The etherial light from the distant moon reminds two woman who have been unjustly incarcerated to remain fiercely resolute in the face of great adversity.

for soprano, mezzo-soprano, cello & piano
Music by Julia Adolphe
Commissioned by Chamber Music Palisades
8 minutes

WORLD PREMIERE
Saousan Jarjour, soprano; Victoria Fox and Jessica Mirshak, mezzo-sopranos, Susan Greenberg, flute; David Garrett, cello; Delores Stevens, piano; Lisa Sylvester, conductor
May 10, 2016, Los Angeles, CA

Moonlight
Text by Nahal Navidar

“Do you feel the light of the moon?
How beautiful she is
Nothing can relinquish her grace
Hundreds of miles beyond
Beyond the bars of this cell and prison’s concrete walls
Through corruption, through the streets, the clouds
She hovers beyond the atmosphere and reaches down to you
To lift your beaten bodies
Consoled in her cool embrace
Do you see her?”

“I see her…”

“…These walls cannot consume us
Our voices are loud and strong
They echo down the chamber
And ring across the sky

The wind may shake the tree
And strip her of her leaves
But there is no unearthing the deeply rooted tree”

To learn more about solitary confinement and modern slavery in the form of U.S. mass incarceration, follow Solitary Watch and Prison Legal News.