The Wanderer’s Tethering reconsiders the 1803 Igbo revolution in Georgia through the eyes of one of their descendants, honoring centuries of Black cultural history, with an emphasis on Black women’s experiences, told through music and spoken word. The work follows the story of Tobi, a contemporary descendant of the Igbo community, whose members were stolen from modern-day Nigeria and forced onto boats that brought them to Georgia. Upon landing, rather than submit to becoming enslaved in the United States, the community led a revolt on the ship. After initial success fighting their captors and escaping, the group members submerged themselves into Georgia’s Dunbar Creek and committed mass suicide rather than living in captivity. Tobi ruminates on her ancestral history as she prepares for her own pending submersion – in the form of an open-water baptism.
The Wanderer’s Tethering is the second performance from Poetry in Music, a Boston Lyric Opera initiative bringing together the work of prominent poets and opera composers with roots in Boston to create new musical works and artistic experiences, presented in collaboration with the City of Boston. In 2020, BLO began conversations with the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture to partner with Boston-area poet laureates to create new musical works. The first Poetry in Music performance debuted in 2021 with the song cycle “my name is Alondra,” featuring poems by City of Boston Youth Poet Laureate Alondra Bobadilla set to music by BLO Jane & Steven Akin Emerging Artist Alumnus Omar Najmi, performed by Zaray Rodriguez, another BLO Emerging Artist. The performance took place on BLO Street Stage at The Rose Kennedy Greenway, where the audience included former acting mayor of Boston Kim Janey.
This second partnership features the collaborative work of Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola and Boston-based composer Mason Bynes. Bynes was first introduced to BLO by Rhiannon Giddens, co-composer of BLO’s recent production of Omar, who mentored Bynes during the process.
From Five Folksongs in Counterpoint by
Florence Price"Juba"
by Trevor Weston"Calvary"
From Five Folksongs in Counterpoint by Florence Price
"Source Code for string quartet"
by Jessie Montgomery"Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho"
From Negro Folksongs in Counterpoint by Florence Price
Matthew Vera, violin
Grant Houston, violin
Ashleigh Gordon, viola
Leo Eguchi, cello
The Wanderer’s Tethering
by Mason Bynes Libretto by Porsha OlayiwolaI. Dunbar Creek I
II. Tobi/Tobi Recitative
III. Naming Ceremony
IV. Dunbar Creek II
V. And So the Myth is Told
VI. rePercussions/rePercussions Recitative
VII. The Baptismal
VIII. Dunbar Creek III
IX. Living Recitative
X. Live
Brianna J. Robinson, soprano
Porsha Olayiwola, poet
Matthew Vera, violin
Grant Houston, violin
Ashleigh Gordon, viola
Leo Eguchi, cello
Mason Bynes is a Boston-based composer, vocalist, and multimedia artist from Sugar Land, TX. She received her Master of Music in composition from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and she also holds a Bachelor of Music in composition from the University of North Texas In her 2021/22 season, she enjoyed her first compositional residency with Boston Art Song Society, a prestigious presentation of her music at The Rosa Parks Museum on Rosa Parks Day, and a variety of premieres for voice, chamber orchestra, classical guitar, and wind quintet Her passion for bringing listeners together has sparked a variety of commissions with various ensembles and composer-led initiatives, including: The Westerlies & Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT), The National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Ex-Aequo, Bass Players for Black Composers, and Lumedia Musicworks. Recently, Bynes’s music has been featured with Bang On a Can, the North End Music and Performing Arts Center (NEMPAC), the International Society of Bassists, Dallas Opera, Fort Worth Opera, BBC Radio 3, IDAGIO Live, and Greenleaf Music Podcast.
Porsha Olayiwola is a native of Chicago who writes, lives, and loves in Boston. Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator, and curator who uses Afrofuturism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the founder of the Roxbury Poetry Festival. Olayiwola is Brown University's 2019 Heimark Artist-In-Residence, as well as the 2021 Artist-in-Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum She is a 2020 Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. Olayiwola earned her MFA in poetry from Emerson College and is the author of i shimmer sometimes, too Olayiwola is the current poet laureate for the city of Boston. Her work can be found in or forthcoming from TriQuarterly Magazine, Black Warrior Review, The Boston Globe, Essence Magazine, Redivider, The Academy of American Poets, Netflix, Wildness Press, The Museum of Fine Arts, and elsewhere.
Vimbayi Kaziboni has led critically lauded performances at some of the most prestigious concert halls in the world, including Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall, Davies Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Elbphilharmonie, Deutschlandfunk, Hessischer Rundfunk, and Sala São Paulo, among others. Recent debuts include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonie, Kölner Philharmonie, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Wiener Konzerthaus, and Royal Concertgebouw. Recent engagements include performances with London Sinfonietta, Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Contrechamps, and International Contemporary Ensemble He has also served as Assistant Conductor for Sir Simon Rattle at the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall in London A former Fulbright Fellow, Kaziboni holds degrees from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK) in Germany. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Orchestral Studies and Contemporary Music at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and as a fellow at the Hermitage Artist Retreat
Ashleigh Gordon is co-founder, Artistic/Executive Director and violist of Castle of our Skins, a Bostonbased concert and educational series devoted to celebrating Black artistry through music. She has presented at the IDEAS UMass Boston Conference and 180 Degrees Festival in Bulgaria; been featured in the International Musician and Improper Bostonian magazines, as well as the Boston Globe; and was awarded the 2016 Charles Walton Diversity Advocate Award from the American Federation of Musicians. She is a 2015 St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award recipient, a 2019 Brother Thomas Fellow, a nominee for the 2020 Americans for the Arts Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities, and named one of WBUR’s “ARTery 25”, twenty-five millennials of color impacting Boston’s arts and culture scene.
Leo Eguchi has performed extensively across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. He enjoys an active and multi-faceted performance schedule –Eguchi can be heard in myriad chamber music settings, including the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival and Sheffield Chamber Players; in larger ensembles as principal cellist of the New Bedford Symphony; as a member of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the New Hampshire Music Festival and the Portland Symphony; and in frequent appearances with the Boston Pops Eguchi is on the music faculty of Boston College and is the Assistant Conductor of the MIT Symphony Orchestra. His degrees include a BM (Cello Performance) and BS (Physics) cum laude from the University of Michigan, and MM (cello performance) from Boston University, where he received the String Department Award for Excellence.
Violinist Grant Houston's recent appearances have included the notable festivals of Ravinia's Steans Music Institute, Yale University’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Perlman Music Program, Yellow Barn Young Artists Program, The Moritzburg Festival Academy, and the Music Academy of the West Past season engagements include Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with the Plymouth Philharmonic, debuts with the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia and Wellesley Chamber Players, and recitals with Trio Gaia Grant appears frequently with the conductorless ensembles Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry, and Palaver Strings, and will soon appear as a guest principal with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Performing regularly as a sought-after freelance chamber musician, recent engagements include a performance in Boston’s First Monday at Jordan Hall series and a studio recording of Florence Price’s String Quartet No 1 in G Major, which has aired on WGBH public radio. Additional upcoming chamber music performances include Juventas New Music Ensemble's Music for Peace project and a sold-out Music as Landscape program for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Weekend Concert Series.
Brianna J. Robinson returns to Boston Lyric Opera as a Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artist for a third season During her time with BLO, she has performed the role of Julie in Omar, Lucy in Fellow Travelers, and covered three principal roles in The Handmaid’s Tale. Recent work includes singing the role of Florence Price in Florence Comes Home by Francine Trester with Shelter Music Boston and being a featured soloist in the Boston Landmarks Orchestra Previously, Robinson was a Rising Artist with Pegasus Early Music, performing in Dido and Aeneas. Robinson has participated in international programs, including the Berlin Opera Academy and Opernfest Prague. She made her international debut in Ruse, Bulgaria in 2021, creating the role of Ophelia in the world premiere of Joseph Summer’s Hamlet. In January 2020, Robinson was awarded first prize at the sixth "Getting to Carnegie" competition at Carnegie Hall, New York City.
Violinist and violist Matthew Vera is known for his versatility as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader. Matthew has been a member of the Boston Philharmonic’s first violin section since 2010. Orchestrally, Matthew performs in many ensembles, including The Boston Philharmonic, The Albany Symphony, The Portland Symphony, The Rhode Island Philharmonic, The Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Teatro Nuovo, Eureka Ensemble, and the New Bedford Symphony. Matthew made his solo debut on the viola with the Tucson Philharmonia at age 14. He has appeared as a soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic, The Tucson Philharmonia, The Tucson Symphony, The World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and The New England Conservatory Symphony. He has attended numerous festivals, including Tanglewood, The Heifetz Institute, Brevard Music Center, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and more.
have you played at dunbar creek? have you stayed at dunbar creek? where the grass is as tall as pearled gate where the water’s ripples reveal your fate it’s a place beyond what eyes can attest where the water possesses and is possessed
have you laid at dunbar creek? where magic is shaped like memory the river like love, a soft screaming stream
where what you see isn’t what it seems
(Spoken): purpose? power?
lineage and destiny?
beacon of who I am to become and who wants the weight the wonder of the width the cautious carrying of legacy if i am named after an ancestor is that guardian or ghost if not my own, whose prophecy am i assigned to fulfill what if we gave ourselves our own names as gift our own intentions
(Sung): what’s in a name
what’s in a name
what is my name
what’s in a name
what’s in a blame
who is in my name
who is in my name
what is my numb
what is my name
what is my name
what if we leaned more on owning our dreams are we because of what we have been or is it what we have been because of who we are. is my name my own
they tell me a goat was slaughtered the day i was born, i imagine the reddening at the crest of dawn just out front my granddad’s house barely a being being birthed so below, is above, ocean baby, baby of earth
i imagine my family, wide eyes mountain tall dark as any god when the sun fades or falls surround the tender kid, the baby goat hands shivering when they felt the throb of his throat a prayer to thank the orishas for bringing me into this world, a machete to make an offering to take a place in the unliving world
and what of the goat did she squeal or grunt did she fight or did she sing did the waves womb the tune until it crowned the eardrums and ring
isn’t birth a type of rupture? is being born a death too? and what of me and my name? have i been worth the slaughter, at the very least? a life someone would kill for or have i been the feast
do you remember the calm of dunbar creek? do you recall the balm of dunbar creek? some say it’s where the igbos took up the fight some say it’s where tobi made them take flight some say they juju’d the land when they looked all around then walked into the water like it was solid ground
have you heard the psalm of dunbar creek it’s where they rebelled and submerged their peak walked into the waters like treading memories never returned living life beyond what we can see
and so the myth is told, i was named after a man who could fly a high priest, a chief, who’d rather live how he wished or die sweet, wise, and kind a brave man who wasn’t afraid to fly tobi the magic man, a root worker known to swim in the sky
and so the myth is told, there was a red ribbon tied to the stern of a ship having never seen the color outside the body’s drip many sauntered over and were captured by the trick tobi was aboard, cuffed to others in forged kinship they were bound in bond off the coast of igbo land tobi led them in love to take hold and take stand captors were drowned at sea, by command while they looked with nostalgia for their origin homeland
and so the myth is told, they were freed yet displaced having a home yet being unfamiliar in an unfamiliar place every blade of grass, every ripple relic of a distant space family must be heavenward and the tomb must be race
And so the myth is told, where they landed looked like home they stepped ashore, surveyed the landscape but not for long
they could see memories of the past, present and future roam rather than be recaptured they sought to tread where they belonged they held hands and sang songs and tobi led them to the brink they walked into the creek, their dark godly arms all in link singing mami wata brought us here and mami wata dare not sink they glided under the surface one step at a time all in sync
and so the myth is told, when they arrived to the shore and looked all around then turned on their heels and walked into the water like it was solid ground singing mami wata brought us here
mami wata take us home
mami wata brought us here mami wata take us home
(Spoken): i can always hear drums, drubbing a rhythm i know and am unfamiliar with i can be walking in a meeting laughing at brunch holding a body that is outside of my bloody could be just before I sit to write or lay to sleep
(Sung): knowing the difference between a red ribbon and a red flag is rememory knowing the difference between a red ribbon and a red flag is rememory
i hear the percussion of drums and at first, i think it’s my heart then maybe i think it’s a song i used to know. one i can’t get out of my head but when i reach for the memory of it it no longer becomes a memory but simply what is and i am there in that place trying to find myself underneath dunbar creek i become and always am tobi
VII. THE BAPTISMAL on the day i am baptized i dress in all pure white i am calm.
i am ready for the good of light when my sisters dip me under i keep hold of my breath my eyes look at the sun until only golden is left
on the day i am baptized i feel a snug embrace tobi grabs me under and it’s like we change our places maybe i am sleeping or maybe it is a dream one minute i’m floating the next i am under stream
on the day i am baptized i can feel myself glide like i’m flying i feel weightlessness joy
and i know i’ve defied dying i am tethered to my namesake but i am both him and me a new life and an old life, i am my ancestors memory
on the day i am baptized i become a new immortal time opens to descendants and we are taken through the portal
can you hear the creek at night does the creek sneer in smite? i was bathed in the crystal clear, so now i can see under the surface many years ago they did flee a group of people a bustling city a thriving street rather than die a slave they’d rather live free
can you hear the creek at night magic like memory the river like love, a soft screaming stream our ancestors wildest dreams does the creek sneer in smite magic like memory the river of love a soft screaming stream our ancestors wildest dreams
the english language is as twisty as a river of blood having disguised itself as a ribbon
the most used verb in the english language is be, meaning to exist or to represent a continuous state of being.
the most complex word in the english language is run. run has 645 different connotations and can relate to liquid, as in to flow, like the atlantic ocean runs into the mackay river, which in turn runs into dunbar creek
run can also relate to accelerated movement like the tribe had to run in order to fly or run can relay being at the helm of leadership, i.e. the chief runs his tribe into a watery grave
some words are spelled the same but do not carry the same pronunciation or definition. for example, tear and tear tearing someone away from their home is cruel and people will shed tears if torn from their home.
like bow and bow africans were defiant and took up the arrow and bow africans were defiant and took over the bow of the ship africans were defiant and will never bow to submit
take the words land and landing land is both noun and verb, both a state of being and a state of perpetual doing. like the ibos aboard the wanderer.
the place from whence they came from is called igbo land. the water in which they died was named igbo landing the difference between ibo land and ibo landing is the same as live and living
to say igbo landing, is to say the land is forever and perpetually moving toward the igbo people.
or it is to say, the igbo people are in a perpetual state of landing of creating a place of anchoring it is to be forever reaching toward home, in a constant state of still existence.
have you ever lived a life you wanted to escape? have you ever felt too full from what was placed on your plate? truth is you’re the only person who can seal your fate and you can never come in last in a one person race sometimes the reality is you need to escape life just to live despite the duality, the reality is, you need to escape life to live
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