COTTON

The world-renowned visual artist John E. Dowell felt called in a dream by his grandmother to travel to South Carolina and photograph the fields where she had likely been enslaved. He used the resulting images to create his magnum opus, COTTON: The Soft, Dangerous Beauty of Our Past. Composer Damien Geter’s work is a song cycle based on poetic impressions of Dowell’s photographic collages and features a stunning lineup of commissioned works, including one of the last poems ever written by Nikki Giovanni. Profound, reverent, and deeply uplifting, COTTON is a reminder of our past and a ray of hope for our future. During this event, Kentucky Opera will partner with the University of Louisville School of Music to present a weeklong celebration of song, featuring a dynamic series of concerts and master classes unfolding across the city.