A Tribute to Dr. Will Moreau Goins

A week ago today I traveled up to Columbia with Rabbi TZiPi Radonsky for IPSC’s (Interfaith Partners of South Carolina) annual meeting. On the way up we learned that Dr. Will Moreau Goins our Chair, had died of a massive heart attack the previous Friday. Our meeting became an impromptu memorial and celebration of life, he was widely loved. Tzipi's keynote speech was still given and it could not have been more perfect.

 The following Tuesday Christina and I traveled up to Columbia again for the final screening in this year's, the 20th annual, Native American Film festival. Will founded and directed this legacy he has left us, and today it remains the only Native American Film Festival in the South-East. Will had recommended in an email that if I could invest just one five hour drive to the festival that we must come on Tuesday. His recommendation meant that we would be at the screening of ‘Rumble: Indians that Rocked the World’ where we would witness a powerful tribute to Dr. Will. On Main Street a candlelight vigil formed around the entrance of the Nickelodeon Theater and it’s marquee said “Rest In Power Dr. Will Goins”.  

I only knew Will through our work together in IPSC and during the evening was shown the multifaceted gem that he was in the world of Arts and Culture by some who knew and loved him best in these communities. Truly the heart of this tribute was the hauntingly engaged performance of Charly Lowry, a Lumbee Singer/Song writer from North Carolina. “I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye, so I’ll say hello in the afterlife” came from ‘Hometown Hero’, the first song she sang. The Cherokee Memorial video at the end is from Michael Rose, a friend of Will’s and is a song given to him by spirit a few years before.
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My video homage to this tribute runs forty minutes. As the footage was shot handheld with my stills camera in less than optimum conditions, I’ve had to try to fashion a silk purse from a pig’s ear and you know how well that works. Still as the content is precious and unrepeatable it seemed worth the effort.

Click on the image to view the video.

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