Lyric Opera 2021-2022 Issue 1 Macbeth

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 39 EmpowerYouth! participants and staff gather for the check-in and journaling portion of the session. drew out general themes—social justice, control, superpowers, more educational options for creativity—that culminated in a work called Contagion . Contagion follows the future grads of Powerhouse Academy of the Performing and Visual Arts as they return to school after an extended summer break to discover that their school has changed. There’s a new principal spreading the “contagion” of a rigid regime, and the students must use their creative and artistic talents, and a little magic, to melt the new leader’s icy heart. Once the libretto was set, Colón worked with composer and teaching artist Shawn Wallace to create music for the production, inspired by popular music that the participants liked. Osiris Khepara, the program’s acting mentor, took time to allow the students space to play: “I wanted the students to have that freedom and really understand that this was theirs and only theirs.” Eventually, once city COVID restrictions began to lift in the spring of 2020, small groups of the ensemble gathered to record their songs and lm dance numbers at the Chicago Urban League. All of these elements—the libretto, music, choreography, and individual songs/raps/spoken words from the ensemble—came together in a nal performance for friends and family in June. And what did the 2020/21 EmpowerYouth! ensemble think of this year’s experience? “Everyone welcomed me with open arms.” “I nally came out of my shell and sang!” “It was so great to get out of my comfort zone.” “I’ll never forget this EmpowerYouth! community.” Some of the program’s young artists viewed the virtual nal presentation of Contagion from college, and one watched from a summer teaching program in Peru. Many of the ensemble’s recent high-school graduates have received full-tuition scholarships to schools including Columbia College Chicago and Morehouse College. EmpowerYouth! offers students a truly unique creative opportunity that helps inspire them to pursue the arts and nd their own voice. Lyric’s 2021/22 EmpowerYouth! ensemble begins work this fall at the Chicago Urban League with new stories that need to be told, new participants with new perspectives, and new opportunities for students to discover the power of the performing arts and how they can be harnessed as a powerful catalyst for change. Kyle Flubacker Kyle Flubacker