Bridging the Gaps: Guitars for Social Justice, a collaborative and interdisciplinary project that marries music and social justice, will return to Oakland University at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
The event, which will take place in OU’s Varner Recital Hall, will feature compositions by Jon Anderson, Christopher Burns, Terry Herald, Joo Won Park, Stuart Scott and Bill Withem, as well as spoken word texts by Jenifer DeBellis, Felicia Krol, Peter Markus and Vanessa Stauffer.
“Each piece already feels unique on paper — the pairing of one writer to one composer has made some wonderful combinations of art, and each piece feels unique when put in the hands of particular performers,” said guitarist Shea Socrates, an OU student and co-founder of Bridging the Gaps: Guitars for Social Justice.
“Even though there are directions for when a word is to be spoken or a note to be played, every performance is different, and every person interprets and performs these pieces differently. I feel like we've really succeeded in the art of it, and I'm really proud of this thing that we've been able to create.”
According to Socrates, all of the works will be performed by OU students, including instrumentalists, singers and actors.
“We had local Michigan writers — all of which were either alumni or faculty from OU's Creative Writing program — initially provide us with prose and poetry, some of which was previously written and some newly composed just for this. The texts follow themes that are important to us — poverty, internal struggle, social commentary, etc.,” Socrates said.
“We then sent an individual piece of text off to several music composers from various higher education institutions, including the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, Mott Community College, Macomb Community College, and Oakland University. These composers carefully examined the text and wrote appropriate music around it to create these beautiful moments of drama with a soundtrack.”
Based at Oakland University, Bridging the Gaps also partners with local non-profit organizations to hold the performances, which help to bring attention to and raise money for the organizations and their causes.
“We support these nonprofits by performing a program of spoken word and classical guitar music,” Socrates said. “It's a great way to partner with and promote local, smaller nonprofits in Michigan that can do a lot of good in our communities.”
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/BridgingTheGapsMusic.
Performances:
• The Moon
Stuart Scott
Text by Peter Markus
Angela Tocco, voice
Desmond Doneen and Samad Ansari, guitars
• Mud
Bill Withem
Text by Peter Markus
Angela Tocco, voice
Seth Miller, guitar
• Lessons
Christopher Burns
Text by Vanessa Stauffer
Kadry Julian, voice
Shea Socrates, guitar
• Hungry
Joo Won Park
Text by Jenifer DeBellis
Elena Hensel, voice
Bianca Pokrzywa, guitar
• DTE
Jon Anderson
Text by Vanessa Stauffer
Elena Hensel, voice
Samad Ansari, guitar
• Loretta
Terry Herald
Text by Felicia Krol
Elena Hensel, voice
Desmond Doneen, Daniel Byington, and Shea Socrates, guitars