BAN: Stories of Censorship
worldwide release | AUGUST 22, 2025 | Azica Records
“One of the most provocative and necessary projects of our time.” -KGBU Radio (Denver/Boulder)
Illustration by Lynn Lane
Album Booklet
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BAN: Stories of Censorship is Apollo Chamber Players’ bold musical response to rising global threats against freedom of expression. Featuring new commissions by composers from politically embattled regions—including Afghanistan, Turkey, and the U.S.—the album amplifies voices often silenced.
Featuring cultural icon George Takei, The Book of Names with George Takei by Marty Regan recalls the Japanese-American internment through music and memory. Allison Loggins-Hull's BAN and Mark Buller's Firewall viscerally illustrate the soft tyranny and intellectual violence of book bans, while DJ Spooky’s Quantopia / The Thought Police confronts disinformation and the Orwellian erosion of truth in the digital age. In Revise?, composer Jasmine Barnes and Houston Poet Laureate Emeritus Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton explore the distortion of Black identity in American culture.
Arman (Hope) by Afghan composer Homayoun Sakhi is a lyrical reflection on artistic survival under Taliban rule, while Turkish composer Erberk Eryılmaz’s Fog Bell becomes a powerful metaphor for the role of artists as warning beacons—standing boldly and courageously against authoritarianism and censorship. Together in harmony, these works form a musical call to conscience, reminding us that in dark times, art is both resistance and refuge.
Featuring cultural icon George Takei, The Book of Names with George Takei by Marty Regan recalls the Japanese-American internment through music and memory. Allison Loggins-Hull's BAN and Mark Buller's Firewall viscerally illustrate the soft tyranny and intellectual violence of book bans, while DJ Spooky’s Quantopia / The Thought Police confronts disinformation and the Orwellian erosion of truth in the digital age. In Revise?, composer Jasmine Barnes and Houston Poet Laureate Emeritus Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton explore the distortion of Black identity in American culture.
Arman (Hope) by Afghan composer Homayoun Sakhi is a lyrical reflection on artistic survival under Taliban rule, while Turkish composer Erberk Eryılmaz’s Fog Bell becomes a powerful metaphor for the role of artists as warning beacons—standing boldly and courageously against authoritarianism and censorship. Together in harmony, these works form a musical call to conscience, reminding us that in dark times, art is both resistance and refuge.
Stream on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon
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CREDITS
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Photo Credits: Lynn Lane, Pin Lim & Michael Starghill
Apollo Founder & Director: Matthew J. Detrick Producer, Recording & Mastering Engineer: Alan Bise Cover Image & Artwork: Lynn Lane • Graphics: Teresa Southwell The Book of Names major support by Michael Managan, Rhonda Sweeney, and Thomas & Terese Kosten. Special thanks to Robert Simpson •••••• Tracks 1 & 12 recorded October 2024 Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts (Houston, TX) Tracks 2-11 recorded February 2024, October 2024 & Feb. 2025 The Clarion at Brazosport College (Lake Jackson, TX) Sis Çanı / Fog Bell audio recorded Jan. 2025 in Ankara, Turkey |
APOLLO CHAMBER PLAYERS
Matthew J. Detrick & Anabel Ramirez, violins Aria Cheregosha, viola Matthew Dudzik, cello GUEST COLLABORATORS George Takei, narrator & author Allison Loggins-Hull, flute/piccolo/stomp box Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, spoken word poet Paul D. Miller AKA DJ Spooky, narrator & electronics Errin Hatter & Jolie Rocke, soprano LeAnn Broadous-Bowers & Kaci Timmons, mezzo-soprano Wayne Ashley & Kenneth Gayle, tenor Antoine Griggs & Gabriel Walker, baritone Homayoun Sakhi, rubab Rajvinder Singh, tabla Jesus Pacheco, percussion Melih Cevdet Anday, poetry & narration Gökberk Eryılmaz, clarinet & narrator Erberk Eryılmaz, synthesizer |
Composer Notes
The Book of Names with George Takei | Marty Regan
慰霊 帳 The Book of Names with George Takei (2024, rev.)
for string quartet & narration
Marty Regan, composer
featuring GEORGE TAKEI, narrator & author
125,181 persons of Japanese ancestry are known to have been incarcerated by the U.S. Government during WWII in suspicion that they might still be loyal to Japan. These Americans - who happened to be of Japanese ancestry and therefore different,” were forced to revise their culture and ethnic history. In 2022, a comprehensive list of every person of Japanese ancestry incarcerated in the WWII camps was compiled in a sacred book called the Ireicho/‘The Book of Names,’ which is currently on display at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.
The Book of Names is a poetic musical statement intended to evoke the anguish of lost identity. The work begins quietly and pensively, but slowly becomes more dissonant and chromatic as it builds in intensity towards an agonizing climax.
A spoken tapestry of selected names from the Ireicho is woven into the musical texture before the work placidly fades away with a sense of introspection and gravitas.
The Book of Names was originally premiered by Apollo Chamber Players in February 2024 at Holocaust Museum Houston. The revised version, premiered in October 2024 in Houston’s Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, was adapted to include an original story and narration by legendary actor and activist George Takei, whose family was one of the thousands interned during WWII.
-Marty Regan
for string quartet & narration
Marty Regan, composer
featuring GEORGE TAKEI, narrator & author
125,181 persons of Japanese ancestry are known to have been incarcerated by the U.S. Government during WWII in suspicion that they might still be loyal to Japan. These Americans - who happened to be of Japanese ancestry and therefore different,” were forced to revise their culture and ethnic history. In 2022, a comprehensive list of every person of Japanese ancestry incarcerated in the WWII camps was compiled in a sacred book called the Ireicho/‘The Book of Names,’ which is currently on display at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.
The Book of Names is a poetic musical statement intended to evoke the anguish of lost identity. The work begins quietly and pensively, but slowly becomes more dissonant and chromatic as it builds in intensity towards an agonizing climax.
A spoken tapestry of selected names from the Ireicho is woven into the musical texture before the work placidly fades away with a sense of introspection and gravitas.
The Book of Names was originally premiered by Apollo Chamber Players in February 2024 at Holocaust Museum Houston. The revised version, premiered in October 2024 in Houston’s Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, was adapted to include an original story and narration by legendary actor and activist George Takei, whose family was one of the thousands interned during WWII.
-Marty Regan
George, far right, with his family in LA circa 1940s (photo courtesy of George Takei)
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Revise? | Jasmine Barnes & Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton
Revise? (2024)
for poet, choir and string quartet
Jasmine Barnes, composer
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, poet & librettist
Revise? confronts the quiet violence of erasure—of identity, history, and culture. In a time when Black stories are stripped from textbooks, art, and memory, the piece asks: How long until there’s nothing left to quiet?
With text by poet Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, Revise? weaves music and language into a shared reckoning. Voices question. Melodies resist. Influenced by spirituals, jazz, West African rhythms, and hip-hop, the work becomes a living archive of presence—of Blackness unapologetically sung and spoken.
Through shifting tones, interruptions, and dissonance, the music mirrors the struggle: to be heard, to pivot, to endure. The “sound of erasure” looms—but still, the truth presses forward.
Commissioned by Apollo Chamber Players for the Silenced Voices season, Revise? premiered in February 2024 at Holocaust Museum Houston and Unity of Houston.
-Jasmine Barnes & Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
for poet, choir and string quartet
Jasmine Barnes, composer
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, poet & librettist
Revise? confronts the quiet violence of erasure—of identity, history, and culture. In a time when Black stories are stripped from textbooks, art, and memory, the piece asks: How long until there’s nothing left to quiet?
With text by poet Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, Revise? weaves music and language into a shared reckoning. Voices question. Melodies resist. Influenced by spirituals, jazz, West African rhythms, and hip-hop, the work becomes a living archive of presence—of Blackness unapologetically sung and spoken.
Through shifting tones, interruptions, and dissonance, the music mirrors the struggle: to be heard, to pivot, to endure. The “sound of erasure” looms—but still, the truth presses forward.
Commissioned by Apollo Chamber Players for the Silenced Voices season, Revise? premiered in February 2024 at Holocaust Museum Houston and Unity of Houston.
-Jasmine Barnes & Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
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Quantopia/The Thought Police | Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
Quantopia/The Thought Police (2025)
for string quartet, narrator & electronics
Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, composer & DJ artist, narrator
Quantopia/The Thought Police is my sonic response to the age of “post-truth.” Orwell’s 1984 isn’t fiction anymore—it’s a mirror. Fake news spreads faster than facts, and the Thought Police feel less like dystopia and more like daily life. I was inspired by how Orwell exposed power’s manipulation of language and memory.
Today, algorithms curate our reality and stupidity - profitable, viral stupidity - undermines democracy. Bonhoeffer called it the most dangerous force of all. My music and work channels that tension, and this composition seeks to traverse cultural boundaries, embracing a collage-like approach to sound. It is a dialogue across time, a conversation between Orwell’s warnings and our present reality.
With Apollo Chamber Players, I’ve crafted meditation on resistance—a moving anthem for minds that refuse to be controlled. This is music for a world fighting to remember what truth sounds like.
- Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
for string quartet, narrator & electronics
Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, composer & DJ artist, narrator
Quantopia/The Thought Police is my sonic response to the age of “post-truth.” Orwell’s 1984 isn’t fiction anymore—it’s a mirror. Fake news spreads faster than facts, and the Thought Police feel less like dystopia and more like daily life. I was inspired by how Orwell exposed power’s manipulation of language and memory.
Today, algorithms curate our reality and stupidity - profitable, viral stupidity - undermines democracy. Bonhoeffer called it the most dangerous force of all. My music and work channels that tension, and this composition seeks to traverse cultural boundaries, embracing a collage-like approach to sound. It is a dialogue across time, a conversation between Orwell’s warnings and our present reality.
With Apollo Chamber Players, I’ve crafted meditation on resistance—a moving anthem for minds that refuse to be controlled. This is music for a world fighting to remember what truth sounds like.
- Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
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Sis Çanı / Fog Bell | Erberk Eryılmaz
Sis Çanı / Fog Bell (2025)
for string quartet, percussion and pre-recorded audio
Erberk Eryılmaz, composer & synthesizer
with Jesus Pacheco, percussion
Melih Cevdet Anday, poetry & narration
Gökberk Eryılmaz, clarinet and narration of Atatürk’s quotation
Sis Çanı / Fog Bell for string quartet, percussion, and pre-recorded audio (narration, clarinet, and synthesizer) was composed in 2025 for Apollo Chamber Players. The piece incorporates a quote from Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s Address to Youth and Telegraph Post, a poem by Melih Cevdet Anday (1915–2002).
We are living in turbulent times across the world, from Turkey to the United States. In such moments, I believe music becomes even more important. Throughout history, artists have faced pressure and censorship. Over the past five years, I have experienced this in Turkey.
A crucial part of our role as artists is to persevere. During these challenging times, Atatürk’s words from Address to Youth have been a source of motivation for me and the people of Turkey, reminding us not to give up:
“When it is time to fulfill your duty, you will not consider the circumstances or limitations surrounding you.”
Melih Cevdet Anday, a left-wing poet, also endured censorship in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1952, he wrote Telegraph Post, a poem that speaks to the resilience of artists—their duty to persist, to write, to play, and to guide society, like a fog bell cutting through the mist.
With this piece I aim to echo these ideas, and declare that we will not stop expressing our thoughts.
-Erberk Eryılmaz
for string quartet, percussion and pre-recorded audio
Erberk Eryılmaz, composer & synthesizer
with Jesus Pacheco, percussion
Melih Cevdet Anday, poetry & narration
Gökberk Eryılmaz, clarinet and narration of Atatürk’s quotation
Sis Çanı / Fog Bell for string quartet, percussion, and pre-recorded audio (narration, clarinet, and synthesizer) was composed in 2025 for Apollo Chamber Players. The piece incorporates a quote from Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s Address to Youth and Telegraph Post, a poem by Melih Cevdet Anday (1915–2002).
We are living in turbulent times across the world, from Turkey to the United States. In such moments, I believe music becomes even more important. Throughout history, artists have faced pressure and censorship. Over the past five years, I have experienced this in Turkey.
A crucial part of our role as artists is to persevere. During these challenging times, Atatürk’s words from Address to Youth have been a source of motivation for me and the people of Turkey, reminding us not to give up:
“When it is time to fulfill your duty, you will not consider the circumstances or limitations surrounding you.”
Melih Cevdet Anday, a left-wing poet, also endured censorship in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1952, he wrote Telegraph Post, a poem that speaks to the resilience of artists—their duty to persist, to write, to play, and to guide society, like a fog bell cutting through the mist.
With this piece I aim to echo these ideas, and declare that we will not stop expressing our thoughts.
-Erberk Eryılmaz
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BAN | Allison Loggins-Hull
BAN (2023)
for flute/piccolo/stomp box and string quartet
Allison Loggins-Hull, composer-performer
Across the United States, there has been an alarming rapid increase in the number of books and stories being banned. According to PEN America, an organization defending student’s first amendment rights:
-During the first half of the 2022-23 school year PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans lists 1,477 instances of individual books banned, affecting 874 unique titles, an increase of 28 percent compared to the prior six months (January – June 2022)
-Overwhelmingly, book banners continue to target stories by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.
As noted in PEN America’s previous Banned in the USA reports, the movement to ban books that has grown since 2021 is deeply undemocratic, as it seeks to impose restrictions on all students and families based on the preferences of a few parents or community members.
The nature of this movement is not one of isolated challenges to books by parents in different communities; rather, it is an organized effort by advocacy groups and state politicians with the ultimate aim of limiting access to certain stories, perspectives, and information.
Throughout BAN, musical voices are strained and forced into silence, representing the overwhelming number of marginalized stories being shelved. The digital stomp box samples the sounds of banned books being slammed, illustrating the exponential pile-up of narratives being censored.
- Allison Loggins-Hull
for flute/piccolo/stomp box and string quartet
Allison Loggins-Hull, composer-performer
Across the United States, there has been an alarming rapid increase in the number of books and stories being banned. According to PEN America, an organization defending student’s first amendment rights:
-During the first half of the 2022-23 school year PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans lists 1,477 instances of individual books banned, affecting 874 unique titles, an increase of 28 percent compared to the prior six months (January – June 2022)
-Overwhelmingly, book banners continue to target stories by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.
As noted in PEN America’s previous Banned in the USA reports, the movement to ban books that has grown since 2021 is deeply undemocratic, as it seeks to impose restrictions on all students and families based on the preferences of a few parents or community members.
The nature of this movement is not one of isolated challenges to books by parents in different communities; rather, it is an organized effort by advocacy groups and state politicians with the ultimate aim of limiting access to certain stories, perspectives, and information.
Throughout BAN, musical voices are strained and forced into silence, representing the overwhelming number of marginalized stories being shelved. The digital stomp box samples the sounds of banned books being slammed, illustrating the exponential pile-up of narratives being censored.
- Allison Loggins-Hull
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Arman (Hope) | Homayoun Sakhi
“Music is again banned in Afghanistan --
they cannot silence this from the people of the world.”
- Homayoun Sakhi, rubab composer-performer
they cannot silence this from the people of the world.”
- Homayoun Sakhi, rubab composer-performer
Arman (Hope) (2022)
for string quartet, rubab & tabla
Homayoun Sakhi, composer & rubab
Rajvinder Singh, tabla
Arman, meaning “hope” in Persian and Pashto, is a deeply significant concept in Afghan culture, embodying resilience and the unyielding aspiration for a better future despite the country’s long history of conflict, oppression, and human rights violations.
Hope is what has sustained generations of Afghans through war, displacement, and political turmoil, fueling their determination to rebuild and preserve their art, and sense of identity. Arman emerges as both a lament for lost peace and a vision for renewal,
symbolizing the enduring spirit of a people who refuse to be defined solely by their struggles but rather by their dreams of justice, dignity, and freedom.
Arman (Hope) was composed by celebrated Afghan-American rubab performer Homayoun Sakhi. Commissioned by Apollo Chamber Players in 2022, it was premiered at Holocaust
Museum Houston as part of a program titled BANNED: Music.
- Homayoun Sakhi & Matthew J. Detrick
for string quartet, rubab & tabla
Homayoun Sakhi, composer & rubab
Rajvinder Singh, tabla
Arman, meaning “hope” in Persian and Pashto, is a deeply significant concept in Afghan culture, embodying resilience and the unyielding aspiration for a better future despite the country’s long history of conflict, oppression, and human rights violations.
Hope is what has sustained generations of Afghans through war, displacement, and political turmoil, fueling their determination to rebuild and preserve their art, and sense of identity. Arman emerges as both a lament for lost peace and a vision for renewal,
symbolizing the enduring spirit of a people who refuse to be defined solely by their struggles but rather by their dreams of justice, dignity, and freedom.
Arman (Hope) was composed by celebrated Afghan-American rubab performer Homayoun Sakhi. Commissioned by Apollo Chamber Players in 2022, it was premiered at Holocaust
Museum Houston as part of a program titled BANNED: Music.
- Homayoun Sakhi & Matthew J. Detrick
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Firewall | Mark Buller
String Quartet No. 6: FIREWALL (2023)
Mark Buller, composer
FIREWALL, my sixth string quartet, was written for the wonderful Apollo Chamber Players. The piece was written for a concert with the theme “Banned,” so I turned to the topic of banned books, unfortunately a topic that continues ever to rear its ugly head.
Much as in the novel Fahrenheit 451, one small but meaningful way we can fight back against censorship is by re-experiencing the stories of the books in question, by taking to heart the lessons offered in each. In this way each reader, each listener to the again-rehearsed stories, becomes another brick in the firewall.
The first movement kicks everything off with a flourish, a frenzied opening setting the stage for the drama to come. The following movement explores themes from Catcher in the Rye, a character lost and wandering as he attempts to find meaning and purpose.
“Billy Pilgram has come unstuck in time.” Thus begins Kurt Vonnegut’s great Slaughterhouse-Five, a novel which juxtaposes the horrors of the firebombing of Dresden with episodes throughout Billy’s life, including a whimsical existence on Tralfamadore, a faraway planet. Much as the main character experiences these jarring tonal shifts, the music veers back and forth – interrupted at
times with Vonnegut’s stock phrase, “so it goes.”
Huckleberry Finn is the topic of the penultimate movement. My favorite moment in the book is when Huck, having so far assisted the previously-enslaved Jim on his way to freedom, wrestles with his conscience. His religious upbringing taught him that enslaved people should be returned to slaveowners, but he knows he needs to help his fellow human.
In a moment of clarity, he decides to do the right thing, summing it all up by evoking the punishment he expects for going against the dictates of society: “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.” Musically, this is represented by a folksy solo violin, pondering important matters amid the quiet flow of the Mississippi. As the first rays of dawn begin to appear, Huck experiences his moment of transcendence.
The final movement is a lighthearted dance inspired by characters in The Great Gatsby. We dance through the night, but even amidst the fun and frivolity, there lurks a dark undercurrent.
-Mark Buller
Mark Buller, composer
FIREWALL, my sixth string quartet, was written for the wonderful Apollo Chamber Players. The piece was written for a concert with the theme “Banned,” so I turned to the topic of banned books, unfortunately a topic that continues ever to rear its ugly head.
Much as in the novel Fahrenheit 451, one small but meaningful way we can fight back against censorship is by re-experiencing the stories of the books in question, by taking to heart the lessons offered in each. In this way each reader, each listener to the again-rehearsed stories, becomes another brick in the firewall.
The first movement kicks everything off with a flourish, a frenzied opening setting the stage for the drama to come. The following movement explores themes from Catcher in the Rye, a character lost and wandering as he attempts to find meaning and purpose.
“Billy Pilgram has come unstuck in time.” Thus begins Kurt Vonnegut’s great Slaughterhouse-Five, a novel which juxtaposes the horrors of the firebombing of Dresden with episodes throughout Billy’s life, including a whimsical existence on Tralfamadore, a faraway planet. Much as the main character experiences these jarring tonal shifts, the music veers back and forth – interrupted at
times with Vonnegut’s stock phrase, “so it goes.”
Huckleberry Finn is the topic of the penultimate movement. My favorite moment in the book is when Huck, having so far assisted the previously-enslaved Jim on his way to freedom, wrestles with his conscience. His religious upbringing taught him that enslaved people should be returned to slaveowners, but he knows he needs to help his fellow human.
In a moment of clarity, he decides to do the right thing, summing it all up by evoking the punishment he expects for going against the dictates of society: “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.” Musically, this is represented by a folksy solo violin, pondering important matters amid the quiet flow of the Mississippi. As the first rays of dawn begin to appear, Huck experiences his moment of transcendence.
The final movement is a lighthearted dance inspired by characters in The Great Gatsby. We dance through the night, but even amidst the fun and frivolity, there lurks a dark undercurrent.
-Mark Buller
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Poetry & Narration Text
The Book of Names with George Takei | George Takei's Story
After the bombing of Hiroshima and then Nagasaki in 1945, the war with Japan ended. America had won, and my family among 125,181 persons of Japanese ancestry had to face the challenge of trying to reconstruct our lives in an America still hostile to us. The government gave us each a one-way ticket to anywhere in the United States and $25 to rebuild our lives.
We had to fend for ourselves, starting with nothing, and we were still seen by some
Americans as the enemy. My parents decided to return to Los Angeles, the city where they had married and started our family. Through it all, my parents never lost their moral compass, and continued to raise us by example and with dignity. Our parents had lived through the darkest breakdown of our democracy, and yet our father taught us the significance of participation in a participatory democracy.
I was active in student government. I was elected Student Body President at Mt. Vernon Junior High, and, at Los Angeles High, I was elected Senior Board President. I volunteered
in countless political campaigns. Very slowly, justice seemed to take small steps back toward our community.
In 1980, the United States Congress formed the Commission on Wartime Internment of Civilians. In August of 1981, I testified before that Commission. I ended my testimony with these words:
I have come to understand that as noble and as precious
as our American ideals are, they can also be very fragile.
Democracy can only be as good or as strong or as true as
the people who make it so.
It is my belief that America today is strong enough and
confident enough to recognize a grievous failure. I believe
that it is honest enough to acknowledge that damage was
done. And I would like to think that it is honorable enough
to provide proper restitution for the injury that was done.
For in a larger sense, injury was done to those very ideals
that we hold as fundamental to our American system.
We, all of us as Americans, must strive to redeem those
precepts that faltered years ago when I was a boy.
And in that role as an American, I urge restitution for the
incarceration of American citizens of Japanese ancestry,
because that restitution would, at the same time, be a
bold move to strengthen the integrity of America.
That was my testimony before the Congressional commission more than 43 years ago.
In 1984, the commission produced a report on its findings. The commission found the internment was caused by three issues:
One—war hysteria.
Two—racial prejudice.
Three—the failure of political leadership.
The commission’s report was sent to the White House. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan, on behalf of the people of the United States, signed the Civil Liberties Act and officially apologized for the internment and paid redress of $20,000 to the survivors who were still alive at the time of the signing of the bill.
Our democracy is a precious ideal that requires all of us, as Americans, to actively engage with it to keep it strong and true and shining.
-GEORGE TAKEI (2024)
-G
We had to fend for ourselves, starting with nothing, and we were still seen by some
Americans as the enemy. My parents decided to return to Los Angeles, the city where they had married and started our family. Through it all, my parents never lost their moral compass, and continued to raise us by example and with dignity. Our parents had lived through the darkest breakdown of our democracy, and yet our father taught us the significance of participation in a participatory democracy.
I was active in student government. I was elected Student Body President at Mt. Vernon Junior High, and, at Los Angeles High, I was elected Senior Board President. I volunteered
in countless political campaigns. Very slowly, justice seemed to take small steps back toward our community.
In 1980, the United States Congress formed the Commission on Wartime Internment of Civilians. In August of 1981, I testified before that Commission. I ended my testimony with these words:
I have come to understand that as noble and as precious
as our American ideals are, they can also be very fragile.
Democracy can only be as good or as strong or as true as
the people who make it so.
It is my belief that America today is strong enough and
confident enough to recognize a grievous failure. I believe
that it is honest enough to acknowledge that damage was
done. And I would like to think that it is honorable enough
to provide proper restitution for the injury that was done.
For in a larger sense, injury was done to those very ideals
that we hold as fundamental to our American system.
We, all of us as Americans, must strive to redeem those
precepts that faltered years ago when I was a boy.
And in that role as an American, I urge restitution for the
incarceration of American citizens of Japanese ancestry,
because that restitution would, at the same time, be a
bold move to strengthen the integrity of America.
That was my testimony before the Congressional commission more than 43 years ago.
In 1984, the commission produced a report on its findings. The commission found the internment was caused by three issues:
One—war hysteria.
Two—racial prejudice.
Three—the failure of political leadership.
The commission’s report was sent to the White House. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan, on behalf of the people of the United States, signed the Civil Liberties Act and officially apologized for the internment and paid redress of $20,000 to the survivors who were still alive at the time of the signing of the bill.
Our democracy is a precious ideal that requires all of us, as Americans, to actively engage with it to keep it strong and true and shining.
-GEORGE TAKEI (2024)
-G
George, far right, with his family in LA circa 1940s (photo courtesy of George Takei)
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Revise? Poetry by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
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D.E.E.P.
They would have you believe That noise was the greatest threat. That if we gather together The shear volume of our breath Could blackout ten city blocks. Our protests locked front page As if to sell an idea that volume equates danger. We have always been a loud people. Brought riot over through the Middle Passage Perfected rebellion like Turner and Tubman We loud-mouth culture Announcing our need for progress Civil rights, equality . We dream like a billboard in stereo, Always have. Blackness on big screen. Acting like our lives are meant to be lived Till Social Security, daydream of our kids burying us Before we could them Telling a story unbound, unbanned. They would have you believe their edit That this kind of clamor is chaos That the decibel we thrive at Seeks to deafen their existence. But it is the silence.. The muted ring of nothingness… That, we should fear the most We have always known of the midnight meetings That turn crosses into bonfire into backfire into misfire. Whispers that turn ballot boxes into time machines, Sighs of a quiet majority Plotting uprisings in pantomime Sweeping language under thin changes And calling it truth. You didn’t know “Black folks actually benefited from slavery” You didn’t know “AI Frederick Douglass says we are built on compromise” A wink and a gun lighting a gas fire Our bodies gaslit dangling from a noose, in a library, over a gerrymandered fire pit. We kick and crackle We howl and scream And they have learned how quiet a smile smolder. How discreet a well executed plan can pull the tongue out. Omission lives where the truth is not brave enough to speak. Censorship is the half-note rest taking up the whole beat. the scalpel to the meat We push to be heard When underneath us They work in silence slicing back every law Resecting the second, the minute, the century. The lobotomy of silence is the most deadly. The one accord that nods across the room And knows who does not belong. Whose story does not deserve to be remembered. Who is holding the mic But is never gonna be amplified. We live in a country that’s been turning us down for years. And yet to know this Doesn’t mean we stop speaking. Doesn’t mean we stop living a version of life That might be altered when retold Around their fires. Cannot mean we tire, drown ourselves out to acquiesce. Will not mean that the echo ringing in our chests Won’t find its way out. Stage after age after rage after page Until there is nothing left to quiet. And knowing our enemy, We will consider the margins as much as the lines themselves. the (breath) as much as the words we speak. The empty shelves and the missing pages The erasers put to work on history we, Will write ourselves back in. We, Will take the stolen narrative back in our own hands By whisper or by might. We defy by existing, Whether speaker loud or church hum quiet. We revise and reprise and revise and revive! Until we are the story you can’t white or tune out! |
CHORUS
How long ‘til there’s nothing left to quiet? How long ‘til the truth makes itself known? Will history come to light? Will truth make itself shine? Will you revise us away? Will you revise us away? How long till there’s nothing left to quiet? How long ‘til the truth makes itself known? Will history come to light? Will truth make itself shine? Will you revise us away? Will you revise us away? It’s the silence creepin’ in silence creepin in It’s the violence creepin in Violence creepin in It’s the silence creepin’ in silence creepin in It’s the violence creepin in Violence creepin in It’s the silence creepin’ insilence creepin in It’s the violence creepin in Violence creepin in REVISE! REVISE! REVISE! REVISE! It’s time! There’s nothing going quiet. It’s time truth makes itself known. History coming to light, The truth will always shine. You can not revise us away! You will not revise us away Today! |
Quantopia/The Thought Police by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
To know and not to know.
To be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling
carefully constructed lies.
To hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled
out,
knowing them to be contradictory,
and believing in both of them.
To use logic against logic,
to repudiate morality while laying claim to it,
to believe that democracy was impossible and that the
Party was the guardian of democracy.
To forget whatever it was necessary to forget,
then to draw it back into memory again at the moment
when it was needed,
and then promptly to forget it again.
And above all --
to apply the same process to the process itself.
That was the ultimate subtlety:
consciously to induce unconsciousness,
and then, once again, to become unconscious of the
act of hypnosis you had just performed.
Even to understand the word “doublethink” involved the
use of doublethink.
⸻
The Party intellectual knows in which direction his
memories must be altered.
He knows, therefore, that he is playing tricks with
reality.
But by the exercise of doublethink, he also satisfies
himself that reality is not violated.
The process has to be conscious,
or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision,
but it also has to be unconscious,
or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of
guilt.
To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing them,
to forget any fact that has become inconvenient,
and then, when it becomes necessary again,
to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is
needed,
to deny the existence of objective reality
and all the while to take account of the reality which
one denies --
all this is indispensably necessary.Even in using the word doublethink, it is necessary to exercise doublethink.
For by using the word, one admits that one is tampering
with reality.
By a fresh act of doublethink, one erases this
knowledge;
and so on, indefinitely,
with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.
⸻
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes
and ears.
It was their final,
most essential command.
His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power
arrayed against him,
the ease with which any Party intellectual would
overthrow him in debate,
the subtle arguments which he would not be able to
understand,
much less answer.
And yet he was right.
They were wrong, and he was right.
The obvious,
the silly,
and the true had to be defended.
The solid world exists, its laws do not change.
Stones are hard,
water is wet,
objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s center.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four.
If that is granted, all else follows.
To be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling
carefully constructed lies.
To hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled
out,
knowing them to be contradictory,
and believing in both of them.
To use logic against logic,
to repudiate morality while laying claim to it,
to believe that democracy was impossible and that the
Party was the guardian of democracy.
To forget whatever it was necessary to forget,
then to draw it back into memory again at the moment
when it was needed,
and then promptly to forget it again.
And above all --
to apply the same process to the process itself.
That was the ultimate subtlety:
consciously to induce unconsciousness,
and then, once again, to become unconscious of the
act of hypnosis you had just performed.
Even to understand the word “doublethink” involved the
use of doublethink.
⸻
The Party intellectual knows in which direction his
memories must be altered.
He knows, therefore, that he is playing tricks with
reality.
But by the exercise of doublethink, he also satisfies
himself that reality is not violated.
The process has to be conscious,
or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision,
but it also has to be unconscious,
or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of
guilt.
To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing them,
to forget any fact that has become inconvenient,
and then, when it becomes necessary again,
to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is
needed,
to deny the existence of objective reality
and all the while to take account of the reality which
one denies --
all this is indispensably necessary.Even in using the word doublethink, it is necessary to exercise doublethink.
For by using the word, one admits that one is tampering
with reality.
By a fresh act of doublethink, one erases this
knowledge;
and so on, indefinitely,
with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.
⸻
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes
and ears.
It was their final,
most essential command.
His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power
arrayed against him,
the ease with which any Party intellectual would
overthrow him in debate,
the subtle arguments which he would not be able to
understand,
much less answer.
And yet he was right.
They were wrong, and he was right.
The obvious,
the silly,
and the true had to be defended.
The solid world exists, its laws do not change.
Stones are hard,
water is wet,
objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s center.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four.
If that is granted, all else follows.
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Sis Çanı / Fog Bell by Erberk Eryılmaz
Reading:
"vazifeye atılmak için içinde bulunacağın vaziyetin
imkân ve şeraitini düşünmeyeceksin" - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
“When it is time to fulfill your duty, you will
not consider the circumstances or limitations
surrounding you.” - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
"Uyumayacaksın
Memleketinin hali
Seni seslerle uyandıracak
Oturup yazacaksın
Çünkü sen artık o sen değilsin
Sen şimdi ıssız bir telgrafhane gibisin
Durmadan sesler alacak
Sesler vereceksin
Uyuyamayacaksın
Düzelmeden memleketin hali
Düzelmeden dünyanın hali
Gözüne uyku giremez ki...
Uyumayacaksın
Bir sis çanı gibi gecenin içinde
Ta gün ışıyıncaya kadar
Vakur metin sade
Çalacaksın."
-Melih Cevdet Anday (1952)
-Translation-
"You won’t sleep.
The state of your homeland
Will wake you up with its sounds.
You’ll sit down and write,
Because you are no longer the person you once were.
Now, you are like an isolated telegraph station,
Constantly receiving sounds,
Constantly sending them.
You won’t sleep.
Not until your land is whole,
Not until the world is whole
You won’t be able to close your eyes.
You won’t sleep.
Like a fog bell sounding through the night,
Until the break of dawn,
With dignity, calm, and simplicity,
You will sound."
-Melih Cevdet Anday, 1952
"vazifeye atılmak için içinde bulunacağın vaziyetin
imkân ve şeraitini düşünmeyeceksin" - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
“When it is time to fulfill your duty, you will
not consider the circumstances or limitations
surrounding you.” - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
"Uyumayacaksın
Memleketinin hali
Seni seslerle uyandıracak
Oturup yazacaksın
Çünkü sen artık o sen değilsin
Sen şimdi ıssız bir telgrafhane gibisin
Durmadan sesler alacak
Sesler vereceksin
Uyuyamayacaksın
Düzelmeden memleketin hali
Düzelmeden dünyanın hali
Gözüne uyku giremez ki...
Uyumayacaksın
Bir sis çanı gibi gecenin içinde
Ta gün ışıyıncaya kadar
Vakur metin sade
Çalacaksın."
-Melih Cevdet Anday (1952)
-Translation-
"You won’t sleep.
The state of your homeland
Will wake you up with its sounds.
You’ll sit down and write,
Because you are no longer the person you once were.
Now, you are like an isolated telegraph station,
Constantly receiving sounds,
Constantly sending them.
You won’t sleep.
Not until your land is whole,
Not until the world is whole
You won’t be able to close your eyes.
You won’t sleep.
Like a fog bell sounding through the night,
Until the break of dawn,
With dignity, calm, and simplicity,
You will sound."
-Melih Cevdet Anday, 1952
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