by Daniel Hathaway
May 4, 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of the tragic shooting of Kent State students by Ohio National Guard members during protests around the Vietnam War, but COVID-19 upstaged KSU’s plans for a memorial.
Two years later, the University will be ferrying more than 300 performers from Kent to Cleveland for an extraordinary event at Severance Music Center on Monday, May 2 at 7:00 pm.
Musicians, dancers, singers, and poetry readers will commemorate the events of that day in 1970 in a mammoth concert. According to a press release, Stories of Peace, Protest and Reflection “explores social justice, civil rights and the complex emotions felt before, during and after tragedy.”
Having read the press materials, I was eager to learn more about how this event was put together — a feat of human choreography and logistics that seemed comparable to staging a small version of D-Day. Happily, I was referred to an old colleague, clarinet professor Amitai Vardi, who was charged with coordinating the event. In a phone call, I asked him how it all came about. [Read more…]
During the pandemic, the anxiety caused by an unknown future and the longing to return to normal have been beautifully expressed by thousands of people around the globe who participated in the Global Vaccine Poem project. Lines from these poems served as the inspiration for British composer Cecilia McDowall’s On the Air (Dear Vaccine).