by Peter Kokoszka
JOHANNESBURG, June 16, 2018—These first couple of days of our South Africa tour have helped to deepen my understanding of the rich very recent history of this country and also broaden my thoughts on how many of the songs in our program overlap in several ways between our own struggles and those of South Africa.
Singing at Soweto Theatre June 15, 2018
I have sung “Make Them Hear You” many times before with our chorus and other choruses. It of course is from the Broadway musical “Ragtime” which is about the struggle for racial equality. We have allowed that song to represent our own struggle for gay rights as well as our fight against HIV/AIDS. The line “and say to those who blame us for the way we chose to fight” always made me think of how aggressively we had to fight our government and public stigma for treatment for HIV and for LGBT rights – but here it very easily also comes full circle to both the literal as well as figurative meaning of the issues being “more than black or white.”
I am also proud that we have brought “Bright Morning Stars” with us on our tour. This is a song that we have sung many many times over the past years (been decades now) in concerts and also memorial services to remember our brothers in the chorus and others in our lives who we have lost to AIDS and other reasons as well. This song also takes on more meaning here too. Though our community in the US was devastated by AIDS through the 1980s and 90s, South Africa sustained far more losses than we, and they continue to today. When I think of how we had to battle through homophobia in our fight against HIV/AIDS in the US, I am humbled to realize that people were simultaneously battling Apartheid while also battling HIV/AIDS.
The line that most stirred me when we first sang it in this concert program is “When we finally find a cure.” I realized that we have not used that word in a very long time. Yes, we have made great progress to develop effective medication that controls HIV to keep us alive, and we have also very resourcefully re-purposed the same medication as a prevention tool for those who are HIV negative. But have we given up on a cure?
Interestingly, South Africa has done a better job than we have in the US with access and price controls for HIV medication. There is a higher percentage of HIV positive people receiving HIV medication in South Africa than we have in the United States. I will be eager to try to learn if South Africans still have hope for a cure. Between our first concert, our visit to KYP, and the Youth Day rally – we already have learned that the energy and spirit here is strong and proud, and something that can’t be taken away. I am excited to see what else we will learn and hopefully take back with us from this amazing journey.