Dear Friends Old and New,

My name is Susan B. Strong, but you can call me Susie or Susie B. Like millions of other people around the world, I have been deeply distressed by the rise of politicians like Donald Trump who don’t seem to value democracy and who don’t seem to care about anyone but themselves.  Times are tough, and we all need to use whatever skills we have to help each other through this situation, and so I have been looking for  ways to respond through my music.

I was raised to believe in equal rights for all, and it is in my blood to fight for them. First of all, I was named after Susan B. Anthony, the suffragette.  My mother was a feminist, and she was always telling me that the road to freedom is long. She said that you have to keep fighting for what you believe, whether you win in your lifetime or not.  Susan B. Anthony didn’t live to see the passage of the 19th amendment that gave women in the U.S. the vote, but we are voting now because of all the hard work that she and so many others did in the 70 years between Seneca Falls and the 19th Amendment.

And then my middle name is Bee.  That’s because my daddy was a huge fan of Muhammed Ali, especially when Ali was standing up for his civil rights or opposing the war in Vietnam. Ali taught us that the world’s greatest fighter could also be the most graceful and the funniest. Whenever I am in a tough spot, I try to remember Ali’s advice, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”  There are times these days when I want to deliver a knockout sting so bad, it is hard to remember that the butterfly part is important too – but it is.  It takes a lot of preparation and patience to accomplish anything big.

My parents are both gone now, but I have been thinking about them a lot lately and wondering what they would do.  I wrote my first song, The Donald Trump Blues, back in 2017.  I took up the ukulele that year, because practicing was one of the few things that would calm me down after reading the news.  Needless to say, I have needed to practice a lot  the past few years, because there has been upsetting news almost every day.

Since  it is not clear when we will be able to have live performances again, I have  started to explore video as a way of sharing my music and ideas, and I have just completed my first music video.  It’s a very silly piece, but I hope it brightens your day.