In September 2011, four young slam poets from California joined the Parker Quartet, baritone William Sharp, and pianist Seth Knopp for a Yellow Barn Artist Residency. Today we offer this performance of Michael Gallagher’s “4th of July” with thanks to the poets, whose lives and the lives of those who witnessed their work, from the Harlem Children’s Zone and the Nasher Sculpture Center, to their hometown of Stockton, remain intertwined.

 

 

While in Putney, this residency ensemble of ten artists created the program Intimate Letters: Cultural Outrage and Personal Tragedy from Mahler to Slam Poetry. A program of original poetry interspersed with works by Lee Hyla, György Kurtág, Gustav Mahler, and Leoš Janáček, Intimate Letters premiered at the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro, VT, and then travelled to Boston, MA, New York, NY, Washington, DC, Dallas, TX, and Stockton, CA, performing in venues ranging from concert halls to living rooms.

 

Intimate Letters was the genesis of an ongoing Yellow Barn Music Haul residency at the Epiphany School in Dorchester, MA. We look forward to reuniting with their slam poets and faculty, together with Yellow Barn musicians Travis Laplante and Charles Overton, as soon as we are able.