Kristen Grainger & True North will be featured on a new national compilation album called “Hope Rises II” which highlights songs about social justice issues.
When Salem songwriter Kristen Grainger first heard about children being separated from their parents and being held in detention centers at the U.S.-Mexico border, she was shocked, and knew she had to do her part.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Anybody who has a child who has been a child who knows a child, imagine a situation in which the United States would adopt a deliberately cruel policy to take children away from their parents to deter parents from taking them to the United States,” she said. “That was what I couldn’t fathom – that was what my country was like and I couldn’t sleep.”
Instead of turning away, she processed her feelings and stood up the way she knew how: by creating art to inspire people to action.
Grainger wrote a song called “Ghost of Abuelito,” drawn from the perspectives and public testimonies of the children who were detained and separated from their parents.
On Thursday, the song was re-released as part of a national compilation called “Hope Rises II,” which includes songs from musicians across the nation highlighting social justice issues.
Source: Salem folk band encourages social and political action through song – Salem Reporter