Community Arts Project: Honoring John Brown

A 21st-century take on a Civil War song seeks to strengthen social safety nets by building the arts community

Culture 4 a Cause, Inc. (C4C) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization established in 2014 with the mission of building community through music and the arts. The Board of Directors has decided to launch a community arts project celebrating John Brown’s passion for equality and diversity. 

The initiative is to produce a song and music video for John Brown's Body, the Civil War song that later became The Battle Hymn of the Republic. The song was popular among Union soldiers, and we want to use that song to bring attention to our growing arts hub.

John Brown was an important American abolitionist born in Torrington, Connecticut, where he was introduced to the Christian religion and the abolitionist cause by his parents.

"The Brown’s home in Torrington was a crucible which forged in John Brown the concepts that would later become his life’s work of ending slavery in America."
—Mark McEachern, February 2021, Torrington Historical Society



Why are we doing this? Two reasons.

1/ America is in the midst of its largest civil rights movement ever
John Brown was a relentless antagonist to the institution of slavery—an institution that continues to shape our nation—and his views on equality were formed right here in Torrington.

Racial supremacy was wrong in 1800, and it’s wrong now.

“Torrington is a microcosm of America,” says Dan Morrison, producer of the project, and a board member of Culture For A Cause. “We are a diverse community of city, suburban, exurban, and rural people. We want to state loud and clear that a passion for equality is steeped in Torrington’s past, present, and future.”

2/ We want to give a sonic boost to the growing visual arts movement in Torrington and NWCT
“There is a lot of superb talent and artistic resources in our region, and we want to shine a light on them,” adds Jacque Williams, a local recording artist, media personality, and co-founder of Culture For A Cause.

“We are recording this song not as an act of protest, but as an act of community celebration,” says Morrison. “Our guy, John Brown, set out from Torrington to change the world for the better and we want to celebrate that spirit 220 years after his birth.”

The song will be accompanied by a documentary-style music video featuring footage of the artists interspersed with historic images and informational graphics celebrating John Brown's steadfast dedication to equality.

The video will be featured on the CityViews TV show and its online platforms.

Yeah, but... Why is this idea REALLY so great?
The cool part is that we are supporting the local arts community—which by many accounts is the economic engine to pull NWCT out of the ditch it is in—and supporting the community's social safety nets—which are stretched frighteningly thin—by promoting equality in an educational way that can help build our community.

Moreover, our communities need simple truths to break up the fog of disinformation and conspiracy theories. The main goal of the video is a historical/educational/moral one. 

This project teaches, feeds, and entertains by promoting good community values.


What's so innovative about how you'll record the song?
We're glad you asked!
It is a Civil War song, so musically, we're going to start there. But pretty much everything has changed since the Civil War, so we want the music to change too. Today, the most important form of music in the world is hip-hop.

We are going to arrange and perform the song to represent the evolution of American roots music from the Civil War to hip-hop.

We will begin with a marching band and soldiers singing the opening verse and chorus. We'll then breakdown into a mountain-style fiddle/guitar combination that weaves into early acoustic blues before swinging into jazz for the third verse. 

Swing jazz gives way to a gospel choir, which crashes into rock and roll before dropping into hip-hop and rap for the last verse and chorus.

"The vision for this project is as cool as can be and the Red Room Sound Studio of Torrington is excited to be the facility that will welcome and record the musicians involved in bringing the vision to life. The mix of musical genres are timeless and the musicians will deliver a message of unity for the City of Torrington and the State of Connecticut".
—Lucinda Rowe and Mick Connolly, Red Room Sound Studio



THE PEOPLE:
Daniel Morrison, Executive Producer
Dan is heading up the project and overseeing the teams. He is a veteran project manager and multimedia project producer. Dan has won many national editorial awards for video, podcast, and magazine production. In his day job as Editor-in-Chief and executive producer of ProTradeCraft (a technical journal for residential contractors), he produces long-format construction shows, like Building Resilience, The Weekly, Weatherization Nation, and The Model Remodel Show.

Michael Connolly and Lucinda Rowe, Music Directors, Producers, Artists
Mick and Lucinda are music professionals who will manage the entire recording process. Mick is the recording, mixing, and mastering engineer. Lucinda will bring the vocal arrangements together. Both will produce the music, and Lucinda will front their rock and roll band on one verse. Lucinda and Mick are national recording artists and award-winning songwriters with a top-20 hit. Lucinda, the owner of Flying Key Entertainment, is an award-winning vocalist.

Jacque Williams, Producer, Artist
Jacque Williams will produce the song’s hip-hop section incorporating local rappers and singers along with some dope beats. A long-time recording artist, performer, and songwriter, Jacque also hosts WAPJ’s The Feel Good Show and the Channel 5 show City Views.

Torrington High School Marching Band, Artists
The THS Marching Band has already recorded the Civil War marching band part, which will start the song. They will also star in the video, marching past the John Brown Homestead. Torrington’s music program has made Torrington one of the Best Communities for Music Education in America nine years running, and we want to highlight that. The Band has participated in 3 national parades in Washington D.C.

Chorus Angelicus, Artists
Torrington’s Chorus Angelicus will provide a young male ensemble to sing the civil war verse with the marching band. They will also offer a larger choir to sing an acapella verse and back a gospel singer. Directed by Dr. Gabriel Löfvall, Chorus Angelicus is an internationally acclaimed choir that has toured nationally and internationally and collaborated with the Hartford Symphony.

Other musical and visual artists from CT to be announced.

HOW WE'RE GOING TO SPEND YOUR MONEY
Everyone knows how difficult it has been in pandemic-land. It has been especially difficult for musicians and other performing artists who earn the majority of their living in front of live audiences.

Rather than asking the community to bail out our artists, we're asking Torrington and the world to invest in public art so that public art can build our community.

The art will be free for the public to enjoy and featured in fundraising events to support the community.  So, we are raising money now to produce the collection of music, video, photography, and visual art, which we will then use to host fundraising events benefiting Torrington's social safety nets.

BUDGET BREAKDOWN: $13,000
- Sound Recording, Mixing, and Mastering: $3,000
- Musical Artists: $2,000
- Video production and post-production: $5,500
- Graphic art, photography: $2,000
- PPE, travel, and misc: $500

We will meet that budget with three fundraising mechanisms: Grants, crowdfunding, and sponsorships.
- Grants: $5,000
- Crowdfunding: $3,500
- Sponsorships: $4,500

Thank you in advance for investing in art that builds communities and communities that build art.