I Live in the world
A recurring theme in this project has been existence, existing within, acknowledging those that do very much exist.
In Julius Eastman’s 1984 radio interview, he was asked where he lived, his response was to sing the phrase ‘’i live in the world’’ of course he does, of course we do.
I wrote the vocal piece for ‘’I live in the world’’ a few weeks after ‘’RE’’. RE was me accessing a state, a feeling. But ILITW was imprinting a thought, acknowledging a place that was forced to be invisible.
This phrase, or my interpretation of this phrase ( i live in the world) was to celebrate all the black classical composers, musicians, artists that existed and exist before and after Julius Eastman.
I reframed his phrase and expanded it to these people, including myself. Another phrase ‘’Speak Boldly’’ which was taken from Eastmans vocal piece ‘’Holy Presence of Joan D’ Arc’’ again i reframed it to speak in the context of what i interpreted ‘’i live in the world’’ to be. The piece then builds into its own conversation, responding to the two phrases.
Building to an urgent unpeeling of existence.