Photo credit: Samantha Florio
A new opera—and appearances in Seattle—from Arisa White (“Here the neighbor screams for Frankie,” “I’m waiting for you like waiting,” “We are stupid, meaning amazed,” Issue 1):
I’m excited today. I’m in the process of putting together a press release about the opera project I am working on with composer Jessica Jones, who’s based in Brooklyn, N.Y. It’s an adaptation of Post Pardon, a chapbook published in 2011 by Mouthfeel Press with a Cultural Funding Grant from the City of Oakland. We are writing the libretto and musical. This project, for both Jessica and myself, has brought up questions of voice. The voices we hear from the poems, and how to best embody them for the stage. The question of authorship — do we have the right to tell this story? Post Pardon is inspired by the murder-suicide of poet Reetika Vazirani and her 2-year-old son, who I met while on a Cave Canem retreat a few weeks before the incident was reported in the Washington Post. Jessica and I have come to recognize that there are things in life that stay with us, haunt us, weave into our personal histories, and drive the art. As we continue to revise and reflect on our process — what opera is and is not for us — and imagine more worlds of sounds and words, this vision for Post Pardon: The Opera becomes distinctly our own.
Here is a link to the songs-in-progress:
http://postpardontheopera.wordpress.com/media/
Arisa White will also be making several appearances at AWP Seattle:
OFFSITE EVENTS:
The Stories She Carries: A Book-It Happy Hour
Thursday, February 27, 6pm
Book-It Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre
305 Harrison Street
Seattle, WA
Free to the public!
Join five celebrated writers (Rosebud Ben Oni, Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, francine j. harris, Millicent Borges Accardi, and Arisa White) for a cocktail hour of author readings, Book-It style staged readings, and a Q&A. Attendees of the happy hour will receive a special $5 discount code to that evening’s Frankenstein performance.
Friday, February 28, 4pm
Daily Grill
629 Pike Street
Seattle, WA
Free. $5 or more donation is encouraged benefiting VIDA:Women in Literary
QUEERTOPIA 2: A reading by LGBTQ Poets & Writers
Friday, February 28, 7pm
Barnes & Noble, Pacific Place
600 Pine St Suite 107
Seattle, WA
Free.
This year S&Q will include 12 poets & writers in 120 minutes.
AWP PANELS:
The Write to Network: Women Writers Empowering Women
Thursday, February 27, 3pm
AWP Conference: Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor
With Maria Maloney, Arisa White, JP Howard, Xanath Caraza, and Erica Eller.
Saturday, March 1, 10:30am
AWP Conference: Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6
With Sheila McMullin, Molly Gaudry, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Sheryl Rivett, and Arisa White.