Love, Tears, and the Music In Between

May 1

Two new works by writers from the '23 Artists Residency at the Center

Two of the Center's 2023 Artists in Residence have recently shared powerful new works, both rooted in the language of grief—and the unexpected beauty that can rise from it. In “A Glimpse of Beauty in an Ugly Place”, Jenna Carson writes for popular column Modern Love in The New York Times about her experience as a chaplain in a men’s high-security prison. Defying the expectation to remain detached, she writes movingly about singing with the prison choir and shedding tears among the incarcerated men as she grapples with her own grief. “And while it’s also true that to love is dangerous," she writes, "it’s better than never loving at all."

That same spirit of emotional honesty pulses through Silver Eyes, an acapella choral work by Alixa Brobbey and composer Michael René Kosorok, performed by Brevitas Choir. Inspired by the question posed to Mary Magdalene at the tomb—“Woman, why weepest thou?”—the piece meditates on sorrow and resurrection, threading grief into something luminous & triumphant. In both works, tears are not signs of weakness, but sacred invitations: to sing, to hope, and to keep loving in even the hardest places.

Listen to Alixa’s oratorio below, and read Jenna’s article in The New York Times.