Music

IAC Commissions: Loah

Presented as part of Culture Ireland's 2022 SEODA festival

Details

Date(s)

Tue, Mar 15, 2022

Contact

info@irishartscenter.org


Location

View this project on Culture Ireland's YouTube channel. To access all works in our Grásta series, visit the Irish Arts Center channel.

Overview

Grásta: Grace in Uncertainty


"Over the last 18 months, I’ve spent many hours with my mother, listening to her stories and documenting her experiences. I have hours and hours of voice notes, physical recordings archiving a remarkable life. 

Born in a mother and baby home to her mother, an Irish nursing student, and her father, “Unknown” (according to her birth certificate), she was adopted and grew up like any other little girl in Crumlin in 1950s and '60s Dublin. However, skin colour, the mark of this Unknown Paternity, and the many questions and challenges it brought to life, led to a decades-long journey to know her true origins. We did find these bloodlines, leading us to the Caribbean. Through the process of interviewing her, I have had the privilege to share in the discovery of this great and mysterious inheritance filled with both sorrow and silent triumphs. It has become a deeper discovery of my mother, my family and our country, woven as we all are into the tapestry of Ireland. 

This piece is a brief reflection on the immensity of this ongoing excavation, in song.”

Premiering March 15 as part of Culture Ireland's SEODA festival. 

WATCH HERE >
FULL FESTIVAL DETAILS >

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Written by Sallay Matu Garnett (Loah). Commissioned by Irish Arts Center as part of Grásta: Grace in Uncertainty, 2020-2021.


Irish Arts Center's Grásta commissions series challenged twenty-six artists, reflecting a range of perspectives and disciplines, to create work in response to the idea of finding grace in uncertainty. Click here to learn more.

Our Supporters

Irish Arts Center programs are supported, in part, by government, foundation, and corporate partners including Culture Ireland, the agency for the promotion of Irish arts worldwide; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office and the New York City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; Howard Gilman Foundation; Tourism Ireland; the Jerome L. Greene Foundation; the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation; the Charina Endowment Fund; the Ireland Funds; the Shubert Foundation, Inc.; the Arnhold Foundation; the Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; the Irish Institute of New York; the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, New York; Northern Ireland Bureau; Invest NI; CIE Tours; M&T Bank; the Dead Rabbit; the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Consulate of Ireland in New York; and thousands of generous donors like you.

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