1. Welcome Song
SATB choir, Children’s choir, Instrumental ensemble
Sopranos + Children’s choir
Oh ho, Oh ho
Oh ho, Oh ho
Oh ho, Oh ho
Oh…
– Traditional Salish Nation Welcome Song
Tenors
As a beam o’er the face of the waters may glow,
While the tide runs in darkness and coldness below,
So the cheek may be ting’d with a warm sunny smile,
Tho’ the cold heart to ruin runs darkly the while.
– As a beam o’er the face of the waters may glow – Traditional Irish Folksong
Basses
Fanga alafia,
Ashay, ashay.
Fanga alafia,
Ashay, ashay.
Welcome, blessings
Amen, amen,
Welcome, blessings,
Amen, Amen
Ikabo alafia,
Ashay, ashay.
Ikabo alafia,
Ashay, ashay.
Welcome, peace
Amen, amen,
Welcome, peace,
Amen, Amen
– Fanga Alafia– Traditional African Welcome Song
Altos
Arirang arirang arariyo…
Arirang gogyero nomoganda
Narul borigo gashnun nimun
Shimnido mogasaw balbyungnanda.
Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo…
You are going over Arirang hill
My love, you are leaving me
Your feet will be sore before you go 3 miles.
– Arirang – Traditional Korean Folksong
2. Mothers of Exiles
a. An Irish Mother’s Prayer (1850)
Soprano solo, Instrumental ensemble
Soprano solo
Dear Patt,
I received your letter [from America] with the thirty shillings in our greatest of want. I hope God will reward you for it. The day it come, I was without one bite to eat. Dickey’s 8 weeks in bed, without a stitch on him, and my petticoat and coat’s all pawned.
Dear Patt, we’ve no place to lay our heads. We were lodging under James Street arch, but were put out of it. Then a few nights up in the Sconce, still without a bite. We’d be dead long ago, only for two neighbors that often gives me a bite, for God’s sake. Little ever I thought it’d come my turn to beg. No more would I beg, only for your father’s death. But thanks bit of God, whatever me or his child here is suffering, your father died and was buried the way he lived: respectable and decent.
Dear Patt, I’ve had not a penny. The blankets, bed and boots of my feet was pawned. You can’t know how we’re suffering unless you were in starvation and want, without friend or fellow to give you a shilling, then you’d know. But on my two bended knees, Patt, fresh and fasting, I pray to God that you nor none of yours may ever know, nor ever suffer, what we are suffering now.
Oh Patt, hurry and take us out of this. It’s the poorest prospect of a winter that ever I had, without house or homefire, friend nor fellow nor bit of food to eat. That’s my prospects. For the love of God, dear Patt, bring me and little Dickey out of this, as quick as you can. I pray that God’s Holy Spirit be with you all. You promised to take us out.
Your loving mother until death.
– Letter from Mrs. Nolan, County Kilkenny, Ireland, to her son Patrick,
October 8, 1850 during the Irish Potato Famine
[T]here at [their] sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles.
– from The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus (1883)
….attacca…
b. The Mother of Exiles (1883)
SATB choir, Instrumental ensemble
SATB choir
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates [there stands]
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
– from The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus (1883)
….attacca…
3. Refugees
a. Refugees
SATB choir, Instrumental ensemble
SATB choir
They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way
(NOTE: At this point in the original poem, the poet instructs the reader to “now read from bottom to top.” For convenience, I have arranged the lines below per the poet’s instructions.)
The world can be looked at another wayDo not be so stupid to think that
A place should only belong to those who are born there
These are people just like us
It is not okay to say
Build a wall to keep them out
Instead let us
Share our countries
Share our homes
Share our food
They cannot
Go back to where they came from
We should make them
Welcome here
They are not
Cut-throats and thieves
With bombs up their sleeves
Layabouts and loungers
Chancers and scroungers
We need to see them for who they really are
Should life have dealt a different hand
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
So do not tell me
They have no need of our help
– Refugees by Brian Bilston
….attacca…
b. The Mother of Exiles – Reprise (Chorale)
SATB choir, Instrumental ensemble
SATB choir
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Give me your tired, your poor,
Give me your tired, your poor.”
– from The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus (1883)
….attacca…
c. Welcome Song – Reprise
SATB choir, Children’s choir, Instrumental ensemble
Choir Sopranos
Give me your tired, your poor, (repeat)
– from The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus (1883)
Children’s choir
Oh ho, Oh ho… (repeat)
– from Traditional Salish Nation Welcome Song
Choir Tenors
As a beam o’er the face of the waters may glow (repeat)
– from Irish folksong of the same name
Choir Basses
Fanga Alafia,
Ashay, ashay!
Ikabo Alafia,
Ashay, ashay! (repeat)
Welcome, Blessings
Amen, amen.
Welcome, Peace,
Amen, amen.
– Fanga Alafia– Traditional African Welcome Song
Choir Altos
Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo (repeat)
– from Arirang – Traditional Korean Folksong
4. Border Lines
Children’s choir, SATB choir, Readers, Instrumental ensemble
SATB choir + Children’s choir
My country, ’tis of Thee,
Sweet Land of Liberty
Of thee I sing;
– from America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee) by Samuel Francis Smith (1831)
Adult Reader(s)
The border is mighty, but even the parting of the seas created a path, not a barrier.
The border is a big, neat, clean, clear black line on a map that does not exist.
– from Borders: A Double Sonnetby Alberto Rios
SATB choir
We seem to live in a world of maps:
But in truth we live in a world made
Not of paper and ink but of people.
Which way we look at the drawing
Makes all the difference.
Those lines are our lives.
Together,
Let us turn the map until we see clearly:
The border is what joins us,
Not what separates us.
Spoken by two young children from the Children’s choir
A weight carried by two
Weighs only half as much.
– from Border Lines by Alberto Ríos
….attacca…
- Interlude: No Irish Need Apply (1863)
SATB Choir, Soprano solo, Instrumental ensemble
SATB choir
from the London Times Newspaper, February, Eighteen-Sixty-Two:
WANTED—A smart active girl to do the general housework of a large family,
one who can cook, clean plates, and get up fine linen, preferred.
N.B.—No Irish need apply.
– London Times Newspaper, Feb. 1862
Soprano solo
I’m a simple Irish girl, and I’m looking for a place,
I’ve felt the grip of poverty, but sure that’s no disgrace,
‘Twill be long before I get one, tho’ indeed it’s hard I try,
For I read in each advertisement, “No Irish need apply.”
Alas! for my poor country, which I never will deny,
How they insult us when they write, “No Irish need apply.”
- from No Irish Need Apply, written and sung by Miss Kathleen O’Neil (1863)
SATB choir
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen!
– from God Save the Queen (National Anthem of the United Kingdom);
authorship of text is unclear.
Soprano solo
Now I wonder what’s the reason that the fortuned [English] few,
Should throw on us that dirty slur, and treat us as they do,
Sure they all know Paddy’s heart is warm, and willing is [my] hand,
They rule us, yet we many not earn a living in their land,
O, to their sister country, how can they bread deny,
By sending forth this cruel line, “No Irish need apply.”
- from No Irish Need Apply, written and sung by Miss Kathleen O’Neil (1863)
SATB choir
My country, ‘tis of Thee,
Sweet Land of Liberty
Of thee I sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light.
From ev’ry mountainside
Let Freedom ring.
– from America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee); Words by Samuel Francis Smith (1831)
Soprano solo
Ah! but now I’m in the land of the “Glorious and Free,”
And proud I am to own it, a country dear to me,
I can see by your kind faces, that you will not deny,
A place in your hearts for Kathleen, where “All Irish may apply.”
Then long may the Union flourish, and ever may it be,
A pattern to the world, and the “Home of Liberty.”
- from No Irish Need Apply, written and sung by Miss Kathleen O’Neil (1863)
- Sweet Land of Liberty
5a. Anthem
SATB choir, Readers, Instrumental ensemble
SATB choir
My country, ’tis of Thee,
Sweet Land of Liberty
Of thee I sing;
– from America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee) by Samuel Francis Smith (1831)
2 Adult Readers (alternating lines)
The border is a line that birds cannot see.
The border is a beautiful piece of paper folded carelessly in half.
Male Teen Reader
The border is where flint first met steel, starting a century of fires.
– from Borders: A Double Sonnet by Alberto Rios
Detention Reading 1 (Male Teen)
“If they really...want to know how hard life is down there, they should go see it. There are kids who don’t make it past five [years old] because they die of hunger. Their parents can’t work because there are no jobs. [W]here I [lived and] studied there were lots of...gang members. They had killed the two police officers who protected our school. The gang told me that if I returned to school, I wouldn’t make it home alive. [They] had killed two kids I went to school with, and I thought I might be the next one. If I hadn’t had these problems, I wouldn’t have come here. Just give us a chance. Let us better ourselves so we can be something better than what we are today.”
– Combined quotes from Alfonso, from El Salvador, Age 17 and Mauricio, from Honduras, Age 17
from Children on the Run, a report of the office of the UNHCR
(United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) of the UN Refugee Agency
SATB choir
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From every mountain side
Let Freedom ring.
– from America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee) by Samuel Francis Smith (1831)
2 Adult Readers (alternating lines)
The border is a belt that is too tight, holding things up but making it hard to breathe.
The border is the blood clot in the river’s vein.
Female Teen Reader
The border says stop to the wind, but the wind speaks another language, and keeps going.
– from Borders: A Double Sonnet by Alberto Rios
Female Reader
“We saw all these people behind the fence…hanging onto the wire, and looking out because they were anxious to know who was coming in. But I will never forget the shocking feeling that human beings were behind this fence like animals. And we were going to also lose our freedom and walk inside of that gate and find ourselves…cooped up there…[W]hen the gates were shut, we knew that we had lost something that was very precious; that we were no longer free."
– Mary Tsukamoto, upon entering a Japanese Internment Camp (1943)
SATB choir
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet Freedom’s song;
– from America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee) by Samuel Francis Smith (1831)
2 Adult Readers (Alternating lines)
The border is a brand, the “Double-X” of barbed wire scarred into the skin of so many.
The border has always been a welcome stopping place but is now a stop sign, always red.
Male Teen Reader
The border is a handshake that becomes a squeezing contest.
.– from Borders: A Double Sonnet by Alberto Rios
Detention Reading 3 (Male Teen)
“When I left, and my dad wasn’t with me, they told me not to worry, that he would be coming in a moment…and felt very relieved and happy that he would follow. But…I haven’t seen him since then. I do not want to be here anymore, especially since I know how much my father is suffering. The way I have been treated makes me feel like I don’t matter, like I am trash.”
– Sergio, a 17-year-old from Guatemala housed in Casa Padre — the largest facility for immigrant children, run by Southwest Key in McAllen, Texas — told interviewers that he and his father were separated shortly after presenting themselves at the border, and taken to different detention centers. His father, he said, now faces deportation.
SATB choir
No tyrant hand shall smite,
While with encircling might
All here are taught the Right
With Truth allied.
– from America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee) by Samuel Francis Smith (1831)
2 Adult Readers (Alternating lines)
The border is an equation in search of an equals sign.
The border is a locked door that has been promoted.
Soprano solo
The border is a place of plans constantly broken and repaired and broken.
.– from Borders: A Double Sonnet by Alberto Rios
Detention Reading 4 (Soprano solo – A mother in detention)
“[My 9-year-old son continues to be anxious after seeing parents separated from their children…] He saw someone bound with chains and asked me whether I would be chained in the same way. He wonders when we will get to the United States. I do not tell him that we are already here. He wouldn’t believe that the United States would treat us this way.”
– A single parent in CBP custody, identified as Mayra
….attacca…
5b. Lullaby: Arrorró mi Niño
Soprano solo, Instrumental ensemble
The mother to her child
Arrorró mi niño,
arrorró mi sol,
arrorró pedazo,
de mi corazón.
Hush-a-bye my baby
Hush-a-bye my sun
Hush-a-bye oh piece
of my heart.
Este niño lindo
ya quiere dormir;
háganle la cuna
de rosa y jazmín.
This pretty child
Wants to sleep already
Make him a cradle
of rose and jasmine.
The mother to herself
How can I assure him
that we'll both be safe?
That I won't be taken
from him and bound in chains?
The mother to her child
Háganle la cama
en el toronjil,
y en la cabecera
pónganle un jazmín
que con su fragancia
me lo haga dormir.
Make him a bed
On the lemon balm
And at the head
Put jasmine
With its fragrance
To put him to sleep for me.
The mother to herself
They moved us to separate cages,
They yelled and said not to look
At our children locked up without us
Or they'd punish us both if we did.
The mother to her child
Este lindo niño
se quiere dormir...
cierra los ojitos
y los vuelve a abrir.
This lovely baby
Wants to sleep
He closes his eyes
And opens them again.
Do not worry my dear one,
You are safe with me;
Your father and the gangs
Cannot harm us anymore.
Arrorró mi niño,
arrorró mi sol,
duérmase pedazo,
de mi corazón.
Hush-a-bye my baby
Hush-a-bye my sun
Fall asleep oh piece
of my heart.
Do not worry my dear one,
You are safe with me;
Arrorró mi niño
Arrorró,
Duérmase,
You are safe with me.
– from Arrorró mi Niño, Traditional Spanish Lullaby with poetic
English paraphrases of detainee quotes by John Muehleisen
….attacca…
5c. Border Lines
Children’s choir, Readers, SATB choir, Instrumental ensemble
Children’s choir
My country, ’tis of Thee,
Sweet Land of Liberty
Of thee I sing.
– from America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee) by Samuel Francis Smith (1831)
Adult Reader(s)
The border is mighty, but even the parting of the seas created a path, not a barrier.
The border is a big, neat, clean, clear black line on a map that does not exist.
– from Borders: A Double Sonnet by Alberto Rios
SATB choir + Children’s choir
We seem to live in a world of maps:
But in truth we live in a world made
Not of paper and ink but of people.
Which way we look at the drawing
Makes all the difference.
Those lines are our lives.
Together,
Let us turn the map until we see clearly:
The border is what joins us,
Not what separates us.
Spoken by two young children from the Children’s choir
A weight carried by two
Weighs only half as much.
– from Border Lines by Alberto Ríos
….attacca…
6. Song of the Stranger
TUTTI: Soprano solo, SATB choir, Children’s choir, Instrumental ensemble
SATB choir
In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion,…
– Isaiah 11:6
Children’s choir
…and a little child will lead them all.
– Isaiah 11:6
Children’s choir, SATB choir, + Soprano solo
I was hungry, and you gave me food; [and you fed me];
I was thirsty, and you gave me drink:
I was a stranger, and you welcomed me;
I was naked, and you clothed me;
I was ill and you cared for me;
I was in prison, and you visited me.”
– Matthew 25:35–36, Romans 12:16
Live in harmony with one another
– Romans 12:16
Noted for her "enthralling" (Seattle Times) and “particularly soulful” interpretations (L.A. Times), soprano 
