Photo courtesy of The Black String Triage Ensemble
Dayvin Hallmon (top right) performs with other members of The Black String Triage Ensemble.
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The events of 2020, specifically the George Floyd murder and the Black Lives Manner (BLM) movement’s response to it, have given rise to local LGBTQ Black activists as community leaders. Some have been engaged for years; others have just recently entered the fray. One is veteran social justice advocate Dayvin Hallmon. He is also a musician and has amalgamated his two callings using music as a means to confront police brutality, gun violence and social justice.
Hallmon moved to Milwaukee after 10 years of serving as a Kenosha County Supervisor, arriving on Labor Day 2018. Knowing Hallman throughout his career and knowing his passion and commitment to it, the logical question to pose was why he left Kenosha. He cited various examples to underscore his frustration with the comfort of his colleagues with the status quo and resistance to the social justice initiatives he had proposed over his multiple terms. He described it as “arrested development.”
Once in Milwaukee, he noticed that none of the MPS students he saw waiting at bus stops were carrying musical instrument cases. Later, a trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C., would help define Hallman’s mission. Inspired by his experience there, he decided music would be his response to the trauma of violence in his community. In May 2019, he founded the Black String Triage Ensemble, an orchestra comprised of Black and Latinx musicians as a “spiritual and emotional medic for people of color in the aftermath of tragedy.”
From Grief to Hope
Since then, the Black String Triage Ensemble has played nearly two dozen times at violent crime scenes and, more recently, at hospital emergency room entrances and at BLM protests. One can imagine the incongruity of a group of string musicians arriving at a scene surrounded by yellow police tape and setting up with their instruments among first responders, victims, family and onlookers and playing traditional hymns and songs. The repertoire of seven pieces focuses on grief transitioning to hope. While some might find such a scene surreal, Hallman explains the response has been generally positive. On occasion, victim’s family member or police officers have thanked the ensemble. However, Hallman also admits that on one occasion the vibe was definitely not positive and he decided it would be best for all concerned for the ensemble to leave the scene.
Hallman describes the impact of his ensemble as a “rose in a trash heap,” explaining, “Prior to Triage there was no one doing what we are doing. There is hopelessness and despair in this city. Milwaukee does not love its Black and Brown communities. It looks at us with disdain. The Black Triage Ensemble is a rose in this trash heap. You see it and think, how is this here? Then you wonder why.”
Beyond the Triage Ensemble, Hallmon is pursuing other means of raising awareness of racism and affect change. In that regard, he has never been shy about criticizing the institutions for their failures. A decade ago, at his first Kenosha County Board of Supervisor meeting, the newly elected freshman admonished his colleagues for coming unprepared. Now he has taken the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra to task, organizing two events in response to what Hallmon sees as that organizations neglect of the cultural needs of the city’s people of color.
A protest, “No Justice for Elijah! End Racism in Milwaukee’s Music Community,” takes place 5 p.mn. Saturday, July 18 outside of the MSO’s Grand Warner Theater at 211 W. Wisconsin Avenue. As a memorial for Elijah McCain, another innocent victim of police violence, Hallmon describes its purpose as “an indictment of Wisconsin's White music industry and Wisconsin White musicians. The Wisconsin music industry and its White musicians have been silent about the threat and the carnage against Black & Brown lives.” The event will include the burning of the score of Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess and “issue steps to bring Black and Brown lives and music to the forefront.”
At 10 a.m. Sunday, July 19 the BLM Legion of the Soul Orchestra Concert takes place at Red Arrow Park, the site of the 2014 police shooting of Dontre Hamilton.
Information on these events as well as details about the Black String Triage Ensemble may be found on social media.
To read more My LGBTQ POV columns by Paul Masterson, click here.
My LGBTQ POV is proudly sponsored by Dr. Stephanie Murphy, DDS. Read past columns here.
