Oh Mary, Don't You Weep

I really fell in love with this song last week when we were given it as a choice out of the seven. The Swan Silvertones version is really good as it seems like a doo-wop gospel to me. I also really love any version of any song that Mississippi John Hurt does. I looked up which Mary the song was talking about as I remember someone mentioning that it wasn't Mary Jesus' mother. The story I read was about Mary of Bethany and how Jesus resurrected Mary's brother from the dead. I thought that was really beautiful and really just wanted to focus on Mary as the subject of my art this week so I went very literal with it. I don't often go very literal with my work, but this seemed appropriate this week. I also liked how our readings explained how the slaves were "drawn to the Baptist Church was the method of Conversion. Total immersion in water, which is the way Baptists symbolize their conversion to the "true church" and the teachings of Christ... was perhaps particularly attractive to the early slaves because in most of the religions of West Africa, the river spirits were thought to be among the most powerful of the deities..." I liked this because I was raised and baptized in a Baptist church growing up. Mary Don't you weep represented the link between the struggles of the Jews and American slaves. "Pharaoh's army got drowned" - God rewarded the Jews and he will one day reward the slaves. It's a reminder that there is something to look forward to, which is being with God.