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The Transformations Suite

by Samora Pinderhughes

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Euda Best
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Euda Best I am so grateful to KUVO Denver and August Greene for introducing me to the artivism of Samora Pinderhughes! This is epic, moving, eye and heart opening werk! I will play this music on KGNU and talk about it to anyone who will listen. I look forward to seeing this music performed live sooner than later. In the meantime, I live thanks! Favorite track: Cycles.
BG Beats van Sosha Af'
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BG Beats van Sosha Af' I thank you for the peace, beauty and enlightenment your music gives. The is definitely a force that drives your music. Sending you mad love all the way from South Africa Thank you. I wish i had this in CD or Vinyl for my children's children to play it in the future. Thank you (Ke a leboga) Favorite track: Ascension.
KUNIHIKO IWADARE
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KUNIHIKO IWADARE Great Pinderhughes family! Favorite track: Momentum, pt. 1.
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1.
We shall be changed In the twinkling of an eye ...shall be changed (2x) Give us justice... Now! Give us justice... Now! (2x)
2.
History 08:24
We built you Sam In tears and sweat and blood blisters and sores Sun-rays piercing through our gaze leaving holes in our todays murdering any hope for tomorrow What happened to that God you spoke of? punched down my throat! kicked in my face! I ain't seen him in your eyes lately I ain't heard him in your words You even walkin like the devil these days with a sly shift a crooked grin smirking at the dollar signs of tomorrow sealing your eyes from the horrors of today Don't you choke on that hate you cooked in that awful scented kitchen of pain? Tell me why you lied, and was it worth it The culture you called stool stepped on and then stole The malignant markings you left on the souls of folk Scratching for breath in the land that calls them Pariah for trying to breathe The second hand murders you had a first hand in creating The love you sold smashed and shoved into the hulls of ships To grow rancid, rot, and fester to ooze, bubble, and puss to die in the darkness So, Tell me - was it worth it?
3.
Cycles 10:03
The sun slapped me last night - Rippled me to the edge of earth Where angels fly with broken wings and love with shattered hearts Moonwalk in their minds to the sounds of teardrops Beating Michael and Marley, Mayfield and Marvin Rest in peace What’s going on? You can’t teach soul like that You can’t get this funk not to stink So you just better breathe deep And rock your head Move your hips Find God in the drum Revolution in the bass And make freedom look sexy tonight The sun slapped me last night - Rippled me to the edge of earth Where angels resurrect newspaper clippings with God in the time before times When Halos shined through clouds like north stars to freedom Guided by the sounds of our flesh cutting through air Listening to the words of ancestors beating against our skin Using scars on backs as maps We dream of better places Where history remembers our name and the future’s born in our favor So one time for the brothers and sisters in school challenging rules for better tomorrows Fighting traditions and yesterdays Serpent tongues and false smiles You are evolution in tears and sweat You are everything they read about but are too afraid to see: The beating at the protest The innocent man behind bars The pain of the verdict after the cops kill a brother Or stick him with a plunger Ask your questions, Demand your answers, Do not let them fade your soul So two times for the preachers not scared to preach the truth Standing tall in ghettos, praying God blows his breath around these parts Cause summertime heat has folk feeling violent Saying it’s just too hot to believe God cares So they bottle their frustration in beers And wait to see those eyes Feel that gaze Something, Lord, make me a sign Let me know you still care! The sun slapped me last night - Rippled me to the edge of earth Where forgotten angels are ready for repatriation Too proud to cry, so they fish fry On corners and stoops Backyards and barbershops Arguing the world isn’t round For we are the children of her dark corners You will not fade our soul. (Saul Williams:) I surrendered my beliefs and found myself at the tree of life injecting my story into the veins of leaves only to find that stories like forests are subject to seasons poem written by Jeremie Harris
4.
5.
These questions must be asked: Why are there millions of poor people in America? Who owns the banks? Who owns the prisons, and who are its occupants? Why do some have billions, while most struggle to survive? We can’t sit idly by while some profit off of the pain of others While gates both visible and invisible separate the wealthy from the hungry When the consequences of these barriers result in everything from flooded homes to broken dreams. When death is a cost we have grown accustomed to bearing, we cannot compromise in our pursuit of justice. We cannot retreat in the face of inequity, We cannot ignore the patterns of brutality, We will NOT be silenced! . . . . The depression is coming in heavy. I can feel it from all corners, shape-shifting around me Betrayal lays like a heavy fog in the air I breathe I know I’m a target... but I must keep moving. . . . . On this blistering August day, we stand face to face with our beloved country, as we have done so many times before, and demand: Your very fabric must be changed! YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN! And as our final hour draws ever, ever closer, it seems to me, in my sanctified imagination, that we cry... that we cry... NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW!!!!!!!!
6.
Ascension 11:22
We who feel lava in our eyes and hearts Find it hard not to shake or scream The cool that we have learned melts quickly, Receding into the false air that kills us to breathe In lost languages of love, With eyes dim and souls open, We pray freedom and truth Hear my cry oh lord - for America sins as if she knows not what she does Send us word in the trees and the birds For they stand toughest to the wind and touch closest to the sky Let us find strength in the charge of our blood and the chill of our skin We stand on broken glass with bloody feet Ready to run Revolt with hot hearts of courage, tired of confusion Give our thoughts wings, Wrap us tight in rings of resistance - and let us fly

about

THE TRANSFORMATIONS SUITE

Continuing in the tradition of artists like Bob Marley, Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye, Billie Holiday, and Tupac Shakur, THE TRANSFORMATIONS SUITE paints a musical picture of the current state of social inequality and injustice in the United States and beyond.

Samora Pinderhughes has spent the past five years writing, recording, and producing the T Suite, which combines music, theatre, and poetry to examine the radical history of resistance within communities of the African diaspora. The themes of the suite move through five distinct phases: Transformation, History, Cycles, Momentum (parts 1 and 2), and Ascension.

Within this framework, the project connects contemporary issues, such as the prison industrial complex and the Black Lives Matter movement, with the history of revolutionary movements of color.

The Transformations Suite has been performed throughout South America and the U.S., at venues including the American Museum of Natural History, the Harlem Arts Festival, Juilliard, UC Irvine, NYU, Joe’s Pub, the Jazz Gallery, MoMA, and Columbia University. Most recently, the project was featured as part of Blackout for Human Rights’ #MLKNow event which was viewed by over 500,000 people and trended #1 on Twitter.

Centered in the belief that there is a soundtrack to every revolution, the vision for The Transformations Suite is that it will foster dialogue on social justice issues throughout the world, show how art can create social change, contribute to the powerful growing movement on behalf of black lives around the country, and empower all people – especially youth – to make their voices heard.

For more information, visit www.transformationssuite.com

credits

released October 12, 2016

music by Samora Pinderhughes
words by Jeremie Harris and Samora Pinderhughes
additional words by Saul Williams and Tupac Shakur

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about

Samora Pinderhughes New York, New York

Samora Pinderhughes is a composer, filmmaker, and interdisciplinary artist known for striking intimacy and carefully crafted, radically honest lyrics alongside high-level musicianship and cutting visuals. He works in the tradition of the black surrealists, those who bend word, sound, and image towards the causes of revolution. ... more

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