3 Brooklyn Girls Get Their Poems Turned Into 'Songs From The F Train' 6/21

On Sunday, June 21 at 3 PM in Fort Greene Park, three Brooklyn girls Samori Covington (age 9), Alexis Cummings, and Najaya Royal (both age 12) will join the ranks of local Fort Greene poets such as Walt Whitman and James Agee who have had their words turned into music. The girls' poems were written recently in a poetry workshop led by Brooklyn writer Angeli Rasbury and have been turned into the song-cycle "Songs from the F Train," that will premiere as part of The Voice of Brooklyn: Opera and Song from the People's Republic, a free outdoor concert of new songs and old standards that highlight Brooklyn's influence on opera running from noon until 4 PM.

Nicole Mitchell"Songs from the F Train," was written by composer Gilda Lyons, and is a co-commission from American Opera Projects, Fort Greene Park Conservancy and The Walt Whitman Project. The piece will be performed by mezzo-soprano Nicole Mitchell (New York City Opera's Margaret Garner, AOP's This Is the Rill Speaking, pictured right) and will be followed by other musical settings of famous Brooklyn poets by composers Ms. Lyons, Jack Perla and Richard Brooks, among others.

The concert is part of the 2009 Make Music NY Festival and will be performed in the tree-lined "Writer's Grove" in front of the bench dedicated to Brooklyn author Richard Wright. The Writer's Grove is next to the 150 foot tall Prison Ship Martyrs Monument at the top of Fort Greene Park.

Fort Greene Park
Fort Greene Park's Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, viewed from The Writers' Grove

A full schedule and details on the performances can be found by visiting www.operaprojects.org/events.