The Community Of Hope

The Community of Hope is a song by the English musician PJ Harvey. It is the opening track and second single from her ninth studio album, The Hope Six Demolition Project, and was released digitally on 11 March 2016 and physically on 15 April 2016 on Island Records. The song was premiered on Shaun Keaveny's show on BBC Radio 6 Music on 10 March 2016, the day before its release. The song developed from PJ Harvey's poem "Sight-Seeing, South of the River", published in her 2015 poetry book "The Hollow of the Hand". In the "Acknowledgements" section of the book she thanks The Washington Post reporter Paul Schwartzman for this poem. Paul Schwartzman described his experience in the article "I gave a famous rock star a windshield tour of D.C. — and didn't know who she was". Schwartzman directly influenced some of the lyrics on the song and is featured in the music video. Upon its release, The Community of Hope drew criticism directly from council members of Ward 7 in Washington, D.C., with former DC Mayor Vincent C. Gray saying, "I will not dignify this inane composition with a response," and his campaign treasurer Chuck Thies insulting Harvey with, "PJ Harvey is to music what Piers Morgan is to cable news." Grant Thompson, a pastor and former Congressional staffer running for the Ward 7 council seat, stated that Harvey "needs to see more of the city."

[Intro] They took one of the old notorious housing projects, and they leveled it and rebuilt it as "Mixed Income Housing". It's called "Hope Six," and it's supposed to... sort of rejuvenate everything. It certainly looks a lot better [Verse 1] Here's the Hope Six Demolition Project Stretching down to Benning Road A well-known "pathway of death" At least that's what I'm told And here's the one sit-down restaurant In Ward Seven, nice OK, now this is just drug town, just zombies But that's just life [Chorus] In the Community of Hope The Community of Hope The Community of Hope The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope [Verse 2] Here's the highway to death and destruction South Capitol is its name And the school just looks like shit-hole Does that look like a nice place? Here's the old mental institution Now the Homeland Security Base And here's God's Deliverance Centre A deli called M.L.K [Chorus] And The Community of Hope The Community of Hope The Community of Hope The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope [Outro] They're gonna put a Walmart here They're gonna put a Walmart here They're gonna put a Walmart here They're gonna put a Walmart here They're gonna put a Walmart here They're gonna put a Walmart here They're gonna put a Walmart here They're gonna put a Walmart here