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Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOKER. I rise not expecting to give a speech today, but I want to, first and foremost, recognize the Chair, who is my ``mother'' Senator, and I want to thank her for her incredible service to this institution.

I want to thank, which I rarely do, the staff who works here and runs the Senate every day, but I rise today to talk for a moment about groups that we don't talk about enough on this floor. We usually talk about everybody from law enforcement to our military, but we don't talk about artists.

We are a nation that even from our founding during Revolutionary times, there were extraordinary artists who expanded the moral imagination of this country and helped us to see a nation that could be free from British rule and domination.

In every point of American history, from protest movements to battles for suffrage, we have had artists who have painted these pictures of an America, a vision for what could be, but even more than that, they have healed us during difficult times. They have pulled us together with their inspiration. They have called out injustices. They have brought light to the dark places of our country.

You know, Picasso talked about art being something that helps to shake the dust off the soul of humanity, but I think it does more than that. As an African American, I have seen art in the tradition of healing, of providing hope, of even calling out with specificity the instructions on how to be free.

We remember the song that Harriet Tubman pointed to: Wade in the water, wade in the water, God is going to trouble the water.

That is the tradition that sourced my family. From enduring the pain of a nation that was unequal and divided, often in church with gospel songs, there was healing; there was hope. And even the poetry in the Harlem Renaissance spoke to an America that could possibly be if we just never stop believing.

As the great poet Langston Hughes said: America never was America to me, [But] I swear this oath-- America will be! Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must [make] our . . . dream [live] again. O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be!

I lean on poetry and song today just to get myself up in the morning. I have seen how artists have come to visit us here in the Capitol and Senators from all backgrounds thanking them for providing for them the soundtrack of their lives. And God, humor, the comedians of old, I remember sneaking into balconies--in my house--and watching over the balcony my dad, quietly not thinking his children were listening, put on records by Richard Pryor, whose humor helped to heal his troubled heart, make him laugh at the absurdities of a nation that still had not fully fulfilled itself.

And so I bring this thought and this heart to say thank you to artists, thank you to this institution for what we did in a bipartisan way to make sure we were funding the venues of this country, the stages where so many artists were able to continue to work during the pandemic. We fund the arts. It is funding that often has to be pushed or fought for, but I say it is the funding that in many ways helps to sustain and source the soul of a nation because without art, we would have lost our way a long time ago.

Now, this week I had this moment where you have just got to pinch yourself, and I know that the Presiding Officer has had this moment, too, where you get this call from White House staff, and they say: Hey, we have got some extra seats in the President of the United States' box at the Kennedy Center to come see a performance by a group called Freestyle Love Supreme.

And I said no immediately. I am so busy. I have got so much work. I had a night that was ending relatively early. But my staff said to me, you know, a guy, Chris Jackson--he was George Washington in ``Hamilton''--is going to be there as well, and I had gotten to know him because he was so generous. I saw him in ``In The Heights.'' He invited me backstage, gave me such love. I saw him in ``Hamilton.'' Even when I had someone I was trying to date with me, he made me seem special in her eyes. I will never forget that. He was a good wingman.

So I went to go see them perform, and I was just blown away by the performance. I hope that while they are here, people get a chance to go. But what blew me away was how they reaffirmed that message to me. At a time that I am troubled with what is happening in our life, with decisions in the Supreme Court, with challenges, with the economy, they touched on a lot of those issues with humor and artistic genius, and I found my spirit being lifted. I found camaraderie with strangers.

You see a whole crowd of people being pulled together around ideals of empathy and love and affirmation of our most core, cherished values as a nation, like freedom and protest.

I am honored that this group is visiting the U.S. Senate right now-- for many, their first time being in this sacred space, this hallowed Hall--to get a chance to witness what we do every day.

And I just want to say thank you to them, and I want to give tribute to all of the artists in America who do so much for the soul of this Nation and inspire us every day not to stop believing in tomorrows that can be better than what we have in the present.

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