their families. Thank you!