[Editor's Note: Keweenaw Now has had the opportunity in the past two weeks to attend several musical performances in Washington, DC, and nearby Maryland. The following article was inspired by a young singer-songwriter who cares about endangered species enough to do research on some creatures who are already extinct because of human activity leading to climate change and to write songs about them.]
WOODSTOCK, MD -- Have you ever heard of the Bramble Cay Melomys on the Great Barrier Reef? or the Bulldog Rat on a coast of the Indian Ocean? or tiny megabats in Micronesia? Kate Buckholdt -- poet and singer-songwriter of Silver Spring, MD, known as kate b penbleeds on YouTube -- sings about them in her song "Extirpatriots," which she recently performed at several musical events in the Washington, DC, area and has posted on her YouTube channel HERE.
Kate does not claim to be a scientist, but when Rob Tyler, an environmental science specialist and fan of hers, urged her to write a song about climate change, Kate did some research on her own and discovered some neglected and now extinct species that inspired her song "Extirpatriots."
In a conversation with Keweenaw Now during a recent music event in
Woodstock, MD, where she performed several of her songs, Kate noted she
had not studied science formally in school, but enjoys learning on her
own about subjects that interest her -- and climate change is one of
those.
Here is how Kate explains her "penbleeds" name, kate b penbleeds, on YouTube:
"My poetry [is] on relationships with Self, with others, and with Nature. My body of heArtwork that to me are "penbleeds" before I began going by their name too in honor of the process by which they're born, because when the epiphany strikes, the poetry telling what I learned and left and grew from comes out like a flooding stream, sending me running for paper with my pen about to burst much like a nose bleed rushing to tissue to contain it."
The song "Extirpatriots," Kate says, is about extinct animals, "their special traits, and how they were eliminated by us." While YouTube's transcript feature gets the lyrics mostly accurate for some of her songs, here are the complete lyrics of "Extirpatriots" from Kate:
EXTIRPATRIOTS
Our brothers and sisters, please listen
Many of us have gone missing.
Out on ranges, at treetops, sandy beaches, inside of caves
A siren blows shivers down rivers, into ocean waves
She waves goodbye to those it's too late to save,
Those taken by anthropogenic extirpation and climate change
So now come, come
Down by the great barrier reef
Living quite well were the Bramble Cay Melomys
On a small coral cap in the Australian northeast
What a bunch of sweet little 6" short-eared peoples - well, rodents
Either way, we loved their long tail and large feet
Grey-bellied auburn cutie quarter pounders
Living in flats 10ft above water surface, worked perfect
Until the man came with their plans and purpose
Then rising waters from global warming caused mass drowning, home wrecking and murder
Our Bramble Cay Melomys were the very first mammalian extinction strictly from the paws and acidity of human activity
So many to follow, it's sickening
R.I.P Bramble Cay Melomys
Continuing down the Rodentia,
the Bulldog Rat deserves a mention
Endemic to Christmas Island before all vanished
On the coast of the Indian Ocean
So sailors came,
Unbeknownst to them they were the vessel of permanent damage
Packed Black Rats aboard ,
Carried disease in line swords
Killing every Bulldog Rat in one Christmas slaying season
Over in Cebu, Philippines walked the precious Cebu Warty Pig
Due to habitat destruction, this fine neighbor has become extinct
Called Baboy Sulop in Cebuano
They had the cutest pinchable jowls and if you had the chance you'd want to
But it's too late, and ain't that some guano
Now to Guam, we've come to stand where they were from
The Little Marianas fruit bat
So Little it had a nearly 6ft wingspan
The Guam Flying Fox
Don't look up for them, look back, as they are a thing of the past
Ruthless poaching and loss of habitat took these peaceful vegans
All the Micronesia tiny megabats
Gentleness did them no favor,
Death but senseless enough to bear savior
In North America, the Seamink is deemed recently extinct
Seaward leaning from New England shore
They were the biggest minks,
Most adorable and made the most desirable furs
The greed for their red hair and big size led exploiters to retire them all - whoops
That's unregulated trade, folks
Bloodbath for their warm and cozy coats
Many times from the traps laid a seamink would escape
If it found a small pocket it hid in the rocky ledge to wait
But it was quickly dug out of it with crowbars to unwedge it, scared and shaking
Or instead, if out of reach, shoot the terrified mink mommy dead
Then, with a sharp iron rod, poke it and prod to get her body out
Out of sight, hidden from these human beasts
They'd smoke them out
First suffocated and then retrieved
They were hunted in daylight so they became active at nighttime
But running just wasn't enough with no place to hide
They were never ones to fight
So eventually we said our final, painful goodbye
Now there is a true tough guy that comes to mind
The Western Black Rhino
Though since 2006 there's been no signs of life
Poached them right to their collective demise
Usually they just browsed around for shoots and leaves to eat
They used a keen sense of scent and intensely sharp hearing
They were very nearsighted but could snap around 180 degrees in a split second
Still too many poachers managed to approach close enough to checkmate them
Western Black Rhino went from once most abundant to now zero incumbents
Only their horns on wealthy mantels for owner's glory
Real pieces of them displaying the points of their real sad story
Coral biodiversity is facing enormous adversity and not all loss is irreversibly
But it's a delicate balance of weight on an eggshell
The Coral reef is so depleted, bleached and diseased beyond belief and so many of us have really meant well
Climate change destroys and degrades domains and threatens survival of each group forced to rearrange
And meet new predators and new strains
Change in environment can compel migration
Breeding times are early and so too early ends to gestation
For instance, the warmer the sand of incubation, the more the Green Sea Turtle eggs hatch female on these warm nesting beaches,
up to 99 percent chicks, unbelievably These turtles are endangered and the gender imbalance challenge is caused by tampered weather,
as in nurture, not nature
Plus interbreeding of these greenies,
I mean climate inspired hybridization is making genetic mutations
The last green sea turtle is something we're truly facing
Please, let's use less plastic, less packaging, less murdered fashions
And I'm pointing to myself as well, as it's a call to all to take realistic action
Your favorite animal is asking...
By Kate Buckholdt (Reprinted here with permission.)
More environmental songs
Kate has also performed her song "Rachel Carson biography/musical book report" at more than one venue and posted a video on YouTube, where she comments, "Rachel Carson, what a hero! I knew just little facts of Rachel Carson over the years and enjoyed her path in the woods in silver spring but I didn't have any clue of the magnitude of her strength and impact and so much more. I learned so much researching for this musical biographical book report on her."
The song begins as follows:
"1907, Rachel Carson came
Nature was her mentor, her friend
And so her unyielding devotion in return began
"The Nature Study Movement "
It was rooted in the movement in native nature and it as teacher to student
From each May, back around to April
Like a clock display of arrows to what that time has to offer..."
Listen to Kate's first performance of her song about Rachel Carson, renowned author of Silent Spring and whistle blower about the dangers of DDT, HERE.
Another song by Kate, which she performed at the Refuge event in Woodstock, MD, was "Cicada Pi"-- about her favorite creature.
"My connection with and representation of cicadas is based in loving fascination," Kate says.
Her love and gratitude and relationship with cicadas goes way way back, long before her artistic expression about them, Kate explains.
"cicada pi is about the importance of cicadas in my life, their lessons, messages and more," Kate writes on her YouTube channel with the video of her performance at the Refuge in Woodstock. "this event is twice a year and I always have a great time! Mike Bennett INfinite joined me for the second time, improvising over my song as the beat (prod. by jackpot) guides my flow. Enhancing what I do with [good] flares as always."
In this song, Kate notes, through her own experience and growth, what we can learn from Nature, as she sings,
"so at the root is a nymph who feeds on
its tree it is much unlike a myth of a
Greek deity it's a little living thing and once
upon a long time that was me early
Independence yet near nearly all my
existence before I feel grown enough to
fly..."
To see the YouTube video of "Cicada Pi" and follow along with the transcript CLICK HERE.
For more songs by Kate visit her You Tube page at kate b penbleeds.
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