This year, Justicia Global's 11th International Summit, "Arte y Revolucion" will include live music by MUSE, Cincinnati's Women's Choir. MUSE embarks on its first trip to the Dominican Republic, March 19-21, to perform our MUSE repertoire and learn from other artists from Latin American and the Caribbean. MUSE will also take part in a "meet the artist"-style panel discussion on the MUSE repertoire and its performance impact.

A poem written by Mark Porter Webb for MUSE:

"To MUSE: upon your first visit to the Dominican Republic"

I would like you to see hope, not waste
for waste is everywhere, obvious
while hope is more opaque
like roofs sprouting rebar
the dreams of another story.
I would like you to hear voices, not noise
for noise is everywhere, demobilizing
while voices move in quiet spaces
organizing a future
where love is spoken, heard, and spoken again.

I would like you to see through time, this space
a present that should not be believed
sleeps like a child to convince us of its innocence.
Wake her without fear
for this past is our past.

I would like you to see this island
not as an escapade of rights we never earned.
Our responsibility here is different and large--
it involves hope,
and voice,
and history.

Mark Webb, December 2008