Lamentations in a Winter Garden
September 18, 2008
By Stacey Ho
Join in song with "Why we should Cry."
At Montreal’s Cabot Square, Deborah Margo and Devora Neumark are organizing some unusual singing lessons. In a park celebrating the European colonization of Canada, immigrants and refugees will be sharing their mourning songs. During the course of six sessions, Neumark and Margo hope to create a public space for dialog and reflection in a project titled Why should we cry: lamentations in a winter garden.
“The notion of singing is something everybody can do. It’s not about having a beautiful voice. It’s about what can happen when people sing together.”
In a spirit of inclusiveness, the two artists have sought out teachers from a wide range of communities and experiences. Accompanied by a drum, Pierre Junoir Lefevre is leading the first session on September 21, sharing traditional mourning songs from his native Haiti. Considering the recent hurricane as well as the police shootings in Montreal’s Haitian community, these processional songs in French and Creole hit especially close to home.
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