Difficult Questions
Do you feel it is culturally, well misappropriation isn't the right word to me, irresponsible to associate a song with my own feelings as a Pagan if I never knew it had an older reflection?
For instance I have been in love with the song "Motherless Child" by Sweet Honey in the Rock for many years and I just realized recently that it has a reflection to an African-American Slave Spiritual. The Sweet Honey version is not identical to the spiritual version, it has removed a lot of the explicit Christian references for example. To me it has always been a comforting song when I was feeling especially disconnected to the Earth, this was true before I ever considered myself Pagan.
Of course it's art and an important part of all art, in my opinion, is how it touches you personally. But if you went to a neopagan ritual of some sort and 90% or more of the attendees were white (as is common around these parts) how would you feel if someone offered this song as a praise offering or just to express their feelings?
And now to expand that a little further, another song by Sweet Honey is called "We Are" which is a powerful song of honoring the ancestors. This is a contemporary song with no reflection to Slave Spirituals and yet was still written by and for a singing group who has a stated intention of honoring their history as women of color. Would this song be appropriate in a (mostly) white pagan environment?
For instance I have been in love with the song "Motherless Child" by Sweet Honey in the Rock for many years and I just realized recently that it has a reflection to an African-American Slave Spiritual. The Sweet Honey version is not identical to the spiritual version, it has removed a lot of the explicit Christian references for example. To me it has always been a comforting song when I was feeling especially disconnected to the Earth, this was true before I ever considered myself Pagan.
Of course it's art and an important part of all art, in my opinion, is how it touches you personally. But if you went to a neopagan ritual of some sort and 90% or more of the attendees were white (as is common around these parts) how would you feel if someone offered this song as a praise offering or just to express their feelings?
And now to expand that a little further, another song by Sweet Honey is called "We Are" which is a powerful song of honoring the ancestors. This is a contemporary song with no reflection to Slave Spirituals and yet was still written by and for a singing group who has a stated intention of honoring their history as women of color. Would this song be appropriate in a (mostly) white pagan environment?