Marika Hughes

“With Love From J”

Jewlia Eisenberg was a composer, singer, bandleader, ritual and resistance worker, scholar and a dear friend who worked at the intersection of voice, text and diaspora consciousness. Her mission: make a lovely noise about complex ideas. Jewlia died at the age of 49 on March 11, 2021 after a long-fought illness. With her life and ideas in mind, I wrote this song for Johnny, “With Love from J”.

I asked myself a number of questions as I began to write: What would I like Johnny’s audience to consider? How do we attempt to understand others separated from us by space, time, experience, and race? Can a song offer resistance and love all at once? 

This is a folk song at its core. Its resistance lies in the questions asked, the compassion lives in the consideration of others and the love echoes throughout as the audience is encouraged to sing along with Johnny.

The chorus sings: “The sky above us, the ground below, 360 support around us, cut discursive thought”. These are the words Jewlia offered her band before walking on stage each night; hands held in a circle, a deep breath together, a wink and a smile from Jewlia and off we would go to perform. My hope is that “With Love from J” will keep Jewlia’s life and ideas alive as we all sing together wherever and whenever we can. —Marika Hughes

“With Love From J” was generously commissioned by Stanford Live (Stanford, CA)