This song was written just before COVID-19. That pandemic has done the unthinkable, forcing us, people, governments in every corner in the world, to immediately change how we live in order to survive. So why can’t we do this for global warming?

Grace Lee Boggs, activist and philosopher, often posed this question as a challenge when she spoke to young audiences. She knew what time it was as early as 2000, when she introduced me to her Detroit. To most it was a broken city, but for Grace it was her laboratory, her classroom, most of all, her community. It was a place of dreamers and doers, urban visionaries, artists and organic gardeners. Her invitation to use my art to help rebuild and re-spirit Detroit was my environmental awakening. This song brings together her challenge and the inspirational music of the great bassist Juan Perez, who composed this song on an old cigar box that was ‘upcycled’ into a Turbo Didley. Waste nothing! And in this pause, this moment we are forced to slow down and hunker down, we can use this time—to think, to dream, to imagine, to create community…and make the world we want to live in.

Stay well…and stay involved!

–Nobuko

 

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Temperature climbing -- Glaciers melting  

Water rising – islands drowning   (beaches) 

WHAT TIME IS IT…WHAT TIME IS IT? 

Hurricane blowing --  houses floating 

Wild fires spreading – crops thirsting         

WHAT TIME IS IT - ON THE CLOCK OF THE WORLD? 

Business  booming - Oil keep drilling      

CO2 rising - But no stopping  

markets driving - suiciding        

WHAT TIME IS IT… 

Listen to your children say 

Tomorrow’s what we do today 

What we choose decides out fate               

We can live another way! Hey Hey!           

(voices in) 

WHAT TIME IS IT ON THE CLOCK OF THE WORLD?  

New sun rising -- Colors shining 

No more waiting – no debating  

Standing, protecting, remembering, connecting  

WHAT TIME IS IT…ON THE CLOCK OF THE WORLD ? 

Healing, renewing, creating, transforming    

WHAT TIME IS IT…ON THE CLOCK OF THE WORLD ? 

WHAT TIME IS IT…ON THE CLOCK OF THE WORLD ?