From the librettist June Carryl: “Oluwatoyin Salau was a kid: 19. She studied cosmetology, started a business in hairdressing, modeled, was homeless, wanted to be a lawyer. A near-regular on the local news in Tallahassee the summer of George Floyd’s murder, she was growing into a significant voice in the Black Lives Matter movement—and she died at the hands of a Black man. She said once, ‘I will die being Black.’ She understood how very much Blackness defined her in America’s eyes: she is told to be strong, then judged monstrous because of her strength; her anger is preternatural and unwomanly all at once; she is exotic and hypersexualized on the one hand, unloved, unwanted and invisible on the other. Always running. But it was also her superpower. It gave her her voice, her courage, her beauty. I want other Black girls and women to know they matter. It meant everything to me that Jason wanted to tell her story again in this beautiful, brutal opera. Oluwatoyin Salau deserved better; she, they, we deserve better.

Jason Barabba

Events

Past events

Jun 8, 2024

My Wings Burned Off Opera Workshop · Synchromy

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