Somewhere Project Concert Tonight!

Our songwriting workshop from Carnegie Hall is excited to be premiering three new songs tonight at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse. The concert features the Sarah Elizabeth Charles Quartet. Here's an intro to one of the lyrics on the program: 

"Each week we read to each other and we sing together. We pick a topic to study and investigate it, and then we work on writing new songs. This year the song “Somewhere” has been our touchstone. Out of that common inspiration, the workshop has created lots of new songs, all different, all from individual concerns. We chose three from the many to be heard tonight, and you’ll hear one of those songs now. It’s by Lucy Galarza. It came out of her concern for immigrants. Hearing all the immigrant bashing that has been part of the Republican campaign for President this year, Lucy thought about what that meant to her, and she created a song that pleads for tolerance and salutes the immigrants she knows as MODERN DAY HEROES."

Modern Day Heroes (Tell Me I Belong)


Seeking a home in a land where I wasn’t born
Please tell me I belong, oh tell me I belong
Wasn’t born in the land of the free
Had to leave everything to find it here

CHORUS

We are refugees, we are immigrants
I’ve lost my innocence, I’m not ignorant
The modern day heroes
It’s not true when they say we’re just sinners


Don’t wanna be the orphan of the world
Please tell me I belong, oh tell me I belong
Can I trust you to share the burdens I bear?
When life is uncertain tell me you care


Don’t forget your grandmother’s father came through Ellis Island
And without him you wouldn’t be here, but now you belong here
Please understand my brothers and sisters won’t survive in Syria
And no one is a devil because of an expired visa


We all breathe the same air
Created by a God who listens to our prayer
He didn’t create maps or borders
But a pure love without borders