place by way of informing your story? >> i don't know if anybody seen there is a series on now on called african-american lives? >> yeah. >> and it remindses me so much of my experience and some of the things that were said that rang through for me are things like, if we don't know where we come from we don't know that we are somebody. it's like, the effects of colonization when -- when our story is taken from us. in when our language is taken and we are disoriented and we come to a new country, we are not literate, it's a way to keep people oppressed. so, part of reclaiming ourselves

as irish americans and having the biggest life possible means knowing everything there is to know about ourselves and our people. >> i will talk briefly about the going to saint john i set that trip up and 911 happened. and so i endsed up going on this journey back to where 3450i family came over a week after 911 which was a remarkable experience in itself because the airports were empty much everybody was gone. until we got to canada where there was a crush of people moving through with added security and so forth. when i got to saint johns i went to the perish rejist ree. met the woman i spoke with on the phone and she gave me complete access to the archives.

ship lists and when they came over 1550 or 1851. there was no marriage record. they probably got married on the boat which happened often. that's where i found out that the trade with the merry times and county cork was a lumber trade. they brought lumber over and humans were brought back. profound history that, you know, my ancestors were a part of. not just mine bithousands and millions of people have this story deep in their background. i also found out the location of where my great, great grandfather was buried in saint johns which is ruinned by acid

rain because they built a refinary over it. this is an irish american grave yard a memorial to the experience of coming over her in famine times partridge islands is where they had to go through. i stood about where the plot was which was a mass grave. there was no marker at all. they were buried together with the other poor in a little area. to be standing there in the space where your great, great grandfather was and other members of your family and have no marker they are the grass. they are the grass underneath your feet or their bodies are. that is a humbling experience. we are part of a remnant if we think we are not we are diluting

ourselves that genealogy searchs should humble you. because it's only traces left. there are only signs left. those signs are not empty. you know, they transsubstantiate the lines that were that were there that were gone and yet are somehow encoded in us. >> thank you.

[music] ♪[applause]

thank you. >> thank you for applauding. never know. [laughter]. so, these next few pieces are jewish art songs the jewish art

song is not something that most people know about even if you are into classical music. raise your hand if you know shoemoner shoebert? these songs are actually in yiddish but they are art songs. they are beautiful. and they are not done. right. soy, i hope you enjoy the next few pieces. i will describe them. the first was written by [inaudible] a song that has almost nonsentence words but it's your time to be with god and your moment alone with whatever you need. i hope you appreciate this one. [music] ♪[applause]

>> thank you. so the next piece, it's beautiful. this is yiddish a beautiful song that was given to me by george rosenside who is an amazing person. and this next piece was the same composer composed in paris and called the yiddish and a great -- it's so beautiful. yiddish the wealth of my treasure much the kreet urs -- from it's yiddish. so many true, simple and core people wandering through countries and over the world where truth -- [music] ♪

[applause] this next piece is actually, this piece and the next piece going into it actually have a really nice story about it. the next piece is very, very

well known by people who know yiddish folk songs. now, in this piece, this was said so it was classically it's not the same tune as most people know it. know the piece. so, it's very beautiful. it's a holocaust song. reach out your white hand to me. running over my words are tierce that want to rest in your hand the poetry is gorgeous. and in this piece, i was at a camp where we all learned yiddish. there was an old man and he sang not this piece but the regular version. this woman was working and said, who are you with this piece? nobody knew if he was a holocaust survivor. everyone was lored by this man

who could get up and sing this song when he was a survivor, everybody was breaking out in tears and was amazing and the next piece i had to get up and sing. what an act to follow. i will go with the piece i was going to sing anyway. this is a gypsy song. [laughter]. free to love and -- [laughter]. i'm thinking this guy is going to walk out of the room and never like me ever again. he doesn't know me but he is going to hate me and remember me as the girl when totally ruinned the moment. [laughter]. i go and you will hear in a minute after this song and he's crying. he's like crying so much that i almost was going to stop but i

didn't stop. at the end me got up and everyone was silent and he said, when i was in the concentration camp the only reason i survived is because a gypsy girl came and she would sneak me food in her apron everyday. and i was in love with her. that was the only way i got through. and he said that i looked just like her. [laughter]. worked out; right ? [laughter] think i look like this. [laughter]. and he was so inadd mirrorad with this woman when he heard me sing he was sobbing and he was hugging me. and just amazing and so i really wanted to tell you that story to put the 2 songs together for you to give you a sense of what this

was like for me. [music] ♪[music]

[applause] >> so now you know --

[laughter]. so this next piece actually another one of the beautiful gems that i found in new york in a yiddish archives it's been lost for so many years. i was lucky to perform it in new york for october for a big jewish audience and people fell in love with it. it's a true story and something that still exists now. this means god watches over -- this piece a girlfriend her boyfriend goes to war and she says, i was lucking to be in love for a little while. i had love and everything i could ever want and now he's off at war and i'm alone. and i don't know what will happen after this. will he kill another mother's

child. will i have to live with that? god watch over my belove ed and all the mother's sons. [music] [applause]