Stand Up

by Erika Kulnys

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Full Digital Discography

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Alcanzando la Rosa, Fantasma, Swimming with Dolphins (Live), Santa Clara Moon, Other Side of the World, Stand Together (Radio Cut), Stand Together, Sirena en la Playa, and 15 more. , and , .

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about

This is a song about Viola Desmond: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Desmond
Written by Erika Kulnys (www.facebook.com/pages/Erika-Kuln…672047973?ref=hl), El Jones (www.thecoast.ca/halifax/el-jones-…ntent?oid=4416142), Cunny Ross (www.facebook.com/Cunnyross) Rose Vaughan (www.facebook.com/rosevaughanmusic), Jordan Metro (jordanmetro.net) and Kamila Nasr (kamila.ca)
Recorded at Centreline
www.facebook.com/uniackecentre
by Jordan Metro (jordanmetro.net)and at Denmark Productions by Dennis Field (www.denmarkproductions.com). Mastered by Mark Thayer at Signature Sounds (www.signaturesounds.com/studio.html)

Feel free to share this, sample this, and use this in any way that will serve to educate. We all need to stand up against injustice and stand together for peace, justice, and equality.

lyrics

STAND UP

Stand up
Hands up
Don't shoot
I'm a person like you
Stand up
Hands up
Don't shoot
I'm talking to you

Viola Desmond, 1946
was arrested for the colour of her skin
Refused to leave the movie house, the cops dragged her out
and jailed her, but she's still our heroine

Singin' Stand up
Hands up
Don't shoot
I'm a person like you
Stand up
Hands up
Don't shoot
I'm talkin' to you

Viola Desmond, 1946
She stood proud and free
She pled not guilty; they charged her anyway
but they couldn't take her dignity

Almost sixty years have passed and still we struggle on
oh, struggle on
What do we do with our heart break and our rage?
When it's Ferguson again?
It's Selma to Montgomery again

Our brothers we have to stop killing are own
forget the shooting we should be sticking up for our own
Sometimes you be having a brother feeling alone
well I ain't nobody's dog so don't throw me no bone
it makes me feel some type of way when they clown people from the hoods
when they see a black man they always assume that he is hood
gee man that ain't even funny
the only time they come around is when they see a brotha who has money

Stand Up
Hands Up Don't Shoot
I'm a person like you
Stand Up
Hands Up Don't Shoot
I'm talkin' to you

I'm a person like you
but they're always bleaching me
Not represented in the ads so they're never reaching me
Even my history is all men so they're never teaching me
Grow up surrounded by faces that are never featuring me
I never learned that Dr King was preceded by a queen
Still waiting to see our faces on the big screen
From Harriet to Viola young black girls they got a dream
But they're reduced to video hos when they're in the mainstream
Hands up don't shoot but don't forget about Renisha
Ayanna Alexander we need their names on the t-shirt
I can't breathe because my pain is getting deeper
I been to the mountaintop but the road is getting steeper
My sisters suffer violence at the hands of their own people
My brothers recognize that I am my sisters' keeper
And I will keep on standing until my sisters are all equal

singin' Stand up
hands up
Don't shoot
I'm a person like you
Stand up
hands up
Don't shoot
I'm talking to you
How many arrests?
How many deaths?
Stand up
hands up
Don't shoot
Viola we remember you
Stand up
hands up
Don't shoot
Stand up
hands up
Don't shoot
Stand up
hands up
Don't shoot
Stand up
Stand up
Stand up
Stand up
Stand

credits

released April 6, 2015
Written by Erika Kulnys, El Jones, Rose Vaughan, Jordan Metro, Cunny Ross, and Kamila Nasr.

Copyright 2015 All Rights Reserved.

Contact: erika@erikakulnys.com

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about

Erika Kulnys Nova Scotia

"...ingenious intellect and activist zeal of Ani DiFranco with the poetic skepticism of Leonard Cohen, Kulnys is cementing her place in history...ballad-aesthetic of Tori Amos...craftsmanship vast as the Atlantic. Spin the cheekiness of Dolly Parton with overt sexuality of Kinnie Starr, and toe-tapping rhythms of Colleen Power to conjure up her multi-dimensional talents.” - Shannon Webb-Campbell ... more

erikakulnys.com

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