Local View: Don't suppress artists; they must speak truth to power – Duluth News Tribune

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There were no poets at the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.
World-acclaimed Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt performed at the College of St. Scholastica’s Mitchell Auditorium April 1; she had been scheduled to appear two years earlier but canceled due to illness. Hewitt commented on Facebook that her visa, which cost $4,880, allowed easy entry into the country, and a fellow Canadian commented, “Perhaps they don’t have the nerve to detain and torture a well-known Canadian … but it seems that travel to the U.S. is not a sensible practice at the minute. … I can definitely see why you would have risked entry into the fascist state — I just hope that we will all do our bit to let the U.S. voters know that the election of this government has far reaching effects and we don’t want to be a part of it.” Another Canadian commented, “I feel that music is not part of this recent antagonism. For me, music lovers are ‘all on the same side!’”
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There were no poets at the inauguration on Jan. 20.
One hundred years ago marked the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance, a decade-long flourishing of Black arts and artists. Coming as it did in the wake of widespread vitriol and violence by white people against Black Americans, the Renaissance proudly proclaimed Black dignity, Black excellence, Black defiance, Black exceptionalism, even Black joy. Black art spoke truth to power.
One Black poet, Countee Cullen, wrote in 1934: “Now will the poets sing,— / Their cries go thundering / Like blood and tears / Into the nation’s ears, / Like lightning dart / Into the nation’s heart. / Against disease and death and all things fell, / And war, / Their strophes rise and swell / To jar / The foe smug in his citadel.” Countee Cullen was gay.
Last month, a performance by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., scheduled for May 1 at the Kennedy Center, was canceled with little explanation .
Last year, the United States Marine Band hosted a contest for teenage musicians to appear with the band this spring; 30 musicians were chosen. They were Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Indian. In February, the concert was canceled due to an executive order eliminating diversity programs. In response, many veterans of military bands came together in March to give these silenced musicians an opportunity to perform. One of them was 18-year-old Rashab Jain, who said on “60 Minutes ,” “If we’re a society that’s suppressing art, we’re a society that is afraid of what it might reveal about itself. If we’re suppressing music, we’re suppressing emotions, we’re suppressing expression, we’re suppressing vulnerability, we’re suppressing the very essence of what makes us human. We are devaluing our own humanity. We are degrading our own humanity.”
At such a time as this, artists must speak truth to power.
In February, Pope Francis wrote, “Artists … are called to be witnesses to the radical vision of the beatitudes, … give voice to the voiceless, (and) transform pain into hope.”
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The remarkable young Black poet, Amanda Gorman, who inspired the nation at the inauguration of President Joe Biden just a little over four years ago, spoke with poignant prescience toward the end of her poem, “The Hill We Climb:” “We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation, because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation. / Our blunders become their burdens. / But one thing is certain. / If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy, and change our children’s birthright.”
The Rev. David Tryggestad of Duluth is a retired pastor and a contributor to the News Tribune Opinion page.