The Giver of Hope
4 A’s worth sharing this week: how music is giving hope to incarcerated youth, the controversy surrounding David Byrne’s new musical, keeping a grab bag of ideas, new music, and more…
Here are four things (A’s) we thought were worth sharing this week:
A1. Music, the giver of hope. At a Northern Virginia juvenile detention center, detainees work together during a three-day residency (Use Your Voice), which leads to joint performances for the final projects. Of the program, Jaylene, a 16-year old at the center, said:
Music gives me hope for a better life. The system looks at us as animals, but I appreciate people taking the time to come in and work with us because they know we got potential. At the end of the day, we're still kids, you know, and a kid is going to be a kid forever, no matter what.
This was made possible through the Sound Impact program. “Use Your Voice residencies focus on youth development by providing opportunities to increase self-confidence and overcome traumatic events. Sound Impact's work with incarcerated youth has illustrated firsthand the deeply rooted injustices so many people face, which are particularly pervasive within communities of color. Participants of the program have shown tremendous courage and resiliency in expressing their stories which are riddled with unimaginable challenges.”
A2. David Byrne brings a new musical to Broadway—with no live pit orchestra. The show Here Lies Love aims to push boundaries as David Byrne (composer and founding member of Talking Heads) presents a story “about former Filipina First Lady Imelda Marcos’ astonishing rise to power and subsequent fall at the hands of the Philippine People Power Revolution.” Previously at the Public Theater, London’s National Theater, and Seattle Rep, Here Lies Love features an all-Filipino cast, “propulsive storytelling,” and “inventive staging.”
The musical will not feature a live pit.
For context, each Broadway theater has an orchestra minimum, which means a particular number of musicians must be involved in the production. The American Federation of Musicians (or AFM) protects Broadway pit musicians in order to ensure they make a living: “Theater musicians performing on stage and in theater pits have negotiated improved working conditions, healthcare, pensions, and better wages including doubling fees, vacation, sound check and rehearsal pay.”
In a Facebook post, Here Lies Love shared information Q&A style: “Here Lies Love is not a traditional Broadway musical. The music is drawn outside of the traditional musical genre. The performance of the live vocals to pre-recorded, artificial tracks is paramount to its artistic concept. Production has ripped out the seats in the theater and built a dance floor. There is no longer a proscenium stage. The Broadway Theatre has been transformed into a nightclub, with every theatergoer immersed in the experience.” Though the artistic team claims that the show is pioneering a new type of musical, many musicians have expressed outrage with the dangerous precedent being set by the production. Not employing a pit saves money from a production standpoint, but sacrifices a huge part of what makes Broadway theater what it is.
Here Lies Love is a creative and vibrant concept and a story worth telling—off-Broadway. If you feel the same way, consider writing to David Byrne at info@davidbyrne.com and sign AFM’s petition: “Say NO to canned music on Broadway.”
A3. Keeping a personal grab bag of ideas. How do we balance the urgency of getting stuff done today with the importance of generating ideas for tomorrow? In a recent blog post titled “Don't Let Good Ideas Get Away” on his substack, Range Widely, author David Epstein suggests keeping a master thought list.
These days, I use a master thought list even more once I’ve actually started a project. It’s helpful for that initial idea-storyboarding process, and so that I have a searchable document where I keep track of citations, and that’s peppered with terms I think I’d want to search to find a particular idea. It’s kind of like building a wiki of my own brain, but I’m the only editor.
Whether it’s to organize ideas for a project (me); to have material to turn to for inspiration when you get stuck (Adam Alter); to save idea-sparks without getting distracted by them in the moment (Steven Johnson and Dan Pink); or to create a receptacle of fleeting impressions (Rachel Ingalls), I think having a repository for interesting things you come across is a great idea.
A4. New music this week: from bassist and composer, Linda May Han Oh, who released her third album as a leader on Biophilia Records this week. The Glass Hours is “a collection of works based on abstract themes of the fragility of time and life; exploring paradoxes seeded within our individual and societal values” (Bandcamp / Apple Music / Spotify). On singer-songwriter Arlo Parks’ second album, My Soft Machine (Apple Music / Spotify), “the depth of emotion and meaning of the words that tumble out of her leaves no doubts of her talent as a songwriter, or the deftness of her phrases and structures” (NME). And, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, singer-songwriter, Cisco Swank, released his debut solo album More Better (Apple Music / Spotify) at the end of last month. On it, “he tows the line between improvisational jazz, hip-hop, R&B and bedroom pop the album is a testament to his boundless range of style” (Imprint).
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Alexandria & Amy + Charlie
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