The Brooklyn Youth Chorus' Silent Voices project – which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this past May – was one of the most socially aware artistic events in New York this year. The project commissioned 10 new works and created space for a sustained conversation about issues of social justice and empowerment among musicians, choristers and audiences alike.
Q2 Music documented conversations about the months of emotional and intellectual energy the choristers’ put into the project.
Keeping the Look Loose by composer Kamala Sankaram, with lyrics written by renowned prose-poet Claudia Rankine (Citizen, Don’t Let Me Be Lonely), is first subject of our two documentary videos. The piece is an anthem for young women, encouraging them to overcome the cultural scrutiny of their bodies.
“I wanted this to be an a capella piece because it's about the choir, it's about them. It's about their agency, and their power, and so I felt like they had to be the ones driving, driving the music forward and driving the journey forward,” says Sankaram. The choristers accompany themselves with claps and stomps throughout to “put them in their bodies and give them a little more power.”
With interviews conducted by Helga Davis, this video is a testament to not only to the truth of these young women’s experiences, but also to a tragically overlooked and rarely mastered gesture of activism: listening.
Watch: Kamala Sankaram's Keeping the Look Loose, with text by Claudia Rankine, below:
Brooklyn Youth Chorus's Silent Voices was a multimedia, multi-composer stage work conceived, produced and performed by the Chorus. Unfolding over the course of the Chorus’ 25th anniversary season, and culminating in a world premiere at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House in May 2017, the work was co-commissioned by Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and WQXR.