The O.G. Garden of Love

 By Ash Walker

On April 6 and 7, we’ll present our spring program called “The Sound Garden of Love,” a multicultural and multimedia celebration of community, music and love for all ages that we’ll be performing indoors and outside.

This is a program I’ve been wanting to create for a long while. It is inspired by William Blake’s famous poem of social and religious protest from 1794, Garden of Love (see full text below).

I first learned of William Blake’s poem last May while we were wrapping up our “Bodies on the Line '' performance with Oakland Symphony and immediately wanted to dig deeper. What was the meaning and purpose of these words? What context and experience was Blake writing from when he wrote this? Whenever I craft programs I always try to look at where we’ve been as a people and how we move forward with a new understanding of how to navigate life’s challenges. We often look to art as an escape from reality, but I believe art can serve as more than that. It allows us to recognize the beauty around us and in us, even in dark times. I believe Blake knew this as well when he wrote this poem 230 years ago.

At the root of this poem are two things: love and hope. We often try to hold onto the things in life we love most and fear any changes that may come to those things we treasure - like the ominous “Priests in Black Gowns” in Blake’s poem who keep the Chapel gates shut. But how do we learn and grow if we resist all changes? And, most importantly, how do we hold onto love and hope throughout that process?

We’re so excited to share this vibrant, questioning, and ultimately love-filled program with you. We’re excited to welcome members of Oakland’s community drum circle Soulbeatz to join us for this program as well. For me, there is almost nothing more love- and life-affirming than the sound of drums and singing together! I hope you’ll come be a part of our musical circle on April 6 and 7.

Garden of Love

I went to the Garden of Love,

And saw what I never had seen:

A Chapel was built in the midst,

Where I used to play on the green.

 And the gates of this Chapel were shut,

And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door;

So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,

That so many sweet flowers bore. 

 And I saw it was filled with graves,

And tomb-stones where flowers should be:

And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,

And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

-William Blake, 1794