Speak Compassion

This showed up in my RSS feed today from Box Turtle Bulletin. It’s a terrific project, so I’ll just let Steve Schalchlin tell it in his own words:

You might know, or know of, Gabi Clayton whose son, Bill, committed suicide after a gaybashing. She’s been a longtime PFLAG mom and advocate. This coming Tuesday, the John Lennon PEACE Piano Project will take its place in her home on the anniversary of Bill’s death. Led by George Michael and his partner, Kenny Goss, the project takes the piano John Lennon wrote “Imagine” on and brings it to places of violence where they are taking photos for an exhibit and a picture book telling these stories. There’s also a documentary of the event being shot.

I’ve been invited to fly to Olympia, where Gabi lives, and play “Imagine” on this piano. I’m also going to sing “Will It Always Be Like This? (Gabi’s Song),” which I wrote about Gabi and Bill. If you have space on your blog, I would love to have this event mentioned. The blog item describing it in detail is here.

Thanks!
Steve Schalchlin

Congratualtions, Steve! This is a terrific way to bring attention to the senselessness of violence.

On a side note, being a huge John Lennon fan, I would love to take the piano to the spot in New Jersey where I was beaten with baseball bats and play Imagine.   I can sing and play the song as well as anyone and would love to do that for the healing I might find in such a thing.