Damian Lee was a two-year-old in rural South Carolina when his father was murdered.
“He was shot multiple times near our front yard,” Lee says.
Why? Lee, 20, does not know.
Since that horrid day, Lee has been forcing his path forward like water gathering to form a river. He has been guided by his mother, Emma Weaver, by his seven elder siblings who helped raise him, and by goals not yet realized that implore him onward.
In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Lee has been asked to sing at a university event, A Tribute to the Dream: The Need for ‘Good Trouble,’ which will be streamed Monday at 3 p.m. on Northeastern’s Facebook page.
Lee, a third-year student in Africana studies and political science, performs Bridge Over Troubled Water. It is the right song for this day in these times, and he is its rightful singer. “I want to say it affected me emotionally throughout my elementary school years,” Lee says of his father’s absence. “I didn’t understand those feelings I was feeling. All I knew was I was hurt. I didn’t know why.”