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A song-cycle about Professor Wangari Maathai based on the five Japanese Buddhist elements

September 19, 2017

Professor Maathai is the subject of a new five-part song-cycle, entitled And the Hummingbird Says: A Song-Cycle about Wangari Maathai by award-winning, New York–based composer Mihoko Suzuki, with words from writer Martin Rowe, Writer & Publisher and from Prof’s own speeches and books.

Mihoko writes: “I was drawn to Wangari because of our commitment to conserve the planet and the other species who share it with us. It’s so hard to express one’s feelings about the disappearance of so much life: the subject is so vast and impersonal. But Wangari’s struggles—as a non-Westerner, as a post-colonial survivor, as a campaigner for democracy, and as a passionate defender of Mother Earth—embodied its importance for me.”