THE ARTS MADE US FEEL IN A YEAR WE NEEDED TO MORE THAN EVER
The arts are resilient and will be back because we need them, says Jeffery Straker.
2020 has been a year like no other. As it wraps up, the Saskatoon Starphoenix and Regina Leader-post have invited community members to submit personal essays reflecting on the current crisis. Today: Regina folk/roots singersongwriter Jeffery Straker.
I was in a backyard in Saskatoon, singing some of my songs and playing my portable digital piano. My sidekick Kris was playing some great guitar accompaniment. About 40 people were seated in front of us listening intently, spaced six feet apart. The summer evening breeze was warm. Everything was perfect and fairly “normal,” as far as backyard shows go.
What was different was I noticed several people crying; tears ran down their faces as they listened. We were in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic that had tipped the world onto some sort of off-kilter axis and no one knew how to right it. In this moment of sharing live music, people were really emotional. I'd seen this happen at several shows I'd done on my “Pandemic Piano Backyard Tour” in places like Eyebrow, Nipawin, Regina and Langham.
Post show chit-chat allowed folks to talk about “what they'd unexpectedly felt.” During the show, lots of them had feelings they'd not had in months. And when they felt them again, it all came pouring out of them in tears. To me this was something simply beautiful.
I'm a touring singer-songwriter pianist. One of the ingredients to make my work possible is a gathering of people in an audience. But the way that we collectively decided to “manage” COVID-19 was to restrict gatherings to prevent viral spread. As weird as it was to not be able to get together with others, people kind of started getting used to it. We did more things at home, we saw fewer people, we spent less, we saved more. We experienced less. Large concerts and festivals got cancelled and most people experienced no live music. Without really knowing it, some of us lost track of what live music — experienced with others — does for the soul.
A few months into the pandemic, I had intense fear for the fate of the arts. All of my artist friends had lost their incomes. More importantly, they lost the ability to do what they were put here to do. And when your intent is taken away from you, it's a huge void to try to fill.
It appeared to me that governments had forgotten about the arts for the most part. Artists were broke, music venues and galleries had closed. Dance was prohibited (we obviously needed a Kevin Bacon-type figure to bring it back). Singing and wind instruments were equated to weapons (God forbid, don't blow that murderous trombone — it'll spread the virus). Theatre was a non-starter.
It was pointed out to me that in the earliest days of the pandemic so many people turned to … the arts.
The arts have always been resilient, however. They're made up of resilient people with an innate need to express something burning within.
What I realized in doing my 36 backyard shows across Saskatchewan is this: People cannot and will not forget how to feel. And
I'd submit that in a time like this, what we need most of all is to feel. In a backyard somewhere in Saskatchewan, in seeing tears run down a stranger's face I was reminded, through song, of the power of getting together with others to feel. I was reminded of the power of music and art.
The arts will emerge from this pandemic, though they'll take on a different shape and, of course, government help will be needed to regain firm footing. It was pointed out to me that in the earliest days of the pandemic so many people turned to … the arts. They took up an instrument, they started crafting, they watched movies, they read books. People needed art to help them through a dark time.
In a backyard somewhere in Saskatchewan in the summer of 2020 I was reminded through song, of the power of people getting together to experience live music and to “feel.”
I was reminded of community and of the beauty of being human.
I was reminded that we're going to be OK.