MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Lifting their voices in songs of hope and solidarity, residents of Maplewood and South Orange joined together as part of the “United We Sing” event hosted Saturday, Feb. 18, by the Social Action Committee of the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County on Prospect Street in Maplewood.
The event featured a community singalong led by Maplewood residents Bennet Zurofsky and Lisa Novemsky, who invited participants to bring guitars and other instruments to accompany the singing.
The songs were a combination of originals by Zurofsky, well-known standards like “This Little Light of Mine,” and original lyrics to familiar tunes like “When the Saints Go Marching In,” which became “When the Poor Have Won Their Rights.”
Zurofsky serves as the director of the Solidarity Singers of the New Jersey State Industrial Union Council, a group Novemsky helped to found.
“We’re a street chorus that has been singing for 22 years; we sing at picket lines, rallies, demonstrations. Our purpose is to provide spirit to the labor movement in New Jersey,” Zurofsky said in a recent phone interview with the News-Record. “I think it was a successful event, and I am glad to have been able to help make it happen. This weekend there have been Presidents Day artistic events protesting Donald Trump all across the country, and I’m glad we are part of this national reaction and that we are able to build the struggle against him.”
Zurofsky has lived in Maplewood since 1989, and practices law in Newark, where he regularly provides pro bono representation and advice in support of activists working for progressive change throughout New Jersey. He is particularly known for assisting demonstrators when they stand their ground and exercise their free speech rights in the face of police hostility. His current pro bono activities include representing the People’s Organization for Progress in an effort to reverse the shutdown of Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield and representing New Jersey Peace Action in a Constitutional challenge to President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq without having obtained a “declaration of war” from Congress.
As the social action arm of the of the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County, the Social Action Committee also encouraged event participants to raise their pens as well as their voices by writing postcards to New Jersey Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker to voice their questions and concerns about the state of national affairs.
The event also featured the artwork of Florence Weisz, whose piece “Obamart: Flag” was being sold to raise funds to benefit the Ethical Culture Society. In the artwork Weisz embedded an image of former President Barack Obama’s face in the stars and stripes of the American flag. This is one of many pieces she calls “Presidential Manipulations,” which explore how a president’s image changes as events and media exposure influence perceptions. After three decades of rearranging American presidents’ faces, her “Obamart” collages are the first created without satire or irony.
Weisz has exhibited her art in the United States and abroad in solo and group shows at museums, private galleries and alternative spaces including Aljira City Without Wall and the Robeson Galleries in Newark. She is a recipient of a N.J. State Council on the Arts Fellowship Award.
The event also featured a participatory performance work by artist and naturalist Anne Dushanko Dobek. Titled “Soothe Your Soul,” Dobek’s work responds to recent attacks on women and minorities. Anyone who wished to participate wrote their story on a piece of paper; all the papers will be ceremonially burnt at the close of her exhibit, “Art and Artifacts,” currently on display at 270 Central Ave. in Newark.
“The purpose is that fears and anxieties are committed to paper, and then hopefully released as a result of getting them written out and then burned,” Dobek said at the event.
Novemsky, who organized last week’s event, singing is one of the most natural and unifying ways to express one’s feelings.
“I am old enough to have been in the civil rights era and it was powered by singing. It really empowers people and really gives a sense of unity,” she said in a recent interview with the News-Record. “Singing came before speaking I believe. It’s a natural way to express one’s frustrations or happiness. If you think about it, we remember the words we sang when we were 3 and 4, so song definitely has a big impact.”
A longtime member of the Ethical Culture Society, Novemsky says the organization works to acknowledge those that aren’t always noticed for the good work that they do in the community.
“We honor local heroes, quiet people that don’t always get recognized. We also work with the juvenile center in Newark, Delaney Hall, by sending stationary; we support Syrian refugees with whatever is needed; and I host ‘Folk Fridays,’ where we sing songs of social significance,” she said. “The goal of the ‘United We Sing’ event was to get people to sing and foster some social action and get some postcards to local representatives, so that there was also a tangible outcome.”
Photos by Shanee Frazier
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