Lydia Violet is an Iranian-Armenian-American musician, songleader, facilitator, and educator whose work lives at the intersection of music, socio-ecological change, and cultural revitalization. A lifelong musician, she has spent decades exploring how song can help people connect, metabolize difficult times, and build cultures of belonging and solidarity.
Lydia is the founder and Executive Director of School for The Great Turning, where she creates programs weaving together activism, spiritual practice, ecological education, ancestral skills, and the Work That Reconnects. A longtime student and collaborator of Joanna Macy's, she has facilitated groups and taught internationally for many years. As a songleader, Lydia draws from multicultural community-singing traditions and the long history of music in social movements, bringing a grounded, playful, and deeply participatory approach to helping people find their voices and use song in service of community and change.
Down the Line
I feel their courage coming down the line
They stood up so we could rise
I feel their courage coming down the line
Guiding us to make it right
I feel your courage coming down the line
You stood up so we could rise
I feel your courage coming down the line
Guiding us to make it right
I feel our courage coming down the line
We stood up and we will rise
I feel our courage coming down the line
Guiding us to make it right
Guiding us to stand for our rights
Guiding us to make it right
You Cannot Erase Us
Part 1:
If you're on the line
then you're right on time
this is your rightful place
this is the people's space
Part 2:
We won't (echo)
Turn back (echo)
When our votes are (echo)
Under attack (echo)
Part 3:
We might wait all night long
but we're still going strong
you hear the people's song
and we'll keep keepin' on