“Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

My second CD collection is a cycle of songs focusing on the people, places and events in the history of Jersey City and Hoboken. Hoboken was once an important seaport (immortalized in the film On the Waterfront starring the young Marlon Brando) and Jersey City was once an industrial center that linked the island of Manhattan to the United States with railroads (also defunct). Both cities have a shared history of immigration, poverty, political corruption, and now, gentrification.

A Tale of Two Cities is available for purchase at the measly price of $15 (in check, no credit cards) which includes shipping and handling besides some great music: Robert Albrecht, 61 Corbin Ave., Apt. D-5, Jersey City, NJ 07306.

Children love to sing! My 40 years of work with children taught me that young people should have the opportunity to sing every day, several times a day. Singing is an activity that brings joy and community into our lives.

Besides lending books, public libraries have taken on the important role of building and sustaining community. Here I am at Greenville Library just a block away from the place where I was born, with my good friend Sam Williams, director of the Community Awareness Series.

Song of the Poet is a collection of poems that I reworked and placed in musical settings.

Included are musical version of works by Edgar Allan Poe, Pablo Neruda, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman and other poets.

Here is a link to my musical interpretation of Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall” with the help of my “tocayo”, Roberto Perez.