Planting seeds of hope and compassion is the most important thing we can do in the face of oppression, negativity, terror, and injustice. Little compares to the powerful spiritual force of joining voices to harmonize in songs of freedom. It’s a transformative occasion when done with the fullness of our being that creates a sense of communal solidarity. We become part of something larger than ourselves. When speaking of the Black spiritual musical tradition Mertz says, “You could take away someone’s language, you could take away someone’s clothing, their money, their culture, the world they had come from, but you could never take away the ability to create a song… all of this is about community. It’s also a survival technique… And yet we sing it with joy. And we sing it with ebullience, buoyancy, and abundance. The music teaches us that through adversity there is strength to be found.”