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Mari Esabel Valverde
Mari Esabel Valverde
Before Spring
Continuous invitations to mend parts of the listener broken from their humanity, but natural as the earth.
for TTBB chorus a cappella
The narrative of “Before Spring” depicts sex as something restorative, creative, and beautiful. Amir Rabiyah’s words, crafted with vivid images of nascent spring, are notably gender indefinite. As the melodic lines unfold, they encounter various tonal areas, carrying the listener continuous invitations to mend parts of themselves broken from their humanity, but natural as the earth.
Composer’s Notes
Commissioned in 2021 for the acclaimed men’s ensemble Cantus, “Before Spring” was premièred on their concert tour “Song of the Universal” beginning in October 2022.
This work is a setting of an original poem by Amir Rabiyah and serves as one of three in a choral set, representing creation. The other two works “Vida, Tú” (“You Are Life”), by Cuban composer Yosvany Estepe, and “The Gates,” by Ukrainian composer Mariana Sadovska, represent life and afterlife, respectively.
Given the collaboration of transgender composer and transgender poet, the narrative of the song depicts sex as something restorative, creative, and beautiful. Rabiyah’s words, crafted with vivid images of nascent spring, are notably gender indefinite, encouraging interpretations that reject prejudices of body shame, trans- and queer- phobias, and sex-negativity. As the melodic lines unfold in duets, individually, and in ensemble, they encounter various tonal areas, carrying the listener continuous invitations to mend parts of themselves broken from their humanity, but natural as the earth.
-Mari Esabel Valverde
Text
Two lovers, splayed across the grass
light streaked rivers
Or bones of boats caressing the water
Moaning towards the shore
Conjugating kisses
Mouths blessing one another’s necks
into wet vowels, pressing
their hands into folds of the giving earth
Two lovers, their bodies’ edges blurred by sweat
& a quickening desire—lose time and let go
And the trees, the trees,
shake the last of the frost
Before the coming of Spring
– Amir Rabiyah
Used with Permission of the Author.
About the poet:
Amir Rabiyah is a queer, trans, mixed race, disabled poet, educator, and librarian currently living in Central Pennsylvania. They are the author of Prayers for My 17th Chromosome, published by Sibling Rivalry Press in November 2017, and co-editor of Writing the Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBTQ Voices, published by Trans-Genre Press in October 2015. Amir writes about living with chronic pain and illness, war, trauma, spirituality, healing, redemption — and speaks on silenced places. Their other works have been published in Mizna, 580 Split, Flicker and Spark: A Contemporary Queer Anthology of Spoken Word and Poetry, Enizagam, Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, The Asian American Literary Review, Kweli Journal, Sukoon, Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion and Spirituality and more. Amir is a three-time VONA (Voices of our Nations) fellow. They were a finalist in the 2008 Joy Harjo Poetry contest, the 2012 Enizagam poetry contest, and the Atlanta Review’s 2013 poetry contest.
Amir has travelled extensively all over the United States leading workshops and sharing their stories and poems. In 2009, Amir had the privilege of being an STP with June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley where they supported emerging poets develop their craft and deepen their voice. Amir has participated in residencies at the Kimmel Nelson Harding Center in Nebraska, the Guapamacátaro Center for Art and Ecology in Michoacán, Mexico, and more. For more information or to contact Amir, visit www.AmirRabiyah.com.
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