Sanctuaries is a jazz chamber opera exploring the racial and political underpinnings of gentrification. Blending elements of jazz, spoken word, and devised theater, and incorporating sound design, historical and contemporary images, and recorded narratives, it speaks to the experience of displaced residents of color in Portland, Oregon’s historically Black Albina district.
“Speak to the home that was.
Speak to the people and community that were.
Speak to the displacement
to the taking
to the gone and the going”
“To where might we be given
peace of mind and a piece of earth
in which to finally grow”
Sanctuaries is conceived and composed by pianist and composer Darrell Grant, with libretto by two-time National Poetry Slam Individual Champion and Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani, and stage direction by LA-based opera director Alexander Gedeon. Commissioned by Third Angle New Music, the opera was premiered in a site-specific Third Angle production in September 2021 under the Pavilion outside Portland’s Memorial Coliseum, a space that was formerly a Black neighborhood.
SANCTUARIES FILM by Black Bald Films, a Dru Holley Production
Filmed on location at the Memorial Coliseum on September 7, 2021
Production by Black Bald Films; Directed by Dru Holley.
Sanctuaries at the Portland Memorial Coliseum Pavilion. Photo by Intisar Abioto, courtesy of Third Angle New Music.
Damien Geter as the Reverend and Marilyn Keller as the Returner. Photo by Intisar Abioto, courtesy of Third Angle New Music.
PREMIERE Creative Team
DARRELL GRANT | composer and co-creator
ANIS MOJGANI | librettist and co-creator
ALEXANDER GEDEON | director and co-creator
SARAH TIEDEMANN | music director
LARS CAMPBELL | conductor|
YUKI IZUMIHARA | set designer
CARL FABER | lighting designer
BRANIC HOWARD | sound engineer
ALISON HERYER | costume designer
Vocalists
DAMIEN GETER | bass-baritone
EMMANUEL HENREID | baritone
MARILYN KELLER | alto
ITHICA TELL | alto
Ithica Tell as Carpenter. Photo by Intisar Abioto, courtesy of Third Angle New Music.
Instrumentalists
CHRIS BROWN | drums/percussion
RAÚL GÓMEZ-ROJAS | violin
JOHN NASTOS | winds
DAVID PARMETER | bass
CHARLIE PORTER | trumpet
JASNAM DAYA SINGH | piano
VALDINE MISHKIN | cello
ROGER WOODS | winds
SEQUOIA | rehearsal pianist
Derion Loman as White and Emmanuel Henreid (“Onry”) as the Artist. Photo by Intisar Abioto, courtesy of Third Angle New Music
The writing of Sanctuaries was generously supported by Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights Initiative, and it’s premiere production was made possible with additional support from Oregon Community Foundation Community Grants Program, Oregon Cultural Trust, The Ronald W. Naito MD Foundation, The M.E.N.S.C.H. Fund, The MAP Fund, as well as generous funding from George Rowbottom & Marilyn Crilley. Huge gratitude to Vanport Mosaic for their foundational support in the conversations that made the conception of the project possible and to the community elders and culture bearers who were part of the process.
“My body but an echo
of something bigger I know
Can you hear it?
Can I hear it?”
