<\/p>\n
Here in New Orleans, about a year ago, I was sitting in the Treme Coffee House<\/span><\/a> reading my newspaper and eating a bagel, when a woman walked in and sat down at the piano. Now, usually the only people who use that piano are kids from the school next door, and none of them can play well, they just come in and mash the keys and make a hell of a racket. But as this woman began to play and sing, I realized she was not just much better than the kids. She was downright exceptional. I was the only other person in the coffee shop, and so I got essentially a one-person concert. Her music was so beautiful and soulful, her playing raw and emotional. She was still playing when I left, and the next time I went in, I asked the owner who she was.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cParis Flowerz,\u201d he said. \u201cShe sings in the French Quarter.\u201d Well, I found Paris and we went for coffee, and I asked her where I could find her work, and the answer was nowhere. <\/em>She just busks. No professional recordings. Sometimes, people will come by and take a video of her and upload it to their social media. One of these videos has over a million views on TikTok. It doesn\u2019t even identify who Paris is, so she got no money from it. She finds it tough to even keep a roof over her head, living entirely on tips. Most people who listen don\u2019t tip. Even people who take videos sometimes don\u2019t tip.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anyway, Paris and I became friends, and I\u2019ve wanted to find a way to share her wonderful voice with the world for a while. We started recording tracks in my office at Current Affairs, <\/em>using the magazine\u2019s podcasting microphone. It turns out that with Logic Pro, a decent microphone, and a super talented singer, you can make music that sounds damn good even in a magazine office. We just need the right song, <\/em>I thought. Since then I\u2019ve been on the lookout for a song for Paris.<\/p>\n Then I heard \u201cIt Isn\u2019t Nice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt Isn\u2019t Nice<\/span><\/a>\u201d is by Malvina Reynolds, a folk-blues singer who also wrote \u201cLittle Boxes<\/span><\/a>,\u201d a satire of suburban conformity, and \u201cWhat Have They Done To the Rain<\/span><\/a>?\u201d about nuclear testing. \u201cIt Isn\u2019t Nice\u201d is about the Civil Rights movement, and the importance of nonviolent direct action, even when such action is disruptive, possibly against local ordinances, and \u201cnot nice.\u201d It\u2019s about those who scold protesters for their methods but don\u2019t do anything to stop injustice. The version I heard first was by Barbara Dane<\/span><\/a> (herself another great protest singer<\/span><\/a>) and the Chambers Brothers<\/span><\/a>, with a new tune written by Dane and Judy Collins. It contains the lines:<\/p>\n When we deal with men of ice<\/em><\/p>\n You can’t deal in ways so nice<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/em>Well, hell, I thought, there couldn\u2019t be anything more relevant than advice on how to deal with \u201cmen of ice\u201d using confrontational civil disobedience! So I took the song to Paris. With a few updated lyrics, we recorded it in my office, I worked up a backing track, and Current Affairs <\/em>musician-in-chief<\/span><\/a> Danny Bradley added a light dash of acoustic guitar. And we had ourselves a highly topical song, in Paris\u2019s incredible voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n Between starting work on the song and recording Paris\u2019s vocals, Renee Good was killed by ICE<\/span><\/a>, so I adjusted one line to be about \u201cblocking the roadway\u201d (the original song has \u201cblock the doorway\u201d). We didn\u2019t originally intend for it to be a tribute to her, but now it is.<\/p>\n We filmed a video for the song in the French Quarter, at one of Paris\u2019s typical busking spots. I edited the video to include shots of ICE\u2019s recent horrifying brutality, the efforts of Americans to resist the encroachment of ICE thugs, and footage of the original Civil Rights movement that Reynolds wrote the song about, showing the parallels between those who weren\u2019t \u201cnice\u201d then and those who aren\u2019t \u201cnice\u201d now. If you look fast you\u2019ll spot Malvina Reynolds herself in the video, as well as Congressional candidate and former Current Affairs <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>podcast guest<\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/span>Kat Abughazaleh, who like many others was brutally thrown to the ground<\/span><\/a> by an ICE agent.\u00a0<\/p>\n There could not be anything more important than resisting the lawless aggression of Trump\u2019s ICE. They are tearing families apart, harassing and brutalizing people, and it is only going to get worse now that the organization is on a hiring spree after having been flooded with new funding. People are risking being blinded<\/span><\/a> or killed trying to protect their neighbors. This is heroic.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I hope you\u2019ll listen to Paris\u2019s new version of \u201cIt Isn\u2019t Nice\u201d and share the video widely. It documents ICE\u2019s abuses of power, but also offers hope and encouragement to the movement that will ultimately defeat fascism. The video of \u201cIt Isn\u2019t Nice\u201d is available on YouTube<\/a>. You can also listen to it on Soundcloud<\/a>. We\u2019ll be getting it on the other platforms soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n Like I said, Paris makes her living singing on the street. So if you enjoy her performance, please consider giving her a tip. She\u2019s $parisflowerz504 <\/span>on CashApp. Don\u2019t be like the tourists who listen to her performance but then don\u2019t even toss in a few bucks to help her keep doing this. You can follow her on Instagram @parisflowerz<\/a>. She\u2019s going to be releasing more music this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n