'What the World Needs Now'
Originally published on The JOLT News on August 28th, 2025
In the 1960s, Jackie DeShannon sang “What the World Needs Now is Love.” Just as the message of that song reverberated throughout the world back then, it continues to resonate today, though I do admit that we need some other things too.
What else does the world need now? The arts, artists and everything they teach us.
Read all about Harlequin Production’s “POTUS, or "Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” and South Puget Sound Community College’s (SPSCC) free “Earth Song” choral concert on Friday Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m. Their lessons are exactly what we need right now.
Harlequin’s 'POTUS'
Did you chuckle when you first read the title of Harlequin’s latest show? I did, and it was not the last time I laughed either. There are jokes threaded throughout this entire show.
As the title suggests, the show does have a feminist theme woven between the crass jokes and vulgar language. Depending on your sense of humor, this show may not be for you.
Accompanying the show is a playlist called “Bitch Beats,” which features songs by female artists with messages of women power. We all need a playlist like this to energize and empower us. I invite you to listen to the playlist (click here to listen). Who knows, maybe you will find a song that resonates with you that can be added to your very own “Bitch Beats.”
Every time I go to the Harlequin, I am greeted by friends and given the opportunity to make new ones in the lobby. There is something sacred about this ritual of hobnobbing members of the community before a show, and it has brought my life immeasurable joy to connect with others. I highly encourage you to make time for finding new friends in the audience.
In the gallery for 'POTUS'
Tailored to the themes of "POTUS," Harlequin’s Gallery Curator Lynette Charters created an incredible art showing in the lobby. Charters paired her own “Matilda Effect” and “Missing Women” series with Celery Jones’ works, which are bright depictions of iconic women.
These works celebrate women's accomplishments, and at the same time remind us that women and their accomplishments are systemically downplayed and “forgotten” by society.
The Matilda Series is a compilation of women painted on to the ordinary household objects that represents the area of society where they created an impact. Julia Child is painted onto a food tray. Mary Florence Potts invented a lighter weight clothes iron with a detachable wooden handle, and her portrait is painted onto a mini ironing board.
“The Matilda Effect Series celebrates women’s history and achievements, which are generally less documented, less compensated, and frequently appropriated leading us to believe that women are only useful in supporting roles and domestic settings,” Charters says.
“(This series is) painted on repurposed household objects to provide context to the tension between how women are traditionally represented and the trailblazers they really are.”
With a similar message at heart, Charters “Missing Women” series references famous paintings of women, but erases the women from the images. This symbolism reflects “how women are missing from museums and documented history, and how their achievements are being erased as we breathe.”
Charters and Jones' pieces are beautiful, significant and crucial to this moment in culture. I hope there will be more showcases featuring the works in the future.
You can purchase tickets for "POTUS"here.
SPSCC’s Earth Song
For the second year in a row, SPSCC has invited the community to join their choirs for a Summer Sing, and their free concert is Friday Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m. For Summer Sing, musicians only have seven to eight weeks to finesse numerous pieces of music, many of them in other languages,, and the results are always lovely. This year’s concert theme is “Earth.”
Summer Sing conductor Crystal Zimmerman described how the concert program features songs that “revolve around the idea of or the poetry of an earth song.”
What images come to your mind when you think of an earth song? Zimmerman describes an earth song almost as a means to describe the universal experiences we all have here on earth.
“We go through hard things,” Zimmerman said, “but something new is coming, something new is being created, and something new is on the horizon, and it's worth what we’re doing right now to get to that place.”
That is a message we can all use right now.
https://www.thejoltnews.com/stories/intheaudience-what-the-world-needs-now,26237