- Hands Across the Hills
JOIN US! Sunday Songfest March 13, 7pm online
Building Bridges: A Concert of Songs & Conversation Across Divides with Listeners Sharing
Four singers—in Kentucky, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Western Massachusetts—share songs about building connections across communities and cultures we too often assume are hopelessly divided.
These gifted vocalists are also committed practitioners of dialoguing, of humanizing us all. They interlace their music, traditional and original, with conversation opportunities for online listeners to share their own stories and songs.
This unique concert and dialogue event is sponsored by Hands Across the Hills (HATH) and honors the passing of Paula Green, inspiration for HATH, and for decades an international peacebuilder in post-conflict areas all over the world.
The Singers
Clockwise from upper left:
Ben Fink, Sarah Pirtle, Eric Law, Gwen Johnson
Ben Fink, currently living in Philadelphia, has organized with rural and urban communities across the country, and sings everything from Bach to Sondheim to shape notes.
Interfaith minister and peace education author Sarah Pirtle has written over 300 songs, including the theme song for Hands Across the Hills. For thirty years she has directed the Discovery Center for Peacebuilding in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. Seventy-five songs from her nine recordings are free online at Sarah Hope Sings.
The Rev. Eric H. F. Law is the founder of Kaleidoscope Institute in Los Angeles, which provides training for the facilitation of brave and gracious conversations across our differences. He is a singer/songwriter who has released three albums in the last five years chronicling his experience living in the polarizing culture of the US.
Gwen Johnson hails from Hemphill, Kentucky, and is the daughter and granddaughter of coal miners. She is the founder of Black Sheep Bakery and Catering, and a board member of Hemphill Community Center. She has worked as an administrator in the University of Kentucky’s Early Childhood Development program since 2003.
