On Monday, January 20, 2025, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president in front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
The evening prior — in stark contrast to the presidential inauguration ceremony — a group of unapologetic feminists will take the stage for "A Woman's Song for Peace" in the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.
The show, featuring Krissy Keefer's all-women, multi-racial dance company Dance Brigade, and live performances and music from Holly Near, Ferron, Christelle Durandy and others, is a protest of ongoing conflicts and social injustices in the U.S. and beyond.
"The main inspiration for 'A Woman's Song for Peace' happened, actually, in July [2024], before Kamala Harris was replacing Joe Biden. No matter who was running for president, war — nuclear war, international war - looms and is present, and so it was an effort to have a voice against that, regardless of who was going to win the election," Keefer shared with the Bay Area Reporter in a Zoom video call.
Keefer, 71, is the artistic director of "A Woman's Song for Peace" and co-founder of the San Francisco-based, social change-centered Dance Brigade (fellow founder: Nina Fichter). The performance troupe is headquartered at Dance Mission Theater, a Mission neighborhood dance center offering youth and adult programs, of which Keefer is the executive director.
On the Dance Mission website, it's described as "an artist-driven, feminist organization dedicated to building community, addressing social justice issues, exploring cultural identities, promoting inclusivity, and creating a more peaceful world through collective action."
Touring
Keefer, the Dance Brigade et al. will embark on a West Coast seven-city "A Woman's Song for Peace" tour once the new year gets underway, with the tour itself an ode to Dance Brigade's fiftieth anniversary season. The first show takes place January 9 in Eugene, Oregon, followed by same-state stops in Portland (1/10) and Medford (1/12). Then they'll travel to the Golden State, taking the stage in Ukiah (1/15), Santa Rosa (1/17), and Aptos (1/18), before the final date (1/19) in San Francisco.
"For the last 50 years, we've been doing this work. And the idea was to go back to those cities which we all spent a lot of time in and try to see who of us was still alive and ready to come together to remind ourselves, if necessary, what our original instincts were and who we are today," said Keefer, who is bisexual.
Starting things off in Eugene is fitting in that it's where Keefer formed the Wallflower Order Dance Collective, the iconic feminist dance company, in 1975. (Dance Brigade, formed in the Bay Area in 1984, post-Wallflower Order's disbanding.) And in terms of "coming together," Keefer, Near, Ferron and Durandy have a long herstory of shared experiences, such as the Wallflower Order joining Near on tour throughout California, performances at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (1976-2015), and various collaborations.
Their work, past and present, is also a testament to their mutual interest and advocacy revolving around social change and an opposition to war in all its forms.
Women against war
"When we talk about 'women against war,' some people are really talking about the traditional identification of war. We're talking about the biggest identification you can make about war and violence. It can be the fact that we have more Black men in prison in this country than anywhere else in the world, or it can be the poverty in the Appalachians. There are all kinds of war," Near said in a Zoom call with the B.A.R.
Near, 75, is a singer-songwriter, social change activist, actress, and teacher. The prolific musician's discography includes "Hang in There" (1973), her first album; "Early Warnings" (2011); and most recently, "2018," released in the same year.
"I think that everybody in this quartet would agree that each of us thinks about war as something much different than just a battle between one nation and another — that it's a whole way in which our society is built around the concept of war, power over, and the patriarchy and the idea that killing each other is the only solution to conflict. And I think we're all committed to supporting other forms of conflict resolution," she said.
Near pointed out that conflicts can and do occur at the local, regional, national and international level, bringing to mind the second-wave feminist notion of, 'the personal is the political.'
"It means we're dealing with gender issues, we're dealing with racism, we're dealing with class issues, we're dealing with a laundry list of things that affect our lives, but we are dealing with it by looking through a feminist lens, a female lens," she remarked.
"That's a big part of what women's music was, but the continuation of that is now that we have a lot more gender participation of people who identify differently than just as lesbian feminists. So it's a great big fat pot of ideas that will be reflected in the songs and in the dances. This show will reflect a very big image of being against wars, being against the violence against humanity, the violence against our integrity," she further explained.
Moment by moment
Setlist-wise, "A Woman's Song for Peace" will include a couple of covers and a repertoire of Near's songs and Canadian singer-songwriter and poet Ferron's.
"Our war starts inside. And so some of the songs that I will sing have to do with my questioning, my needs or struggles, or the things that hurt me, or how I decided to handle things that hurt me. And I think of war on a really small level of day-by-day, moment-by-moment, and I hope we can bring some of that to the show," Ferron, an out lesbian, said during a Zoom call with the B.A.R.
Ferron, 72, has released a multitude of albums, spanning from her 1977 self-titled "Ferron" to "Thunder & Lightening" in 2013. She shared that she'll be performing "It Won't Take Long," from her album, "Shadows on a Dime" (1984).
"Ironically, I'm singing a song that I wrote in 1983. It doesn't seem to go away, and it also doesn't seem to manifest itself completely. ... It really holds up and it has great power," she commented.
The eight-plus minute song is describable as a call-to-action, an open criticism of capitalism, and so much more. (full lyrics: www.genius.com)
"It's the song that encompasses the biggest vision I've ever heard in a song. It's an extraordinary song," Near said of Ferron's work.
Community
For Ferron, the Dance Brigade tour is a means to be among community: "I just want to go out with Krissy and Holly and Christelle and all the dancers to remind us that we need to belong — I think it's a beautiful word [i.e. 'belong'], and it's a verb, really, and it needs to have action to it. I also want to go because it's, for me, probably my last hurrah to try to move around with a bunch of like-minded women."
Each "A Woman's Song for Peace" show will close with the performers joining together for "Gracias a la Vida," a version of which was originally performed at Dance Brigade's fortieth anniversary celebration in January 2017, held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, according to Keefer.
"It was originally created in 2017 when Trump came on and was doing so much demonization around the border and people coming across the border without acknowledging how much damage the United States did in Central America to the economy and the land and all that precipitated the migration to the States that's trying to happen," Keefer explained.
The finale will include standout songs from the 1960s and 1970s, such as Neil Young's "Southern Man," Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam" and Arlo Guthrie's "Deportee."
"With all of those songs, if you look really into the lyrics, it's the same issues we're dealing with today that haven't moved a muscle. That's what's kind of overwhelming and traumatizing. For me, it was, 'What songs have been our anthems, with issues that we are still dealing so deeply with right now, that are so current?,'" said Keefer.
Resonating
The music director of "A Woman's Song for Peace," Afro-Caribbean jazz artist and composer Christelle Durandy, echoed her colleague's sentiments about past songs resonating with the current political climate, and of history not only repeating itself but also of circumstances remaining unchanged.
"Krissy used the word 'overwhelmed.' I'm enraged. I'm angry. I'm very angry. So putting the songs together was, certainly for me, not bringing new composition. There's not a part of me that thought for a second, 'Oh, let's write new music for 'Gracias a la Vida,'" she said in a Zoom call with the B. A.R.
Durandy, 50, fronts the Afro-Caribbean ensemble Sanktet and the Grammy-winning Pacific Mambo Orchestra. A Bay Area resident, she also contributes to the all-female music collective Cocomama as a writer, arranger and performer. (www.cocomamamusic.com)
"Using the anthems that were played before, for me, that's what's important. It's [a way of saying], 'Your story mattered, and we're going to keep it alive. We're going to keep sharing your words because your words mattered at the time and they matter now, and people need to know,'" said Durandy.
"There needs to be a reminder of what those songs meant then and what they mean today and what they will mean in 20 years. I really needed to reinforce that. I think we all need to reinforce that," she added.
Belonging
Durandy, as with Keefer, Near and Ferron, emphasized the importance of feeling a sense of belonging, of knowing like-minded and similarly identifying people are out there, even if at times it seems they aren't.
"I'm Black, androgynous, and I am conditioned to hide. I'm conditioned to be careful. ... I feel that going into the cities like this, [we'll be connecting] with the people in the audience and showing them that there's a way that we can be together, in that instant. ... When we say we're not alone, we are alone. I feel alone. But when I'm with Holly, Krissy, Ferron, and all the dancers, I won't be," she said.
Seven times, in seven different cities and theaters, audience members will have the opportunity to collectively listen, sing along, clap, cheer, and give thought to the past, present, and pending future.
Ferron, for one, is hopeful: "What I'm banking on for all of us — through dance, through talks, through singing, through the music — is that we're going to create a resonance, a vibration that is going to be stronger than the negativity of war."
Keefer added, "We ride at midnight."
'A Woman's Song for Peace' on tour and January 19 at the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave. The reserved-seating show starts at 6 p.m. and runs two-and-a-half hours (with a twenty-minute intermission); $30-$50, including all fees.
www.cityboxoffice.com
www.hollynear.com
www.dancemissiontheater.org
www.christelledurandy.com
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