In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois.
You get careless, next thing you know,
you have silver bracelets on both wrists.
You could be beaten.
You could lose memory from the beating.
You could end up in a wheelchair.
That happened.
We were called the twilight people.
We only came out at night.
We laughed to hide our pain, our frustration, our rage.
We came to realize all our feelings of oppression are real.
Eventually, something was bound to blow.
A hot night on the streets of Greenwich Village.
A scruffy little Mafia-run dive bar filled with the city’s rejects.
A shot glass heard ‘round the world.
A brick through the window of our hearts.
•
CHORUS:
The bar was a dump,
two dingy dark rooms,
but a safe place to hang
when the streets are your home.
When we couldn't show love
outside in the streets,
We could slow dance all night,
find love on our feet.
We could dance in the dark,
packed in like sardines,
It was our part of town,
our Mecca, our scene.
We had mostly lost souls,
but everybody was there.
We were all kinds of people
a real rainbow affair.
Dance with us at the Stonewall Inn,
dance with us for your life.
Dance with us in the midnight street,
we're gonna make a revolution!
Feeding coins in the jukebox,
homeless kids getting warm,
black and brown men wanting romance,
dancing like we were home.
The homeless and the hustlers,
the rent boys and the dregs,
The Puerto Rican macho
and the girls who show some leg.
They called all us 'drag queens',
there was no better name,
the nice one called us 'ladies',
it wasn't just a game.
Stand with us at the Stonewall Inn,
stand with us for your lives.
Fight with us in the midnight street,
we're gonna make a revolution!
We were street kids living poor,
white men from The South,
Pennsylvania Dutch,
museum people,
boxers, butch dykes, bikers, whores,
Wall St. bankers,
bakers, designers,
college kids with closets,
professors, punks,
a Medievalist,
hustlers, brokers,
party girls.
Everyone, Everyone was there!
•
DUO:
My name is Maria,
I'm a pre-op transsexual.
If I get arrested,
my father will see me
wearing my mother's dress.
I've heard what happens
to queens in jail.
Take it from there!
My name is Bobby,
I live deep in the closet.
If I get arrested, I'll die,
I'll lose everything,
my job, my home, my life.
•
CHORUS:
Dance with us at the Stonewall Inn,
dance with us for your life.
Dance with us in the midnight street,
we're gonna make a revolution!
We simmered all that summer,
until our hearts were smoke.
We had this deep down anger,
stuffed deep inside we broke.
We turned it on each other,
such bitter prayers we spoke.
One brick got thrown (a brick got thrown),
and suddenly we woke!
Dance with us at the Stonewall Inn,
stand with us for your lives!
Fight with us in the midnight street,
we're gonna make a revolution!
Commissioned & Premiered by:
Out Loud Chorus
Darin DeWeese, Artistic Director
with
Michele Papenfuss, Piano
Edie Herrold, Bass
Tamara Perkuhn, Drums & Percussion
Featuring the voices of: Catherine Archibald, Patricia Anderson, Erica Ashe, Deena Baty, Sara Box, Paul Clark, Arthur Durkee, Jon Hoffman, Margaret Loebe, Amy Skrent, Sarah Snay, Lorrel Sullivan, Tony Wamsley, Kevin Werner, Kay Willey
Recorded live in concert:
June 14 & 15, 2019
Towsley Auditorium, Washtenaw Community College, Ypsilanti, MI
Arthur Durkee is a composer & songwriter who records & performs on Chapman Stick, bass, analog modular synths, bamboo & wood
flutes, keys, frame drums, and voice. He has won awards for composed, notated music as well as for his recordings, & is a published poet, & designer & illustrator....more
