That video — and ode to what's good about life here — went viral on Youtube.com, collecting well over 300,000 video views.
Release following a party last night, the stylized video for the song Where The Rivers Meet is well on its way to grabbing attention.
As Sandy Bashaw, a chief organizer of the project, told us earlier this year, the new video aims to help put city's immigrant-friendly initiative – Welcome Dayton – on the map.
Bashaw created it with her husband, Michael Bashaw, and video director David Sherman. Local artist Andy Snow was director of photography.
Welcome Dayton and the arts group Culture Works were partners in the project.
About $10,000 was raised through Culture Works’ new crowd-funding initiative, Power2Give.
The song celebrates Dayton as a place where rivers, people and ideas converge.
Filmed May 16 to June 14 at more than a dozen well-known Dayton area locations (Woodland Cemetery, Deeds Point, Riverscape, etc.), the video features dozens of musicians, dancer and visual artists including Sharon Lane, Danny Sauers, Smag Dance Company, Pamana Fillipino Dance Group, Rodney Veal, Stan Middleton, Puzzle of Light, John Kurokawa, Nick Kizirnis, Shirley Murdock, Q The Music and Dale DeGroat.
The song carries the refrain "we all come here from somewhere" and celebrates the diversity found in the Dayton.
“The lyrical message of Where the Rivers Meet is a powerful illustration of that vision, as well as the goal of connecting the world through music. Dayton sits at the convergence of rivers—a perfect metaphor for the power and strength of the people of Dayton coming together from truly everywhere in the world,” Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said in a letter to her supporters.
Diversity is surely something to be proud of.
What makes you proud about life in the Dayton area? Share your photos and thoughts with us on Twitter and Instagram using #DaytonProud.
Contact this blogger at arobinson@DaytonDailyNews.com or Twitter.com/DDNSmartMouth
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