CLIMATE ACTIVIST, GRANDFATHER, and professional cellist John Mark Rozendaal blocked the entrance to Citibank headquarters this summer to protest one of the globe’s biggest funders of fossil fuel expansion. Hugging a fire-engine red instrument, he played a few bars of Bach and was promptly arrested. “The purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind,” he said to the crowd, “to make it susceptible to Divine influences.” His cello bears the inscription: “This machine loves, serves + protects life.”
Small courageous acts of joy are proliferating. In this issue, Rev. Moya Harris quotes rapper Chuck D to confront troublesome forces in this election season and Chris Crawford, a Catholic at Protect Democracy, urges Christians to become poll workers.
While we mourn the passing of civil rights activist, historian, and song leader Bernice Johnson Reagon, we are grateful for associate editor Josina Guess’ celebration of her life. Reagon’s singular voice demanded that we remember our freedom saints, of whom she is now one. Liz Cooledge Jenkins, reflecting on burnout and social activism, reminds us: “Joy, it turns out, is essential to the work of justice.”
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