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Saunder Choi
Saunder Choi Music
Our Streets, A Symphony Again
“Our Streets, a Symphony Again” is a commissioned piece based on the collaborative poem “Too early to celebrate?” by West Hollywood poet laureate Brian Sonia-Wallace, celebrating the city’s diversity and capturing the post-pandemic anticipation and excitement of reopening.
SSA and piano
Experience the captivating power of Our Streets, a Symphony Again, as it sets the playful and thought-provoking poem “Too early to celebrate?” by West Hollywood’s poet laureate, Brian Sonia-Wallace. Commissioned for VOX Femina Los Angeles’ concert, Made in LA: Identity and Belonging in the City of Angels, this extraordinary performance celebrates diversity, reopening, and the post-pandemic spirit with a collaborative masterpiece. Join us for a mesmerizing journey through history, community, and personal reflections that resonate with all.
Composer’s Notes
Our Streets, a Symphony Again is a setting of the playful poem Too early to celebrate? by current West Hollywood poet laureate Brian Sonia-Wallace. The piece was commissioned by VOX Femina Los Angeles for their March 2023 concert – Made in LA: Identity and Belonging in the City of Angels – a concert that celebrates the city’s diversity.
The poem was commissioned by the city of West Hollywood as it began to reopen from COVID restrictions. It was written as a collaborative work that includes words and memories of its diverse residents answering the questions: What does “reopening” mean? What’s the same/ different? How does history fit at that particular time and space?
The text’s ability to capture the city’s history of harboring the LGBTQ+ community spoke to me as a gay immigrant who has found home in Los Angeles – a place where I am fully able to celebrate my different intersectionalities. Moreover, as someone who was holed up in LA for the entirety of the lockdown, the poem perfectly encapsulates the post-pandemic anticipation, excitement, and uncertainty that we all experienced.
– Saunder Choi
Text
The sunset strip
echoes, jacarandas bloom bright after barren months.
Our streets symphony again wild beyond gardens,
blaze honey
disco
french horns
& orange sherbet glow.
You, dear, never stopped being a proud march, a palm frond in ragged wind —
yes, you curled up
in last winter’s hush.
This city threads us
lonely
a plastic oasis of skin
sweaty with starlight.
But now it’s time for
gogo boots & guitar strings, rooftop pools & history between your lips
like a cold margarita
while the hot asphalt
dances.
Each of us a song:
equal parts party and protest.
Won’t you walk with me?
My glam aunts, my ferocious uncles,
my frankest friends — my chosen family, look at all we have lost.
All that survives.
We are a house
built
on bones. We are dancing.
Dancing on bones.
-Brian Sonia-Wallace
A collaborative poem using words and memories contributed by West Hollywood residents
$2.50 per licensed PDF
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