Vox Populi

Because we need a break, and maybe you do too, here’s a potent new video to celebrate the debut album of The Resistance Revival Chorus, a collective of 60 women protest singers who seek “to breathe joy and song into the resistance.” The Chorus was formed in the wake of the 2017 Women’s March by seven women, who decided to try to use music to “maintain the anger, joy, and sisterhood of that day.” While their original idea was to “franchise” the Chorus – and at least ten choirs have been born – the New York chapter remains the most visible. Mostly comprised of professional musicians but including artists, actors, activists, filmmakers, they have performed at protests, rallies, and vigils, including at the southern border; earlier this week, they closed out a virtual, wide-ranging Honor Her Wish tribute event for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Their goal remains to lift up women’s voices in an industry where they’ve long been marginalized, and work to “change the tune” of this charged political moment. On Friday, they release their first album, “This Joy,” on Righteous Babe Records. The video accompanies the album’s soaring cover, featuring Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Rhiannon Giddens, of Woody Guthrie’s 1942 anthem, “All You Fascists Bound To Lose.” “I’m gonna tell you fascists/You may be surprised,” Woody sings. “The people in this world/Are getting organized.” Today, notes the Chorus, the same task faces us. “Let this single and the rest of our album be your soundtrack to defeating fascism at the polls Nov. 3,” they write. “They’re bound to lose,  because we are many, and they are few.”

Text by Abby Zimet writing for Common Dreams.