Story Behind The Song

One night, TSAH founder and songwriter John Ludwig awoke at 3 AM with the realization that the rampant violence in Chicago's streets WAS his issue too. He well understood that he was an upper middle class, upper middle aged white man, who grew up in a lily white suburb of St Louis in the 60s/70s, and now lives 100 blocks south of 'the problem'. However, he felt compelled to give a name to the peace undercurrent that has no name, and write a song expressing so. As the suburban streets slept, he got up and wrote the song: These Streets Are Holy (TSAH). The chorus is a rally cry for change. These streets are holy, and we're taking them back These streets are holy, no more, no more These streets are holy, God says they are my own These streets are holy, and they're still our home

Song Description

I received a message that it was up to me to become involved in addressing the violence plaguing Chicago. I was to give a name to a God-first movement that would seek to connect vertically as the initial step in fixing the broken horizontal relationships all around us. It was to be called "These Streets Are Holy". So I wrote that song and we recorded it with Chicago R&B, gospel vocalist Anita Lewis providing the passion. We launched a Facebook page and an interesting thing happened. It went global in a big way. In the first 7 weeks there were over 16,000 Likes and 99% of them were people outside the US. The page is at https://www.facebook.com/TheseStreetsAreHoly In less than a year, the Likes have crossed 110,000 and we're talking India, Pakistan, Sudan, Madagascar, Nepal, Poland, Bangladesh, Sweden, Morocco, Mali and all told 100 countries and counting. That's when it really hit that we actually created a worldwide peace movement. More versions of the song in different languages and styles are being recorded. A peace movement is being born.

Lyrics

Hadiya laughed with friends, on the last day of her life
Tavon' held his grandma's hand, when his ended
Alissa blew out the candles, before the bullet through her window
this blood is more than we can handle

Living in fear, is no way to live, a sudden burst of gunfire, no way to die
7500 chalk outlines, in 15 years, a-nother broken fam-ly cries.........
CHORUS
These streets are holy, we're takin' 'em back
These streets are holy, no more, no more (2nd time - the Lord says, no more)
These streets are holy, God says they are my own (2nd time - the Lord says they are my own)
These streets are holy, and...they're still our home

Just like light drives out the darkness, love takes out the hate
No judgement of combatants, this turnaround just can't wait
It started with Cain and Abel, and it's not going away, people let's turn to hope to-day................

Repeat CHORUS (the Lord says, no more)
These streets are holy, we're takin' 'em back
These streets are holy, the Lord says, no more
These streets are holy, the Lord says they are my own
These streets are holy, and...they're still our home

The Lord says, no more
Ho---ly hol---------ly........

Playlist Creator	Playlist Name	Date Added
John Ludwig	Christian and me	5/13/2018