Youth Conveys Environmental Message through Song
This past summer, President Obama’s Great Outdoors Initiative visited the Hudson Valley to host a Youth Listening session in Hyde Park, NY. In the true spirit of our founder, Pete Seeger, Clearwater’s Power of Song youth and the Urban Farmer’s League of Newburgh, NY captured the energy and imagination of that day afterwards in this video featuring a rewritten version of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.” Their messages are clear in the song and in the video:
America’s Great Outdoors Version of Woody Guthrie’s
“This Land is Your Land”
Additional verses written by Sarah Armour, Walker Rumpf and Matt Emmer
Chorus
This Land is Your Land
This land is my land
From California
To the New York Island
From the redwood forest
To the Gulf Stream waters,
This land was made for you and me!
From the front of the classroom
To the waves of the river
Through the trails in the forest,
My freedom-giver –
With the new dawn rising,
I heard children asking, “Is this land made for you and me?”
When our world is concrete
And our access blocked by
An asphalt desert,
Then why go outside?
When a single seed can
Break through injustice –
That seed will feed
my community!
Spoken Word Sections
But if it’s my land it’s supposed to be from sea to shining sea,
Cause the oil spills and garbage really need to be cleaned
We didn’t realize this land could really be
That mountaintop ruled by purple majesties.
You see this land was made for you and me
So together we watch nature at its best –
To the concrete jungle where the people never rest
People join together to produce the right green
Just to balance out the positive, unnecessary mean –
And together we join hands to sing in unity
Chorus and Counter chorus
This Land is Your Land
…This Land is Your Land
This land is my land
…This land is mine
From California
…From Maine to Montana
To the New York Island
…Desert to the shore
From the redwood forest
…We sing that This Land is Your Land
To the Gulf Stream waters,
…This land is mine
This land was made for you and me!
Given Clearwater’s role on the river and its powerful youth leadership programming, the organization helped bring in youth from New York City to Albany to participate in the youth listening session. The youth were undeniably passionate with over 300 arriving in Hyde Park to contribute their ideas and concerns about the environment.
This video has been tapped by the Department of Interior Youth Division to be included in a multimedia project that will be part of the package of recommendations presented to President Obama in a report on the listening sessions. The messages of the Hudson Valley youth will become part of a national message and part of the formal policy recommendations for a 21st century conservation agenda.
As a collaborative project, Clearwater partnered with Our Hudson Tomorrow and the Electronic Music Foundation to support their efforts and produce this video featuring these young environmental leaders.
Clearwater is proud of its youth, and the fact that they are inspired to speak out for their environment shows that, more than ever before we need to invest in our youth in helping them realize a green, sustainable future.
Keep the conversation going!
Share Clearwater’s video with others on your own Facebook page and help get the word out!
