Lyric Opera 2021-2022 Issue 1 Macbeth

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 38 Some years ago, in a landscape where many performing arts organizations were scaling back their educational and community engagement programs, Lyric took a bold step and increased its commitment to innovative learning, civic engagement, and of-our-time creative programming. EmpowerYouth! The 2021/22 season marks the fth year of Lyric’s EmpowerYouth!: Igniting Creativity through the Arts program in partnership with the Chicago Urban League—a program that encourages and guides Black Chicago high-school students in creating an original production to tell the story of their lives and how they deal with issues pertinent to them. Participants in the program work with professional artistic staff and program facilitators to learn how principles of performance, the written word, music, and dance can translate to their everyday lives. During Lyric’s virtual 2020/21 season—determined not to let the pandemic deter its creative work— EmpowerYouth! continued on Zoom with the same group of students that participated during the 2019/20 school year. Program librettist Kristiana Rae Colón worked to shape the script and libretto with words pulled from meaningful conversations, participant quotes, and journals from the EmpowerYouth! participants. She worked to transform what was on their minds, their immediate fears, and what they found inspiring during this dif cult time into a cohesive libretto. Colón Participants Kamren and Kennedy are all smiles as the group does warm-ups. Kyle Flubacker