(police sirens wailing)
- As they were transferring at the MacArthur platform,
they were approached by an individual with a knife.
- [People] Nia Wilson!
- [Man] And we're really seeking justice
for Nia
and for Letifah.
- [People] Nia Wilson!
- [Woman] Say her name.
- [People] Nia Wilson!
- This work feels very important to me,
and it did when Jens first told me about it.
- When I first got the initial email
about the project I was already rather familiar
with the subject matter.
And my initial thoughts were as follows:
I thought about how I would like to be remembered
if this were something that had happened to me.
I thought about similar projects that I've seen
in the space of black composers responding
to current events of a similar nature.
And I thought the last thing I wanted to make
was something resembling at all trauma porn
or something that felt overly exploitative in some way.
So really the initial conception was to depict a life
and a legacy and this amazing person
in all of her complexity and beauty.
- I felt the responsibility to Nia and her sisters
and to the ancestors and really to
the Black community as a whole to just do it right.
(soft piano music begins)
- It was quite difficult to craft this text.
I think in some ways this was some of
the most difficult writing I've ever done.
And that was long before the musical component
was even added.
Yasmina and I really toiled very hard to make sure
that we felt that we included as much detail
about her as possible and to really include
as many angles about the event
as really we felt appropriate.
And I'm happy to say that I feel we did make good
on our promise to ourselves to do that.
- When my twin brother Jens originally
approached me to help write the libretto with him,
I was actually a little bit daunted, admittedly,
just with the subject matter and with something
so close to home.
- Yeah it was not without significant effort
and introspection, and also just patience with ourselves
as we worked through something that was
very close to home.
Probably closer to home
than anything else I've worked on.
So that was the main difficulty I think,
was really adequately addressing the complexity
of the issue, of this life and subsequent death.
And also what that meant to us
and working through our own feelings
of this experience given that we both are Black in America.
And what it means to be Black in America is to have,
in some ways, a target on you at all times.
- Because I also was so familiar with the story,
I was also really, like excited for the opportunity
to really depict a life
and to not really focus on the worst thing
that happened to her.
Because she is so much more than that and deserves that.
- It's an opportunity to present more
than a single story of Black life,
and again of Black death.
And that is inherently exciting to me.
- So it was really important when writing this piece
to learn as much about her as possible.
So that I could have like a clear image of her in my mind
when I was writing the lyrics.
- I had a lot of fun writing the music
once it got to the musical stage.
Getting to that stage was difficult,
but once we had worked out the text
we had thought so much about the thing
that the music was,
a lot of it was rather fully formed in my head
at that point.
And I'm just excited to take people on this journey.
I wanted to write something that people
are gonna be able to come away from,
just singing along to after a single listen.
- I think that it's felt like a gift
to be able to eulogize the life of a beautiful person
and to honor an ancestor,
'cause ancestor reverence is everything to me,
and to pay it forward.
And also so that our descendants
and those who come next can know who came before.
- It's really just kind of an honor
to get to depict this person.
To get to tell their story,
because it's simply what I would want someone to do for me.
(wistful piano music begins)
♪ Pretty girls don't suffer no fools ♪
♪ We make them, we don't follow no rules ♪
♪ One look at you ♪
♪ I knew your heart in an instant ♪
♪ The fire in your voice ♪
♪ How it glittered like a thousand jewels ♪
♪ You line your eyes like a queen ♪
♪ Highlighting cheekbones God already perfected ♪
♪ Fixin' your crown, Fixin' your crown, Fixin' your crown ♪
♪ Rockin' your royal armor ♪
♪ From their gaze To keep yourself protected♪
♪ And step out into the world ♪
♪ Lazy Sundays freestyling by Lake Merritt ♪
♪ Holding court as you’re composing verses ♪
♪ Catch the haters staring, ‘cause they couldn’t bear it, ♪
♪ You knew those eyes could never make you flinch ♪
♪ Pretty girls don't suffer no fools ♪
♪ We make them, we don't follow no rules ♪
♪ One look at you ♪
♪ I knew your heart in an instant ♪
♪ The fire in your voice glittered like a thousand jewels ♪
♪ Brave and bold ♪
♪ We hold each other through the hard times ♪
♪ I will always be there in this life and the next ♪
♪ You know that everyone called you Pretty Girl ♪
♪ You were born to change our whole world ♪
♪ You never left a single soul behind, ♪
♪ Now that you’re our angel, ♪
♪ We'll never give up the fight ♪
♪ Shone so bright ♪
♪ They couldn't handle the light ♪
♪ For those in need ♪
♪ you’d never miss a chance to ♪
♪ Find a way ♪
♪ A way only to do what's right ♪
♪ To do what's right ♪
♪ Those were the steps ♪
♪ of your life’s brief dance ♪
♪ To do what's right ♪
♪ Those were the steps ♪
♪ of your life’s brief dance ♪
♪ Pretty girls ♪
♪ Don't suffer no fools ♪
♪ No ♪
♪ We make them, we don't follow no rules ♪
♪ No rules ♪
♪ It's up to us ♪
♪ To keep our sisters safe ♪
♪ Safe ♪
♪ Never let this cruel world ♪
♪ Our spirits break ♪
♪ Pretty girls don't suffer no fools ♪
♪ We make them, we don't follow no rules ♪
♪ We hold each other through the world's heartbreak ♪
♪ Our joy's the treasure ♪
♪ They will never take ♪
(wistful piano music)
♪ There is power in speaking a name ♪
♪ The eternal life it grants ♪
♪ Our people, a priceless treasure ♪
♪ Diamonds of the motherland ♪
♪ Those who would rob our riches ♪
♪ Will be left grasping at sand ♪
(fading soft piano music)
(playful moody music)