Melanie DeMore

CREATED BY ADAM LOFTEN & GARY YOST 8:26 mins 2020

“These are hard times friends, and we need to raise our voices together.” Vocal activist Melanie DeMore shares how the power and connectivity of singing can transcend divisive forces and spread love.

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Discussion Guide:

Melanie shares “These are hard times, friends and we need to raise our voices together. And I know that you’ve got songs in your life that have kept you going in times when things seem crazy.
What songs in your life have kept you going in hard times? Do you sing these songs on your own and/or with others?
Melanie opens with “Everyday I wake up and think who am I going to hold up in song.” and closes this first scene with “I’ve got a saying that says “A song can hold you up when there seems to be no ground beneath you. She intentionally thinks about who she will support in song each morning.
Picture the people in your life who you hold up. Do you “hold them up in song.” If not, how do you send them love?
Melanie shares “The day you were born, a new song came into the world. ...You’ve got a right to sing because that’s how you started out. Anybody who told you that you shouldn’t sing, they lied to you.” She tells us that our unique voice has been crying out since the beginning but some of us stopped singing along the way.
Has anyone ever criticized your singing in a way that made you lower or silence your voice?
When Melanie was clapping and encouraging you sing 2 minutes into the piece.
We hope you began clapping and singing with her. Did you? Why or why not?
Melanie believes that. “Everything, everybody around us is telling us that our hearts do not connect. But that’s why we sing. We sing so that everybody has a place at the table. When people don’t feel connected weird things happen.”
In what ways do you feel connected to your friends and family? To your community? To the greater world of all people?
Melanie shares ”We all breathe in and breathe out because what’s happening is most of us are walking around in a world holding our breath. Singing allows you to let it out.”
Do you hold your breath when you feel emotional or physical tension? Take a moment and note where in your body you hold tension or anxiety. Maybe your jaw, shoulders, chest, lower back or gut. Now take a big breath in and sing as you exhale. Try this at least 3 times but continue as long as is comfortable. Now take note of the tension in your body.
Did you sing the song “One Foot Lead With Love” with Melanie and the choir at the end of the experience? If yes, how did it make you feel? If no, why not. Here are the lyrics and a link to the audio if you’d like to sing it with your friends and family.

One Foot Lead With Love by Melanie DeMore

Chorus

You gotta put one foot in front of the other
And lead with love
Put one foot in front of the other
And lead with love.

Verses (call and response)

Don’t give up hope
You’re not alone
Don’t you give up
Keep movin on

Lift up your eyes
Don’t you despair
Look up ahead
The path is there

I know you’re scared
And I’m scared too
But here I am
Right next to you