On The Stage Alone
by Keith Sanchez

“I first began writing this song in 2009. I've revisited it because it is oddly the one that I have never recorded, though it is the one my wife has urged me to record many times over. The final verse was written this year. The protagonist of the song isn't a single person or thing, though it was inspired by a homeless woman who would sit in the concrete hallways of the University of New Mexico, playing her guitar and singing to no one and everyone at once. It is a metaphor for the hope that exists in spaces of trauma, where those who feel unseen and find themselves "on a stage alone" can impact the world.”

Keith Sanchez, originally from Belen, New Mexico, spent his youth amidst the civil war and stunning landscapes of El Salvador. He is currently a New Mexico History teacher at South Valley Academy and an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico, where he is a PhD candidate in Chicana/o Studies. Alongside his wife, Ana Romero-Sanchez, he co-directs the Youth Arts Ambassadors “Cuentistas” program, providing free arts education for local youth. A career musician, Keith was the lead singer and songwriter for the underground band Stoic Frame, which achieved a #1 single on R&R’s Rock en Español charts and had music featured on platforms like MTV Latino. He develops culturally rich curricula for his students, emphasizing New Mexican heritage and community literacies. Above all, Keith is a devoted father to his two creative children, Ella Mercedes and Tobias Morrison.