An interdisciplinary program presented in partnership with Diana Wege/The Earth Requiem Project. It celebrates the Environmental Justice movement with a musical message transcending class, race, religious, and political boundaries: that all of creation is worth protecting. It features performances by an 18-voice professional choir directed by Malcolm J. Merriweather, readings by Dr. Dorceta E. Taylor, and the visual art works of Wege. The program will feature a preview of choral excerpts of music composed by the critically acclaimed British composer Errollyn Wallen and five time Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal, with a libretto by Diana Wege, from Earth Requiem (2020), a newly commissioned four-movement symphony that is one part of a multidisciplinary art project by the artist Diana Wege. The project, also titled Earth Requiem, incorporates music, literature, and painting. Throughout, it is interspersed with narration by the preeminent Environmental Justice scholar and author Dorceta E. Taylor, reading selections from her books, in the role of a modern prophet giving a sermon on the damage wrought by corporate greed, legal negligence, and environmental racism on underprivileged communities in the United States.
New York City, NY; NYC