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Sing Out Strong: Essential Voices

December 19, 2020
Cyberspace

Credits

Commissioned and Produced by White Snake Projects

 

 

White Snake Projects and its 2020 programs are supported in part by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council and administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.

NEA logo

Sing Out Strong: Essential Voices is made possible in part by a CARES Act grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

What is Sing Out Strong: Essential Voices?

The pandemic has changed our entire way of life. It has changed the way we work, recreate, eat, learn, teach, interact with friends and family. It has forced us to confront the fact that life is precarious, fragile and precious. It has exposed the great divide in American society, with black and brown people disproportionately succumbing to the virus, as compared to white people.

We've collected stories from essential workers about their experiences working on the front lines -  from medical personnel, hospital housekeepers, grocery store workers, delivery people, and others.  We've heard about what they do, how they've been coping, their hopes, their fears, their families and their despair - anything they're moved to write about. We've paired their texts with composers to make songs about working in pandemic times so that the rest of us can be safe.

The concert you'll be attending features LIVE singing by our two singers and LIVE playing by our cellist and pianist as they perform in the safety of their homes. We're building on technology developed by Jon Robertson, our audio engineer, for Alice in the Pandemic which allows artists to perform live synchronously from remote locations. We can't wait to share this experience with you.

Computer screen with Zoom boxes

 

About

Sing Out Strong is a multi-year community-based project in which we reach out to ordinary people in our community and commission them to write texts on activist themes that resonate with them personally, such as immigration and colonization.

Performers

Production Team

Jon Robertson Audio Engineer
James Ruth Broadcast Engineer
Taylor Hansen Production Manager

Kitchen Melody

Yang Li Lyrics
XiRen Lyric adaptation and music
Erhu, Yang Wang

Neither Snow Nor Rain

Lyrics, Trevor Tom