On the Stage
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Wow! What a wonderful way to look at...no...feel love. It's always spring somewhere. Breathe...embrace...love. - Nikki Giovanni on RetroLove |
RetroLove On Stage!
Created in conjunction Philadelphia Jazz Project, RetroLove was an evening-length show of poetry, songs and jazz. Beth used this opportunity for create a playful and evocative performance in collaboration with composer and music director Monnette Sudler, known as Philadelphia's "first lady of jazz", actress/singer Joilet Harris, and a hot band. Sadly, we lost both Monnette and Joilet in 2022. What a gift to be able to have this recording of their astounding talent with the RetroLove video available here thanks to PhillyCAM.
Get RetroLove: The Album!
You can listen to the best of the live performances plus some bonus studio recordings. Don't shuffle this one because you will want to hear the whole RetroLove story, beginning to end. Available on CD Baby and iTunes. Find your RetroLove moment!
Wind Rose
Wind Rose is a song cycle inspired by the wind compass Italian sailors used to navigate their journeys. Beth wrote these specifically for composer Andrew Litts to set to music in a full song cycle of nine poems. Andrew and Beth collaborated on Transmutation, performed by Network for New Music as part of the "Dialogues with Darwin" project. The song cycle was performed by Temple University's New Music Ensemble conducted by Jan Krzywicki. You can read one of the poems below and listen to it here.
Acqua Alta
- sirocco (SE)
she dreams the river rises and instead of sinking, she rises with it,
her red leather shoes make small islands, shoe-shaped ripples,
as she strolls the street which is her street,
the neighbors, her neighbors, framed in their square panes,
paintings entitled, ‘waking’ or ‘brushing her hair’, remarkably still –
and it is easier than she would have thought, to walk on water,
where the tree limbs begin their reaching out, and the birds weave
around her ankles like housecats, and from here she can see
her own house, her own room, a figure at the edge of the bed –
on her desk, crisp white paper, her pen overflowing with words.
Acqua Alta
- sirocco (SE)
she dreams the river rises and instead of sinking, she rises with it,
her red leather shoes make small islands, shoe-shaped ripples,
as she strolls the street which is her street,
the neighbors, her neighbors, framed in their square panes,
paintings entitled, ‘waking’ or ‘brushing her hair’, remarkably still –
and it is easier than she would have thought, to walk on water,
where the tree limbs begin their reaching out, and the birds weave
around her ankles like housecats, and from here she can see
her own house, her own room, a figure at the edge of the bed –
on her desk, crisp white paper, her pen overflowing with words.
