music for the children of the half light--"my beautifuls hold tight"

recently i have stocked up on a whole bunch of music by baha'i artists. there is SO MUCH GOOD STUFF out there now!! WOW! my newest passion is the music of the Dawnbreaker Collective. When I first heard their music a few months ago I think I was so taken aback by the pure hiphopness of it that I couldn't quite accept it as spiritual music. Now that I have the cd I just CANNOT get enough of it! It is truly truly inspired art. Just listen carefully carefully to the incredible genius of the poetry, to the rich use of allusions to Baha'i Scripture, to the powerful transformative messages being conveyed to the hip hop generation and to the rest of the world who may dare to listen. It is so fresh and so exciting.

Furthermore, I feel that no other music could be more suited as a battle cry for the "spiritual warriors" who are doing battle on the toughest frontlines in the world among the neglected victims of oppression, inspiring, and raising individuals up in their earliest years of youth to take their place in the struggle for the spiritualization and unification of the planet. We need them so much and all the receptivity they have to calls of the spirit. We cannot do it without them.

Here is a little documentary of the making of Volume 1 of Arise

And here is a video of "O Son of Being"--please please open your heart and mind to the POWER and beauty of the Baha'i Writings delivered in this medium.

There are so many tracks that i love on this cd. One that I find particularly moving is a poem recited alongside the singing of a prayer by Baha'u'llah

"Prayers like shoes" (Ruth Foreman, Tara Ellis, Jamey Jaz)

i wear prayers like shoes
pull em on quiet each morning
take me through the uncertainty
don't know what might knock me off course
sit up in bed
pull on the the right then the left
before shower
before teeth

they were my mamma's gift to walk me through this life
she wore strong ones
the kind steady your ankles
i know cos when her man left
her children gone
her eldest son without goodbye
they the only ones keep her standin'
i saw her still standin'

mamma passed on some things to me
my smile
sense of discipline
my subtle behind
but best she passed on
"girl you go to God and get you some good shoes
cos this life ain't steady ground"

now i don't wear hers
you take em with you you know
but i suspect they made by the same company
pull em on each morning
first the right then the left
best piece o' dress i got

"I have risen this morning by Thy grace, O my God, and left my home trusting wholly in Thee, and committing myself to Thy care. Send down, then, upon me, out of the heaven of Thy mercy, a blessing from Thy side, and enable me to return home in safety even as Thou didst enable me to set out under Thy protection with my thoughts fixed steadfastly upon Thee.
There is none other God but Thee, the One, the Incomparable, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise."

pull em on each morning
first the right then the left
best piece o' dress i got

i wear prayers like shoes
like shoes