Ani DiFranco feels less alone than ever. This despite her new album’s title track “Binary,” in which she asks “Where are my sisters? Where are my brothers?
Where is my family? Who takes care of each other?”
Reached by phone before her Nov. 6 show in Vancouver, says she sees great possibility in the potential perils of US President Donald Trump’s rule.
It isn’t that the outspoken folk singer and mother of two is naïve to the havoc running rampant in the White House. In fact, she’s been stressed out about electoral politics in America for many years.
“It's a rough ride, it's scary, scary times, but I also felt that way during the eight years [of] George W [Bush]. I felt that way about [Ronald] Reagan and [George] Bush. Sr. … [But] looking back, it's amazing what seems rational,” she says.
Having been attuned to the political agendas of previous Republican presidents, the 47-year-old says her hopefulness is inspired by how many Americans are woke to the threats of an unstable president, as well as her role as a parent.
“I feel less alone than I ever have, just the fact that there are people everywhere panicking, activating, standing up, speaking up … seriously I feel more willingness around myself to talk about things than ever before, let alone, you know, get out there get involved and try to change things.”
Parenthood, she says has reinforced her will to stay positive. Her oldest kid is now 10 years old, and DiFranco says her daughter is starting to understand the impacts of inequality.
Sitting in her backyard garden on a Tuesday afternoon, DiFranco has just planted a (New Orleans) winter crop of beets, purple cauliflower, purple cabbage and Brussels sprouts.
“It feels terrible to teach a kid, 'Oh yeah, society is all fucked up, you're doomed,'” she says. “So you have to teach them, 'Society's all fucked up' and model behaviours of what you do about it,” while “being joyful,” she says, in a serious tone.
Specifically, DiFranco says she takes her kids to vote and to demonstrations. When her daughter was six, she remembers being at a march against police brutality in the wake of the death of a young black man at the hands of police. Her daughter, she says, asked her why the crowd was chanting “Hands up, don’t shoot.” It was then that she explained the basics of racism (that “people with one skin colour think they’re better than people with another skin colour”) to her daughter.
“It's so surreal to explain these things to a kid, but I think if you're doing it around people who are actively trying to combat it, and who are feeling what mutual love and respect and care feels like and supporting each other, and I think, that's the only way I can bring myself to do it.”
Lyrically, Binary is heavy on the themes of care, forgiveness and teaching. In the playful “Sasquatch,” she teases the hairy and foolish monster to come out from hiding, ultimately promising to rehabilitate him: “Hey Sasquatch, quit hiding. Yes I know you're out there. I'll bring you into my world. You'll be under my care.”
Meanwhile, “Deferred Gratification” laments the thanklessness of being a parent, both in words and its sorrowful tune: “Deferred gratification you are my new best friend. I got kids and so do my friends … some day these kids are going to help us win.”
Asked about the song, DiFranco says it’s an ode to people who have given their lives to others, whether it be for family, community or a nation. The caregiving work is done “as an end in itself, not as a reward, you can never win” and “the job is never over,” she says.
The predictably political folk album is steeped in funk and blues undertones, with electric guitar and horns accenting several pieces. Where it stumbles in theme is with “Pacifist’s Lament,” which references the work of Ghandi, Dr. King and Aung San Suu Kyi.
A once-revered Burmese politician, Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, but has recently been accused of ignoring violence and against the country’s minority Rohingya Muslims.
In previous years, , supporting Suu Kyi’s freedom (she was held as a political prisoner for 15 years). Fans will have to wait until her show to find out whether DiFranco will leave her name among the list of Nobel Prize-winning pacifists.Ěý
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• Ani DiFranco performs with special guests in Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»at the Playhouse Theatre (600 Hamilton St.) on Monday, Nov. 6, at 8 p.m.
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