"What Pain Calls to Witness" is a program premiering two electro-acoustic song cycles that explore the truth of existing in crisis states. This program specifically highlights the "kinship of shared pain," an idea from poet Travis Chi Wing Lau, which identifies the bond created when two or more people recognize that their bodies feel pain simultaneously.
Doors at 6pm, show at 7:30pm.
Free, ASL-interpreted event! Masks required and provided. Performers and interpreters will be permitted to take off their masks during their performances.
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Katie Hedrick's This Is All It Is illuminates symptoms and coping mechanisms of PTSD and OCD, fusing pop idioms with acousmatic aesthetics. Among found sounds, Hedrick's recorded viola choir, synths and electronic drums, Hedrick sings uncensored, diary-like lyrics. Inspired equally by high contrasts within Korean-pop production and the energetic profiles of ordinary objects, Hedrick simulates the instability underlying the lives of people with mental illness.
Gracie Caggiano's What Pain Calls to Witness sets poems from Travis Chi Wing Lau's Vagaries. Pursuing an embodied composition, Caggiano writes a range of vocal colors (e.g. breathy, straight tone, inhalation) that mimic her own limitations as a disabled vocalist. The acoustic mezzo-soprano, clarinet, and piano parts appear within a fixed-media atmosphere, composed entirely of vocal samples from people who experience chronic physical pain. Often distorted and warped, the fixed media behaves like Caggiano's nervous system, reflecting the spectrum of pain signals she endures as a result of her mobility disability. This iteration of the work is performed by Gwendolyn DeLaney, a fellow vocalist with a chronic pain condition, with Luke Vasilarakos (clarinet) and Naren Palomino Pardo (piano).
Opening the night, stroads (a.k.a. Ian Mitchell) performs a standalone electro-acoustic song, addressing his chronic pain and the medical trauma that often accompanies the unexplainable, unseen sensation. Influenced by midwest emo and hyper-pop, stroads situates himself in a distinct sonic landscape, delicately balancing chaos and melancholic melody.
Featured artist on flyer: Lily Dickson
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