I’m approaching opera not as a fixed, elitist form but as a living genre with a deep history and ample room for experimentation. Opera is an immersive experience, and its ability to move the soul is inescapable. Post Pardon is soul work. Our collective consciousness needs more narratives that open us to an interconnected understanding of who we are and our shared purpose. Opera, as an art form, is the necessary volume to bring voices from the margins to the center. 

Adapted from my eponymous poetry chapbook, published by Mouthfeel Press in 2011, Post Pardon was a grief response to poet Reetika Vazirani, who took the life of her two-year-old son before taking her own in the summer of 2003. I was struck by these events, having met Vazirani and Jehan a few weeks before their deaths. As a device to non-judgmentally enter the interior landscape of a woman who grapples with murder-suicide, the poetry collection employs Caribbean mythologies and West African cosmologies to explore the concept of inherited sorrow.

Post Pardon: The Opera was initially supported by a Cultural Funding Grant from the City of Oakland, CA, in 2013-14 to create the first libretto and score, for which we partnered with the Oakland School of the Arts, Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, and local vocalists and musicians. 

Post Pardon: The Opera in Concert, Colby College

Commissioned by Colby College’s Art Office in 2022 and incubated during the summers of 2023-2025, Post Pardon: The Opera in Concert received funding and support from The Haynesville Project, The Carter Family, Dance Company of Middlebury, Maine Arts Commission, SPACE Gallery, New England Humanities Consortium, the Cave Canem Foundation, and Indigo Arts Alliance.

Post Pardon: The Opera made its concert premiere on June 7, 2025, at the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts in Waterville, Maine. It was a blend of avant-garde improvisation, soul-stirring melodies, and a jazz-informed sound. Composed by Jessica Jones, conducted by Mazz Swift, musically directed by Marshunda Smith, with costumes by Dianne Smith. The dynamic cast was led by three outstanding vocalists: Ashley Renée Watkins, a powerhouse multi-genre artist; Jeannine Anderson, a versatile operatic and theater vocalist; and Kay Patterson, a luminescent lyric soprano.

Guided by the dramaturgical insights of Ellen Sebastian Chang and Amissa Miller, the libretto for Post Pardon: The Opera draws on African diasporic spirituality and folklore to tell the story of Willow, a queer activist confronted by the ghost of her estranged mother. Set between the material and spiritual worlds, where Elsa, The Bottle Tree, serves as the threshold, Willow is guided by The Sistas (Tulsi, Astragalus, and Reishi), empowered by the eco-activist group Black Azaleas, and inspired by Rosa’s love as she embraces the multiplicities of death. With its concern for gendered and ecological violence, Post Pardon is the transgenerational apology needed to repair a Black woman’s soul.

Through poetic expression, employing innovative language and botanical imagery, Post Pardon explores the inner world of a woman on the edge. It offers a nuanced and empathetic portrayal of alienation, madness, and the search for understanding.

Video of Post Pardon: The Opera in Concert: link

Co-directors: Ellen Sebastian Chang and Marshunda Smith. Vocalists: Jeannine Anderson, Ken Alston Jr., Jazmin DeRice, Bevan Fodgall ’24, Maura McGraw ’26, Kay Patterson, Bella StCyr, Jean Strazdes, Ashley Renée Watkins, Chana Marie Wingard. Orchestra: Brian Shankar Adler, drums/percussion, Yi-Ting Chiang, violin, Ross Gallagher, bass, Robin Lane, cello, Toni Jones, tenor saxophone, Christina Spurling, piano, Nessa Sammuel, violin, Emma Stanley, trumpet, Linda Theriault, viola, Eric Thomas, clarinet, Francisco Verastegui, flute, Joshua Zhang ’26, trombone. Production: Lilah Atkin, stage manager; Raine Broussard ’27, stagehand; Kara Kugelmeyer, stagehand; Gary McCrumb, director of production; Justin Moriarty, lighting design. General Manager: Charlotte Tiencken (2023-24).

 

 

Willow’s Apothecary, The Dance Company of Middlebury

January 17, 18, 25, 2025, Middlebury College and Mechanics’ Hall, Portland, ME

An evening-length dance theater work presented by The Dance Company of Middlebury, directed by associate professor of dance Laurel Jenkins, with guest poet Arisa White, featuring live electronic music by McLean Macionis.

Inspired by the rich mythological world of White’s Post Pardon: The Opera, Willow’s Apothecary blends poetry, text, and movement to conjure the medicine needed to evoke intergenerational healing.

The Dance Company toured to Portland, Maine, where they were joined by two Colby College dancers and cellist Robin Lane, and co-presented with Indigo Arts Alliance and Mechanics’ Hall, in partnership with Middlebury College and Colby College. Students also designed and facilitated a community workshop, Moving Stories: A Writing & Movement Workshop, on January 26, 2025, held at Indigo Arts Alliance. 

 

Video of Willow’s Apothecary: link

Lighting design by Bert Crosby and Evelyn Rodriguez ’25.

 

 

SELECTED PRESS

June 5, 2025 | COLBY News
Colby Hosts a World Premiere

June 4, 2025 | Colby College
YouTube: Post Pardon: The Making of an Opera

November 9, 2024 | Museum of Art, Colby College
Vimeo: Into the Windlyn: Post Pardon: The Opera in the Museum

October 14, 2024 | Kennebec Journal (Central Maine)
Photos: “The Black Azaleas Song Cycle” from Post Pardon: The Opera

September 22, 2024 | State of the Art
Maine Public Radio: Post Pardon: The Opera

September 13, 2023 | MARKETPLACE
Investments in the arts could turn around Waterville, Maine’s economy

July 13, 2023 | COLBY News
Arisa White’s Powerful New Opera

July 20, 2014 | The Daily Californian
Mythology and poetry unmask death in “Post Pardon: The Opera”

 

PROCESS NOTES

The elements that moved me to write Post Pardon–yes, fairies are involved!