We so often see performances centered on whatever star may hold the stage on a given night — their compositions, their influences, their souls laid bare. It’s less common to see a show dedicated more to an idea. The chief realm for that would be the church. And, for many Memphians, that might be the closest analog to the upcoming revue known as American Revival.
It’s entertaining, it’s enlightening; it’s secular, it’s faith-based; it’s heavy, it’s lighthearted. Because it’s based on the idea that, as Walt Whitman wrote, we contain multitudes, American Revival can embrace all these polarities. And with that as a guiding principle, the stage can get filled up. Taking place Wednesday, May 13th at the Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center, the event will see celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma and his son, Nicholas Ma, joined by an extraordinary lineup of artists, including Valerie June, Speech Thomas and Tasha LaRae of Arrested Development, and T Bone Burnett.
That’s a group of artists known to dig a little deeper with their music and lyrics, and they should all fit right into this “evening dedicated to bringing together music, storytelling, and community in a powerful shared experience,” as the show’s press release puts it. At its core, American Revival is about fostering connection across communities, celebrating local voices, and highlighting the role of arts and culture in strengthening civic life. And, with its mix of many talents, the show embodies the very spirit of collaboration it celebrates.
That was also true of my recent exchange with two of the American Revival’s key players, Nicholas Ma and Valerie June. Ma, aside from his father, has won acclaim in his own right for his career in film, including co-producing the Fred Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, which features a soundtrack by Memphis’ own Jonathan Kirkscey. And June, though residing in Brooklyn, still calls West Tennessee home. The enthusiasm both felt for their imminent Memphis appearance was palpable.
Memphis Flyer: The ideas and actions you’re trying to inspire with this production seem a little elusive, but I get the impression you’re seeing real results as you take American Revival from city to city. How does it feel bringing it to Memphis?
Nicholas Ma: We’re so influenced by the things that are coming in from the outside, right? The terrible national conversations we’re in, global conversations we’re in, et cetera. But what about those conversations that are happening inside of us, where we are asking ourselves, ‘What would it mean to smile more often? What would it mean to call my cousin who drives me nuts? What would it mean to come into work with a different feeling about that co-worker who always heats up fish in the microwave, or whatever it is?’ Those small pieces are the seeds, the germs that create culture, right?
Memphis is just a wellspring of all of these different musics, but culture is something that exists between people. It’s sort of the air we breathe together. And for me, when we were starting American Revival, we thought, ‘Who are people who just get it?’ Who you don’t need you to explain why this cockamamie idea might make sense. Who are sort of like, ‘No, I’ve been traveling down this road, and I didn’t see you there, but let’s walk it a ways together.’
And I feel that way about Valerie, right? There’s a way in which her music just shines on all of us and we can all partake in it. It’s that beautiful thing where, when you’re sitting next to someone, and you realize that you know nothing about who they are, but they are loving the same thing that you are loving. There is some unbreakable thing that you’ve shared, some beautiful thing that you’ve shared. And I see that every time Valerie performs. You see people coming together, resonating with this music, and realizing, ‘Wow, I don’t know who you are, but now I’m curious, because clearly both of us think this is amazing.’ And that says something. I think that’s part of the answer to this question of, ‘How do we find our souls?’
Valerie June: Thanks for that, that was lovely! I’m so proud to have my music be born in Memphis. I’m from Humboldt, Tennessee, and Jackson, Tennessee, is where I was born, at the Jackson General Hospital. We live between the two towns, in the rural area, which is MAGA country. I was raised in this environment where the tensions were high. We were called the N word on the way to school, and things like that. But once I got to know my neighbors and I got to know their hearts, that was an opening for a peaceful way to live and to cultivate a more loving society. When you look at me on the surface, there’s all of these things that you’ve already decided about who I am, just based on what I look like, but once we start to get to know each other, then it’s like, ‘Okay, we don’t agree on everything, but can we live together peacefully? Do we have a way to listen to one another, to come together for a United States, for a united goal?’
I think that’s really where I see my community shine. In Tennessee is where I see the communities shining, in Brooklyn as well, as I travel the world, from Poland to Istanbul to Switzerland to Africa, all the way Australia. The communities that I see shining are the ones where people can listen to each other, and although they don’t agree on every single thing, they find a way to be neighborly with each other and build community and build a more loving society. And I ask with this American Revival, how we can inspire more people to learn about their neighbors and their community, and to try to grow together and to listen to each other, and be okay with disagreements?
Being from Memphis, I like knowing every day I walk the streets of Memphis that the legacy of Dr. King is there, and that dream, and how rich that dream is. We’re still fighting in a lot of places all throughout the world to see that dream come true, decades later. We’re all responsible for that dream, and in Memphis, we know that.
Now we’re going all throughout the country and reminding people about the power of the dream of oneness, of the dream of togetherness, of the dream of kindness, you know? And so I feel like my thing with Memphis is like, whatever happens on that muddy Mississippi — because it’s one of the mightiest rivers in the world — can ripple all across the planet, all across the globe. There’s an opportunity in Memphis that you don’t have in many cities, to touch people, to move people, to inspire people. It is a quiet city, for that reason, because that power is something that you can’t really talk about. You’ve just got to feel that spark of kindness in someone else’s eyes, at the grocery store, at the post office, and then ripple it, you know?
How does that sentiment play into your contribution to American Revival? What will you be performing or presenting in this show?
June: Well, I’m looking forward to first inviting Memphis musicians Alice Hasen and Tamara Love to perform with me. We just did a show at the Ryman Auditorium this past week, and that female energy, with the three of us together onstage, hopefully inspired all of these young ladies, from age four up to 90, to to just be creative, to create something magical in your day. Because I think once you start with art, once you start with just being creative, whether you crochet, you dance, you draw, or even walk, you can build a way of understanding how creativity works in your life, and then you create kindness in the same way. So our voice in this is really a strong female voice, a strong voice of saying, ‘Okay, let’s inspire our sisters. Let’s inspire our daughters. Let’s inspire all of those women in the community who are just the seamstresses or the cleaners.’
That’s what I was when I was in Memphis, a housekeeper. And if we inspire one another, then we give that to our kids, we give that to our our families. And so that’s our perspective, and we do it through songs. Like I have a song called ‘Endless Tree’ on my last record, and it says, ‘Are you ready to see a world where we could all be free branches of an endless tree?/Although we may not all agree, still live together peacefully.’ Or a song like ‘Astral Plane,’ where it asks, ‘Is there a light that we have inside that we can’t touch?’ That’s looking even deeper than our religions. Looking really into the soul of each person is what the music does. And I love the way Yo-Yo Ma does that, because you don’t even have to have words.
Ma: I think one of the things we forget is that community and diversity has all different colors and shades to it. There’s something beautiful about shining a spotlight on what that looks like in other places. And I think it’s important for us to always remind ourselves, even when we’re living in a place where we think we’ve got community nailed, that there are always people who we don’t see, or maybe who we choose not to see, and what does it mean to actually see them? And what gift is there in seeing them that we might not have if we just close ourselves off in our own little world, even if we love our own little world?
Keeping in mind that need to push ourselves a bit, how involved are you as a producer in shaping the contributions of each artist? Do you give them any guidance?
Ma: My co-founder in this, Kathy Fletcher, and I have known each other for a long time, and I think both of us recognize the power of artists to make great decisions. I think we try to give some some guidance around what this is: a traveling festival of music, poetry, and hope, rooted in the tradition of revivals in this country, right? We want there to be music, we want there to be a message, and we want people to come away knowing what the music was and knowing what the message was. But I don’t want to tell T Bone Burnett, ‘No, you have to play these two songs.’ He doesn’t need me to tell him that. And I think part of the beauty is seeing the way those collaborations form, right? We didn’t tell Valerie, ‘Oh, you’ve got to find two local Memphis musicians.’ Valerie said, ‘This is how I think it should be,’ and we are there to say yes. You know, I learned a lot from my father about programming, in terms of the arc of how an evening works, and how do we make sure that we’re bringing people to an emotional space and not just saying, ‘Okay, here are seven disparate things. Make of it what you will.’
I think part of the beauty of it is that, with work that moves mountains and changes hearts, we should be able to see it on stage just as we see it in the audience, and that doesn’t happen if it’s some kind of top down recitation of like, ‘Okay, this is how it’s gotta go.’ You’ve gotta feel that freedom when you look around in the audience. I didn’t expect those people to be here, and I didn’t expect them to sing that song, and I didn’t expect those people to collaborate. That’s the beauty of the unexpected, and that can still bring you joy.