I forgot to share at the time, but it feels timely now. Or does it simply always feel timely?
It is a privilege to write for the singers of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and have them peform this song through many seasons. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
xx
alev
Ps: the original program notes were:
"Our current real life attempts of space exploration seem not too unsimilar to colonization, following the logic of domination of yet another world and I wondered if a woman would do it differently as our imaginative being, a male human in my tale. Arriving at a yes I wondered why. And why it is that is women can build worlds within their prescribed, confined roles, grow worlds rather than colonize and dominate them. And what happens if we do not follow a logic of domination.
This brought me right back to earth.
The female with her feet in the dirt, considered a lower being in the patriarchal system. What is a space exploration on earth? I wanted to craft a very simple song with a simple chord structure to visualize something plain and simple: even simple things are dangerous for some on this earth, you do not have to fly into space."
With an addtional the 2026 performaces of BYC:
One in four astronauts was a women.
One in three women will experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime. (According to UNHCR)
One awe-inspiring space exploration later, I can still only look at the pictures of earth. A hoard of suits, trampling our planet - reduced to rubble - negotiating who gets which p/ie/eace. We are not ready for space, we can not even look after the Earth.