Jewish rocker enlists choirs and activists to fight prejudice
A new anti-bias initiative being launched in St. Louis will utilize the power of music to engage teens in the work of breaking down bias and prejudice. Tear Down the Walls, a unique, new community initiative, is being presented by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and St. Louisan Rick Recht, the top touring artist in contemporary Jewish music.
Tear Down the Walls will be kicked off with the release of Tear Down The Walls, an original album, and a free concert, both produced by Recht. The multi-cultural, interfaith concert will be held Thursday, January 19 at 7 p.m. in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday at the 1,600-seat University City High School auditorium at 7401 Balson Avenue. It is free and open to the St. Louis community.
The event will feature Recht and music from the Tear Down the Walls CD, including performances by artists and choirs representing the local Jewish, African-American and Christian communities. The concert is a scripted theatrical presentation combining music and spoken word, featuring choirs, vocal performers, musicians, and activists. The performances will honor the mission and work of leaders throughout history who have torn down the walls of injustice.
Speakers at the event will include prominent St. Louis civil right’s leader Frankie Freeman, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; state Representative Maria Chappelle-Nadal; and Philip Deitch, a human rights activist.
Choirs will include Cornerstone Institutional Baptist Church, Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church, the 50-person Rising Generation Youth Chorus of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and a Jewish Community Choir of youth from Saul Mirowitz Day School Reform Jewish Academy.
Quotes from historical social justice leaders will be read by members of Cultural Leadership, a leadership program for Jewish and African-American youth, and the University City High School Gay Straight Alliance and Diversity Awareness organization.
Written and produced by Recht, the album features guest vocals from a diverse group of talented individuals and groups including the Cote Brilliant Presbyterian Church Gospel Choir of St. Louis; St. Louis American Idol contestant Philippe Crymes; an interfaith choir of Jewish teens from St. Louis and Memphis; and the Stax Music Academy Singers from Memphis.
The initiative also includes a 16-hour diversity training program for teens through the ADL’s A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE Institute. The training curriculum will incorporate music and themes from the Tear Down the Walls CD.
The training will consist of peer leadership sessions in two-hour blocks, conducted on a semi-weekly basis from February to May 2006.
The selected youth will assume leadership roles in their schools to confront bias, prejudice and discrimination so that students, who are considered different, for whatever the reason, are treated with respect. The training will also prepare graduates to train a larger group of teens in Phase Two of the initiative.
The second phase of the Tear Down the Walls initiative utilizes the teen graduates of ADL’s anti-bias training as change agents in their schools. “Knowledge and understanding are the keys to equality,” said St. Louisan Basil Kincaid, a graduate of ADL’s anti-bias training. “I now live the life of an agent of change. I will never again be a bystander when it is in my power to uphold what is right.”
Recht, with the support of ADL, is launching the initiative in St. Louis with intentions of extending the program to other cities. Recht presented the Tear Down the Walls concert at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis at the largest Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in the country on Monday, January 16.
For more information about Tear Down the Walls, call (314) 991-0909 or visit www.teardownthewalls.org. The Tear Down the Walls CD can be purchased for $15 at www.rickrecht.com or www.teardownthewalls.org.
