The Songbook of Benny Lament

by Amy Harmon

If you want to know what’s happening in a nation, look at the music.

“She said if you want people to change, you have to show them what it looks like.”

“There’s always gotta be a first time, right?” Elroy said finally, still smiling. “There’s always gotta be someone who shows the world how it’s done.” “You wanna change the world, you gotta show ’em what it looks like,” Esther agreed,

It is my hope that novels like The Songbook of Benny Lament echo some of the truths that I learned from Ms. Gladys. She said many times, “How can we ever learn to love each other if we don’t know each other’s stories?” And I took that to heart. May we seek to learn each other’s stories so that we might love each other a little better.