LA Opera's Next Digital Short, WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS Premieres On March 4

LA Opera's Digital Shorts series, which pairs today's most exciting composers with acclaimed filmmakers, continues with We Hold These Truths, a new film directed by dream hampton featuring newly commissioned music by composer Tamar-kali, premiering online at 11am on March 4, 2022.

We Hold These Truths is a three-movement piece featuring seminal poetic works from three influential Black poets from the turn of the 20th century through the Harlem Renaissance: Paul Laurence Dunbar ("We Wear the Mask"), Langston Hughes ("I, Too"), Claude McKay ("If We Must Die"). The filmmaker is dream hampton, director of the Peabody-winning and Emmy-nominated film Surviving R. Kelly.

"This piece is written at a moment in the 21st century where a segment of our nation bristles at the thought of progress and there continues to be a debate about how far we have come and whether or not change is being pushed upon the populace too hastily," said composer Tamar-kali. "The first wave of the Civil Rights Movement in America dates back to the late 1800s. The thought that, more than a century later, 'these truths' are still unattainable for a portion of our population seems unconscionable."

In the film, director dream hampton combines newly filmed segments with archival footage of early 20th-century Black life. "We Hold These Truths is a direct reference to a continuum," she said, "and I want the continuum to be one of wonder and joy and the exploring one does while living and turning away from the death and oppression that is often part of American life for Black folks. Even as these poets were bearing witness to what America was doing to Black people, they were also very much living in their own eras, being fed enough in their personal lives, on both a spiritual and an intellectual level, to create this art."

The vocal performers include tenor Ashley Faatoalia, baritone Cedric Barry, violinist Curtis Stewart, speaker Samuel Getachew and Selah Gospel Choir. The conductor is Anthony Parnther, leading a 34-piece ensemble of members of the LA Opera Orchestra.

Learn more at LAOpera.org.