Maybe society was wrong for drawing a line from Thanksgiving through Dec. 25 and calling it the “holiday season.” A holiday is a day set apart on the calendar for celebration, and if you are alone on that day, despondent or otherwise not in the spirit, tomorrow will come soon enough. But an entire season, when everyone is supposed to be happy, gathered with loved ones and shopping regardless of the cost—it can be hard to wear a smile through all those weeks or carry a light heart.
Some holiday shows only serve to mock the unhappy with their tinsel-thin veneer of good cheer. Paul McComas (guitar-vocalist) and Maya Kuper (keyboards-vocals) have put together an alternative program of music and performance, “Heralds of Hope in Story and Song.” “Christmas and Hanukkah are holidays whose origins are in stories of hope,” McComas explains. “Everyone has been hopeless at one time or another during the holidays. It can be a dark time if things aren’t going well.”
Hope is the bright thread woven through the disparate material in their program next week in an event sponsored by Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking. “Acoustic alternative pop,” is Kuper’s description of the duo’s original songs. One is actually a Christmas song. “‘Let’s Give Love This Christmas’ says that love is more important than money,” Kuper explains. “I grew up without much money—Christmas was never about presents. It was about getting together with the family, eating good food and singing songs, not about shopping.”
Along with their original lyrics, the hopeful theme will be carried in such cover songs as George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun” and Aimee Mann’s “Calling on Mary,” interspersed with dramatic readings from Joseph Iron Eye Dudley’s memoir of growing up on a Sioux reservation, Jane Mendelsohn’s novel about Amelia Earhart finding happiness in her disappearance and Emily Dickinson’s self-explanatory poem “Hope.”
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“We take a few minutes to talk about the theme of each piece we perform—and how it depicts hope in various ways,” McComas says. “It’s not a sentimental show. Happy endings have to be merited—they have to be earned by following a struggle.”
Paul McComas and Maya Kuper perform at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 2 at the Marquette University Alumni Union Ballroom, 1442 W. Wisconsin Ave. Admission is free. Visit marquette.edu/peacemaking to RSVP.
