Speak White

By Donna Hébert

Come back
when you can
speak white
they told her
on that first day
She was six
and French was
what she spoke


Yes, it was 1927
and things have
changed since then,
but have they?
English-only
haters still
wipe their feet
on others with
darker skins and
far more musical tongues
than theirs


The focus of hate
changes
but isn't it still the same
disease?


We cannot seem
to survive as primates
without something
to look down on


Ignorance can't bear
knowing it will always
occupy
last
place

© 9/15/13 Donna Hébert All rights reserved.


DONNA HÉBERT BIO:

Recognized by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick for “outstanding artistic achievement” for fiddling, Donna Hébert is a bona-fide cultural treasure, a state Artist’s Fellow in the Folk Arts, with two original songs included on Smithsonian anthologies and eight appointments as a master-teacher in Franco-American fiddling through the National Endowment’s Master-Apprenticeship program. She has performed with Franco-American singer Josée Vachon since 1994 (they will be in Berlin NH on Nov 3 and have March 2014 dates in CT and RI). NPR "Hear and Now" host Scott Alarik says “Her fiddle speaks fluent français!” A member of the new all-fiddle Panache Quartet and the Celtic ensemble Mist Covered Mountains, Donna teaches fiddle at Smith and Amherst Colleges and also directs children’s bands with Groovemama at Old Songs and Philadelphia Folk Festivals every year. Her music poetry is published on http://fiddlingdemystified.com/about/poetry/


Donna A. Hébert
413-658-4276
donna@fiddlingdemystified.com
and
fiddlingdemystified.com - teaching, bands, publishing, blog