James W. Perkinson

A View from the Balcony—Opera through Womanist Eyes

Theology

“Jean Derricotte-Murphy’s A View from the Balcony is a ‘Grand Opera’ orchestration of insurgent Womanist intelligence in multiple keys, building on a base beat of Black Performance Theory and Mvengain anthropological critique, embroidered in personal solo riffs to give a new score to an old tune. Syncopating the tired metronome of American-style racial, patriarchal classist, etc. domination through a balcony-cadence of bombast, throw-down, and send-up, Derricotte-Murphy’s aria sounds out the amnesiac ‘white’ depths of the art form and re-opens this stage to its underground voices of beauty.”

Where the Water Goes Around

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Wylie-Kellermann gifts us with his inimitable touch, at once butterfly-light and stiletto-deep, bearing witness to a generation's struggle with the city's 'angel.' 'Schooled' into ever-deepening truth by powers Black, Latino, and indigenous, this prophet-pastor's witness renders the Car City itself a sign of the times, whose testament we dare not ignore.”