When the Dust Settles—Resonance Community Bands Together to Bring Timely & Powerful Work Back to Portland
Tickets for this event are still available
This week, Resonance Ensemble is preparing for CHOIR GRRRL—a celebration of world-class artists from our region and beyond, happening at the Aladdin Theatre on Saturday, February 8th. As we finalized preparations earlier this month, a chaotic slew of executive orders reigned down, targeting vulnerable communities across the political spectrum. As a choir that programs music to promote meaningful social change, many of these recent orders stand antithetical to the work and community we strive to foster—and directly harm many of the artists we regularly collaborate with. The Resonance team felt especially moved to show our solidarity with our trans collaborators and friends, who have been disproportionately targeted throughout history—and especially so in recent months.
Our minds immediately went to Mari Esabel Valverde's poignant and deeply moving work, When the Dust Settles - which audiences may remember from our We Dissent program in 2022.
Resonance Ensemble treble voices | Rachel Hadiashar
“your heart bigger than any cage
even in the midst of so much loss
you remind us to dream
to hold tomorrow between our lips
we deserve to kiss without fear
to grow old
to sway our hips
to wear what we wish
to relish in the pleasure of our bodies
the seeds you planted continue to grow
into blooming song”
ABOUT “WHEN THE DUST SETTLES”
The work is a powerful assertion of trans identity and joy. Queer, trans, mixed race, disabled, poet and educator Amir Rabiyah wrote the text especially for this collaboration with Mari, in honor of Miss Major Griffen-Gracy—a former grass roots organizer and lifelong transgender and intersex rights activist from coast to coast, as well as a “veteran” of the Stonewall Riots.
Mari’s lush setting of the text also embodies both Miss Major’s strong & powerful resilience, along with her warmth and tenderheartedness. The composer shares in her program note: Hearing her speak today, you would not perceive within her voice the years of surviving our historically transphobic, racist, and often violent systems of oppression. And, her fight to liberate her trans and queer descendants continues. At age 78, she has opened the House of GG, the Griffin-Gracy Educational Retreat and Historical Center for the transgender and gender non-conforming Community, in Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information please visit: https://HouseOfGG.org…#WeAreStillHere #StaySoft.
The gorgeous harmonies of the treble voices and thick piano lines build to a transcendent peak, before unifying the voices together for the work’s final decree:
“when the dust settles, we will raise our voices
just as you have always done, in glorious proclamation
we will let everyone know—
We are still here!
We are still here!”
With this powerful work in hand, we knew that now more than ever we wanted to share this message with our audiences.
However, we had a barrier: our current program did not use piano, and this work absolutely needed one to work. How could we raise the funds in time for this program, especially in a time when so much financial support for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives were being stripped away—particularly those dealing with trans lives?
We reached out to our community of season subscribers last week, sharing our situation and our deep desire to bring this powerful piece back to Portland at such a pivotal time. The response was beyond heartwarming.
Not only did we raise enough to cover the expense of the piece, but the words of support we received reminded us of the kind of community we’re part of: compassionate, generous, and radically loving.
Artistic Director Dr. Katherine FitzGibbon with Pride NW director Debra Porta from our BODIES program in 2018 | Kenton Waltz
We would like to thank the donors from our community who made this piece possible for our program this week:
Laurie Flint
Jerry Fong
Allison Ellsworth
Nancy Ives
Shohei Kobayashi
DON’T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO WITNESS THIS POWERFUL WORK—ALONG WITH A WHOLE PROGRAM OF WORLD-CLASS FEMME CREATORS FROM OUR REGION & BEYOND!
CHOIR GRRRL
Saturday, February 8th | 7:30pm | Aladdin Theatre
Featuring: Caroline Shaw, Ringdown (Caroline Shaw & Danni Lee Parpan), Cecille Elliott, Hannah Brewer, and the treble voices of Resonance Ensemble led by Katherine FitzGibbon.
