Renée Baker
Samuel Thompson writes:
Chicago Modern Orchestra Project
Founding Director's Third Outing at Chicago's Symphony Center features a
multimedia exploration of
the work of James Baldwin
The past eight months have been tremendously fruitful for Chicago Modern Orchestra Project founding director Renée Baker. In July 2018, Ms. Baker was one of three female African-American composers to participate in Magnetic Fields: Sonic Abstraction at the Museum of Fine Arts of St. Petersburg, Florida. It was also during the month of July that the first of her Baldwin Chronicles was presented to the world.
Described as “a multimedia work of operatic proportions based on texts by James Baldwin” by
Chicago's The Visualist, The Baldwin Chronicles: Negro Ideologies was
presented in July 2018 and immediately considered for presentation at
Symphony Center by the CSO African-American Network. “While I was
initially approached by Symphony Center with an invitation to present Negro Ideologies,
I made the choice to create a larger production to further explore
James Baldwin's work,” Ms. Baker said during a telephone interview.
This new work, titled The Baldwin Chronicles: Midnight Ramble receives its world premiere in Buntrock Hall at Chicago's Symphony Center on Saturday, February 16, 2019 at 5:00pm. This is Ms.
Baker's third presentation as Visiting Resident Artist for the Chicago
Symphony African-American Network (AAN) at Symphony Center since the
successful presentation of Oscar Micheaux's silent movie Body and Soul in
2017 featuring Ms. Baker's vibrant score for jazz orchestra, which was
followed by last year's screening of the 1927 race film The Scar of Shame which also included a new version of the musical score.
The
world “prolific” is used to describe those whose output in their chosen
fields has been incredibly fruitful and productive. One can definitely
include Renée Baker in this category, as she has composed over 2,000
works including symphonies, chamber music, ballets, film scores and
operas. She has also published sixteen graphic novels and received
commissions from the Chicago Sinfonietta, Joffrey Ballet, Berlin's
International Brass, Chicago's Sheds Aquarium and Indiana University's
Cinema and Black Film Center Archive. Blue Sonapoeme, Ms. Baker's
first opera, was premiered in 2012 at Chicago's South Shore Jazz
Festival, and subsequent works have been presented at both the INTUIT
Museum the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Kulhspot (Berlin), and
the Destijlik Museum in Zwolle, the Netherlands – thus making her the
first African-American to have premiered a significant series of
successful operas.
The
task of delving deeply into the life and work of James Baldwin could be
seen as daunting as he was one of the leading writers, intellectuals
and activists of the twentieth century. His output, which included
novels, essays, poems, articles and sermons, “serve to remind the
American public of our full humanity,” Renée said. “James Baldwin was
undoubtedly brilliant, but had he been a White man, there would have
been a very different reaction and response to his work. Much of his
thought process included finding his 'place', even with being a
brilliant man of letters who was able to debate anyone.”
This
'finding of place' manifested itself in Baldwin's move to France from
the United States at the age of twenty-four. Baldwin wrote about this
move in the essay “The Discovery of What it Means to be an American”,
describing the decision as the conscious removal of himself from
American prejudice and to have his writing understood on its own merit.
Baldwin's
decision to live in France, however, was neither an abandoning of the
United States nor of himself. In 1957 he returned to the United States
and became deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement (while
personally eschewing the title of “Civil Rights activist”), his
involvement and observation resulting in a series of articles and essays
written between 1957 and 1963 about which Time Magazine said
“there is not another writer who expresses with such poignancy and
abrasiveness the dark realities of the racial ferment in North and
South”.
The
thoughts included in Baldwin's essays about race in the United States
have maintained their relevance through the present day, and equally
compelling are the profound, impossible-to-answer questions that appear
throughout all of his work. Despite the relationship between James and
his father being harsh, the experiences of religion and spirituality
pervade Baldwin's writing, as do questions surrounding sexuality, color,
relationships, and the sense of 'rootlessness' felt by
African-Americans as described by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright
August Wilson who also experienced the racism and segregation of the
early twentieth-century when true equality was just outside of the
fingertips of millions of African-Americans.
After a profound exploration of and immersion into Baldwin's work, Renée chose the poem “Conundrum” as the centerpiece of Midnight Ramble.
“Midnight ramble is a term once used to talk about late-night movies,
Ms. Baker said. “In this context, I use the phrase to describe what had
to be James Baldwin's thoughts in some of his darkest moments – dark
illuminations inside the Black mind.” Included in the 2014 publication Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems, “Conundrum”
confronts the question of acceptance. “How do you tell the difference
between what's yours and what's not? Those questions are still faced
today,” Ms. Baker said. “Fortunately for us, Baldwin confronted these
questions in an incredibly straightforward and succinct manner.”
Threading
ideas from essays, novels, the love letter, filmed debates and
stitching images and feeling into music, Renée 's intention with The Baldwin Chronicles: Midnight Ramble is
to “plant the listener and viewer into James Baldwin's imagination.”
One manner of accomplishing this is the inclusion of the Keith Hampton Singers to signify Baldwin's constant return to the church and the ideals with which he was raised. In addition to the chorus, The Baldwin Chronicles: Midnight Ramble incorporates
performing forces including eleven soloists and the Chicago Modern
Orchestra Project. Ms. Baker's work as a modern artist and filmmaker is
also included in this production, as all of the set pieces are original
creations. Additionally, the set includes a twenty-four foot wide screen
on which film, graphics and paintings will be projected including
scenes from both New York and Paris in the 1950s and 1960s.
“Beauty
and life for Baldwin stem from the precariousness of terror, the
sublime moments of the blues, rhythm and stops of improvisation, and the
simultaneity of Black life and life in America,” Renée said. “As a
storyteller and intellectual, Baldwin occupies a position as a cultural
icon and truth-teller for us all, and The Baldwin Chronicles: Midnight Ramble is a unique space for stitching together music and his poetic imagination.”
Renée Baker's The Baldwin Chronicles: Midnight Ramble is being produced by and presented at Symphony Center Chicago on Sunday, February 16, 2018 at 5:00 pm.
With music and libretto by Ms. Baker, the creative team includes
concept direction by Bibiana Maite' and set design by Aghijana Daru.
Performs include featured vocalists Dee Alexander, Rae-Myra Hilliard,
Vickie Johnson, Sheila Jones, Robert Sims, Julian Otis, Cornelius
Johnson, Taalib-Din Ziyad, Saalik Ziyad, Yoseph Henry and Jeffrey
Burish; the Keith Hampton Singers, and the Chicago Modern Orchestra
Project.
For tickets and more information, please visit https://cso.org/ticketsandevents/.
Samuel Thompson
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