Saturday, July 16, 2011
" Up With People"
"I thought I Knew..."
I think it is impossible to have been a teenager during the 70s or 80s and not know about Up With People, a touring group of performers, mostly young people, who sing and dance and carry a message of peace, unity, understanding, and all those wonderful ideals. When I was a teenager, my family hosted two young women who toured with the group when they came to my town. I actually know two young men who each spent a year with the group. So I thought I knew all about Up With People. They were idealistic, pleasant, talented, but a little hokey and naive. Wow. Did I ever not know what the group was really all about. This book was an incredible eye-opener for me. It's truly inspirational, and I don't like inspirational books. In fact, I find them annoying. So when I say I found this inspirational, that's saying something.
Up With People was started by four young men. Three brothers, Steve, Paul, and Ralph Colwell, along with Herb Allen, put together a program that was designed to send out touring groups around the USA and the world to bring a message about human unity.
What I didn't know about those men was enormous. The Colwell brothers had formed a trio when they were literally children. The youngest (playing a bass taller than he was) was 10. They played blue grass and country music, and they gained some popularity and put out some records.
Herb Allen was a musical prodigy. At four he was the conductor of the Seattle Baby Orchestra. He played the xylophone, and was just an outstanding musician.
These four met through a group called Moral Re-Armament (MRA), which was a non-profit international organization dedicated to bringing about moral change. It operated on the basis that you can't change the world, but you can change one person at a time, and that will change the world.
The Colwells became very involved with this group, traveling all around the world playing music. They had a unique ability to quickly write songs that would appeal to the specific group they were performing for, and worked with translators so they could perform in dialects of various languages.
One of the most astounding facts about them was their involvement in the independence of the Congo. They were in the country to perform when the Belgians relinquished their control of the county. Pretty much immediately civil war broke out because of the tribal conflicts and the struggle for power among men with very different ideas of how the country should move forward.
For a year, the Colwells remained in the Congo and performed songs on the radio urging peace and unity in the country. They sang in all the varying dialects of the tribes, and they wrote a song, "Vive Le Congo!" that became an anthem in the country during the time of struggle.
Herb Allen also worked with the MRA and when he and the Colwells decided to form a new organization that would carry on the same mission, but would allow them to travel less (they were all marrying and starting families), they began a program that continues to this day.
Up With People was the first American group to perform in China after the Cultural Revolution. The USA had no diplomatic relations with China, so their tour was arranged by and coordinated in cooperation with people from Mexico and the Venezuelan Ambassador to Mexico.
They continued to break through cultural barriers, performing in the Soviet Union and other Eastern Block countries long before Peristroka came to be.
So yes, if you look at Up With People superficially, with that jaundiced and cynical American eye that says, "Ooo, yeah, up with people..." you will only see that.
But if you read this book, you will realize that what these men accomplished is amazing. Music truly is the language of the world.
Reviewed by Sarah Bewley for MyShelf.com, 2008
http://www.myshelf.com/biography/08/songfortheworld.htm
The Sierra Club rates the 150-acre Pinnacle Peak as a moderate hike with an elevation gain of approximately 1,300 feet. The trail has a very smooth tread with a number of ups and downs over the course of the 1.75 mile trail (one way). It is not a loop trail so you come back over the same trail. High point on the trail is 2,889', the lowest point is 2,366', and the elevation at the trailhead is 2,570'.
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