In the Stacks: Songs from Inside - Virtual Livestream
Presented by Hopkins at Home, Sheridan Libraries and Friends of the Johns Hopkins University Libraries
The Sheridan Libraries in collaboration with the American Prison Writing Archive and the Peabody Institute will present two In the Stacks concerts on consecutive days—in Baltimore and in Washington, D.C.—featuring choral music that honors the individual minds, hearts, and voices of incarcerated writers from today and centuries past. A moderated panel discussion will follow.
At the center of the program is the premiere of The Thought to Which I Lay, a commissioned work by composer and Peabody alumnus Elijah Daniel Smith set to texts by Brian D. Fuller, a writer incarcerated in Texas. It will be paired with Luigi Dallapiccola’s Canti di Prigionia (Songs of Imprisonment, 1938–41), a musical protest against rising fascism set to texts by imprisoned writers from different ages.
The works will be performed by the Peabody-based icarus Quartet and NEXT Ensemble, and conducted by Peabody artist-in-residence Juliano Aniceto.
A moderated panel discussion will follow the performance and guests will have the opportunity to view related special collections material from the Sheridan Libraries.