Indian American singer revives George Perkins’ civil rights anthem

Zeshan Bagewadi reflects his experience as an Indian American Muslim

Indian American singer Zeshan Bagewadi has repurposed George Perkins’ 1970 song “Cryin’ in the streets” as a song for today’s civil rights struggles, Public Radio International (PRI) reported.

The original song was based on an observation of the Martin Luther King Jr’s funeral, but Bagewadi echoes it as the reflection of his own experiences as a Muslim and Indian American.

“’I see somebody marching in the street. I see somebody crying in the street. I see somebody dying in the street.’ [I was] struck… how simple it was, how poignant it was,” Bagewadi told PRI.

“What needs to be done here is simple. Us Muslims need to ally ourselves with those who have paved a path for us and who has been on the front line of the struggles. So we need to appropriate their struggle. We need to appropriate the pain,” Bagewadi told PRI.

Bagewadi was born to Indian Muslim parents in Chicago. His father was a journalist, one of the few in India to cover the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and 70s.

“My father was always drawn to the black artistic expressions and read Lanston Hughes, Zora Hurston,” Bagewadi added.

“You listen to Curtis Mayfield sing ‘people get ready, there’s a train a comin.’ You listen to Mahalia Jackson singing ‘Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho.’ If that doesn’t galvanize you, I don’t know what will,” he said.

Music has more power than mere words, he added.