Sophia Byrd performs with LA Phil New Music Group
Created with poet/librettist Saul Williams and director Patricia McGregor, Place is a 75-minute work considering the topic of gentrification and displacement. The piece took shape as I saw my own neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn rapidly transforming under the last term of Mike Bloomberg’s mayorship, leading me to grapple with my own role in that process.
“Gentrification is a generational conversation that has gone by many names. We should not discuss what brings you back to the city without acknowledging why you left.” – Saul Williams from Place
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“Gentrification is a generational conversation that has gone by many names. We should not discuss what brings you back to the city without acknowledging why you left.” – Saul Williams from Place
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I wrote as best I could toward these feelings (Part 1), and handed that text to Saul Williams, who then responded to and clapped back (Part 2-3). Saul challenged the spiraling narcissism inherent in the oh-so-well-meaning white male protagonist exploring his own complicity, by kicking the subject outward to its historical and theoretical origins.
Place is a patchwork, meant to be heard as a jarring, Sanford Biggers-esque quilt, where the edges make it clear the materials have their own infungible properties, not a neoliberal melting pot where all perspectives can combine to make a pleasant if bland smoothie.