Connie Hogarth — “The Arc of Justice”
I first met Connie Hogarth on a warm summer day in 2017 at her home in Beacon, and she told me she was finally ready to reflect back on the entirety of her life. We sat at her table looking out over the Hudson River week after week, and as she shared her memories, she also explored her deep and complex feelings about them—how she felt at the time and what they meant to her in the present. I cannot express how intimate this was, being with her as she contemplated the whole of her existence. We became good friends.
A courageous and loving person with a lifelong commitment to justice, Connie passed on February 11, 2022. As her “New York Times” obituary put it, she was a “relentless social activist,” arrested more than 20 times for local and national protests. Equal to her fire and outrage was her innate capacity for joy and delight, along with a whole-hearted love of people. A rare combination, indeed.
Connie’s song was part of the “Carrying the Torch: Songs and Stories of Remarkable Women” concert, celebrating the lives of eight women in New York’s Hudson Valley.
-
© Kelleigh McKenzie with Connie Hogarth
Memories of Brighton Beach
Roll in like the tide
The fair-haired daughter and union father
On the picket line
Wearing grandma's schmata rags
Moving year after year
Watching as my feisty mama
Made friends with the ones others fearedTake the chances, loss will bring new pathways
Love the dance and all the people
And the arc of justice carries onLaunching out on every wave
A strong, curious heart
Deciphering the human body
Through medicine and art
See the blacklist bruise and scar
The Rosenbergs would die
Understand my purpose
Put my body on the lineTake the chances, loss will bring new pathways
Love the dance and all the people
And the arc of justice carries onEnd the nightmare of a nuclear winter
—We the women, women strike for peace
Stand together, black, white, brown and red and yellow
—In Jesse's rainbow, fight for equality
I'm not free while any woman is unfree
—With choice and privacy we can be freeMaking trouble in Pleasantville
Porch full of kids painting signs
Protests, arrests, friendships and fests
Singing cantatas till they're mine
Living full for 20 years
My boys into men have grown
The current pulls my stormy husband
And I sail out on my ownTake the chances, loss will bring new pathways
Love the dance and all the people
And the arc of justice carries onEnd the brutal enslavement of apartheid
—With Mamazane and Numazizi, liberate
Leonard Peltier must not die in prison
—Defy the FBI and demonstrate
Stop training the colonial death squads
—In coalition, watch the SOA
Don't dehumanize and poison farm workers
—With Dolores boycott and make them pay
Protect the water, we'll find a way
—Me and Pete and Toshi, find a wayFloating in the bay in Wellfleet
My love finally found
We never failed each other
To the struggle we were bound
Bittersweet salt kisses
In my arms your dying breath
We climbed the fence together
In the Hudson together we'll restTake the chances, loss will bring new pathways
Love the dance and all the people
And the arc of justice carries me on
In this one infinite moment we belong
