Toronto Syrian Refugee Children’s Choir Circumvents Trump’s Travel Ban
来源：Loving Sister
更新：2018-07-14 02:05:51 作者：Yafang Shi
Photos by Yafang Shi: Members of the CultureLink Nai Children’s Choir socialize at the backstage before the concert ‘This World is Possible’ at the Aga Khan Museum on Canada Day.
Link: The performance of the CultureLink Nai Children’s Choir for the Classical Movements’2018 Serenade! Washington, D.C. Choral Festival’s 'Mandela at 100: Songs of Hope, Justice, and Unity' Grand Finale Concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. (starts at the 28th minute):
“Rise children, rise!
Let’s rise to peace!”
“I believe this world is possible
I see it with the eye of my heart”
Syrian refugee children of the CultureLink Nai Children’s Choir sang the song 'Rise Children, Rise to Peace' for the Classical Movements’ 2018 Serenade! Washington, D.C. Choral Festival’s 'Mandela at 100: Songs of Hope, Justice, and Unity' Grand Finale Concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.on July 1.
However, they did not sing in person at the concert.
They sang in a prerecorded video sent to the festival.
The festival organizer invited the choir to perform at its finale concert. It would be an all-expenses paid trip for the choir.
However, due to fears about crossing the American border under the Trump administration's travel ban targeting five Muslim-majority countries including Syria, CultureLink, an immigrant and refugee settlement services organization that organizes the Choir, decided that the Choir would not travel to the United States to attend the festival. The decision was made to avoid any incidences that the children are stopped at the border and any possibilities that the potential incidences may trigger children’s past trauma in their war-torn country of Syria.
"It was disappointing we were not able to avail the generous offer of the festival organizer to go to Washington, but we are happier and safer here. We love to perform for our home audience on this special day. We love Canada,” Fei Tang, the founder and general manager of the Choir, said.
Instead, the choir celebrated the Canada Day by performing at the concert ‘This World is Possible’ at the Aga Khan Museum on Canada Day. They sang “Oh! Canada” to the country that embraced them after they left their war-torn homeland. They also sang a folkloric Arabic song and a traditional South-African song with contemporary lyrics 'Come Walk with Us'.
They sang:
“Come walk with us the journey is long
Come sing with us our love is our song
Come grow with us united as one”
During the concert, the children, their families and the audience watched the Choir’s prerecorded performance of the songs ‘Rise Children, Rise to Peace' and ‘Come Walk with Us' live streamed from the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C.. The song was specially commissioned by the Classical Moments for the 2018 Serenade Choral Festival.
Hussein Janmohamed, the composer of the song and the conductor of the Choir, twittered:
“Music trumps divisions and brings people together. ”
— Hussein Janmohamed (@hussein_choir) July 1, 2018
Mona Haydar, a Syrian American rapper whose poem was part of the lyrics of the song, traveled from New York to Toronto to perform with the children of the Choir at the concert to show them her support. She twittered:
"Donald Trump prevented these kids from performing in America at with his #travelban #muslimban but we resist his administration’s hatred and bigotry with LOVE and BEAUTY in Canada today on this #CanadaDay2018! #risechildren! @naikidschoir"
"Love trumps hate. Music brings us together and beautiful harmony prevails over divisive squabbles. Just like what we sing in our song, just like the theme of the concert, we believe 'This world is possible,’” Fei Tang said.
As a mother of two young choristers, a veteran non-profit program manager, and an immigrant originally from China, Tang, founded the choir to empower the Syrian refugee children.
Tang says that the choir’s vision is to help refugee children find a sense of belonging to the new country through singing, with focus on healing, learning and rejoice.
More than 200 refugee children aged five to 15 have participated in the choir since it was founded in 2016.
The word Nai means 'the sound of the flute' in Arabic. According to Arabic poet, Khalil Gibran, 'singing is a fine prayer and the sound of the flute remains even after life ends'. He writes in his poem: “Give me the flute, and sing / immortality lies in a song / and even after we've perished / the flute continues to lament”.
The children of the CultureLink Nai Children’s Choir sang the song “Rise children, Rise to Peace”:
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