A Mural of Change

As I’ve become more in touch with what drives my creative energy, I’ve tried to find ways to combine my passions togther. When I was a kid, this meant putting every topping imaginable on my ice cream. More recently it means making choral music out of new poetry inspired by film. I had the idea to take a longer look at some of the themes from scenes or moments on film and explore them in a different artistic medium. In this way, we as musicians can explore passion, fear, grief, strength and other emotions with an additional access point other than words and music.

For “A Mural of Change,” Julia and I took our inspiration from the 1998 film “Pleasantville.” In the fictional black and white town, there is a growing conflict between the naive black and white characters and an small number of colored characters who are segregated. Certain things give people color – art, books, music, and so these things are banned. The main characters choose to rebel and paint the side of a building in full color and it causes immediate shock and fear from the black and white characters. Instead of hiding or denying their work, they stand proudly beside their work and own their act of defiance.

The racial metaphor in the film is obvious, but when we distill this theme into a poem it becomes more blurry, and we’re more easily able to apply it to our own context. Julia’s poem references the wisdom gained from stories, the power in acknowledging our differences, and the bravery it takes to speak these things out loud. As we own
the differences found in humanity, we create a world that’s better for everyone.

– Timothy C. Takach, 2018