"With Grace and Justice for All": A Musical Offering from the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance
In 2014 Niel DePonte composed “With Grace and Justice for All”, for chamber orchestra with prerecorded sound, inspired by the words of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. It’s a beautiful and powerful piece of music that has deep resonance today, maybe even deeper resonance than when it was first written. We offer it to our community and the world now as a message of solidarity with #blacklivesmatter and as an expression of our commitment to social justice in this nation. This video release comes close to Juneteenth, the day that commemorates the news of the Emancipation Proclamation. Events around us now demonstrate all too clearly that Emancipation was not just a moment in 1865. True Emancipation will come only with ALL of us are freed from the bonds of racism and injustice that have for so long delayed America’s path toward the more perfect union imagined in the Preamble to our Constitution. Nelson and Martin and Niel DePonte tell us with one voice: “Take a stand for that which is right!” Let’s do just that. Now.