GW
Originally sent to the Board, ET, and a few choir friends on June 7, 2024. The author’s full name was included on the original letter.
I am a member of Amity choir. I read with horror in the letter from the Executive Team that DeReau Farrar “will no longer serve as our Director of Music.” I knew nothing of “divisions” or of an “untenable situation.”
This is what I know:
DeReau has brought a wonderful blend of classical, traditional Unitarian, meaningful popular, and gospel music to us. He, John Boelling, and instrumentalists that they recruited (as well as those who were here previously but who joined in with the exciting new musical activities) have enabled me to participate in musical experiences that brought me feelings of joy, healing, and inspiration.
As a “Black,” “gay,” “Christian” “man” (using the descriptors I remember DeReau using for himself), DeReau demonstrated for the church community the value that diversity can bring to a music program or any other organized effort. DeReau’s participation as an activist artist in Portland’s cultural life as well as the greater Unitarian Church’s social activist movements made me proud to be a part of this church. His assuming leadership of Bridging Voices with church support demonstrated to all that our church is a leader in religious diversity efforts.
We went through a lot during the pandemic. DeReau played a big part in helping me and surely others weather this disaster. DeReau also helped our music community and greater church community to reckon with the white supremacy prevalent within our church as well as everywhere else in our society. Music was his primary medium for this reckoning. Hearing and singing the messages of liberation have been powerful tools to help begin change at First Church—for me more powerful than words alone.
I had been thinking how lucky we were to have DeReau in our religious community and I had been planning to join a second choir so that I would have a more direct experience with him. I am shocked and incredibly sad.
Sincerely yours,
GW
PS: My history with churches, music, sexuality, and racism:
I am a lesbian. I grew up in Mississippi during the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s. My church there was a center of struggles relating to desegregation; because of these experiences, I left the church and the south (only much later realizing that the same or worse racism exists in other parts of the country, including in Oregon). I became a professional folklorist with a focus on documenting and presenting diverse arts and other cultural traditions. In Portland I joined a community choir that I loved but felt compelled to leave when I realized that our repertoire included songs with a racist history. I looked for a new choir where I felt that countering racism would be a priority. When attending a First Unitarian service I heard a wonderful musical program led by DeReau. I felt that I had found a choir that would be both anti-racist and welcoming for LGBTQ+ participants. DeReau helped me to find a place in the choir later named Amity, and I was very happy there. My wife and I began engaging in some other church activities. This may help explain my big disappointment that First Church leadership could not discern a way to work out differences with DeReau.
