I used to wonder if I was done writing about sexual assault. Turns out: nope! As the world is confronting the Cornell gang rape…
My first consortium: ‘go to the garden,’ for trumpet and fixed media
Hello, friends, and happy 2022! As we venture forth into a new year, I’m really excited to announce that I’m launching my first-ever consortium today with the help of my dear friend and collaborator Ashley Killam. I’ve wanted to run consortia for awhile, and this year, I finally have the space and creative energy to do so—and I’m hoping to shoot for at least three this calendar year! As I build this practice, I hope to create opportunities for more people to engage with my music and be directly involved with the creation of a new work without breaking the bank. Funding pieces through consortia will allow me to keep buy-ins low and interface more directly with performers as I move through the creative process, both of which are supremely important to me as I continue to grow as an artist.
Ashley is my consortium lead for this first project, meaning she’s providing a lot of really important support as I get this piece up and running—she’s been my sounding board as we honed the core concepts of this piece, she’s handling a great deal of outreach, and for day-to-day questions surrounding logistics and support, she’s the first point of contact. She’ll also be giving the official world premiere of the piece this April or May (exact date forthcoming), as my thank-you for her assistance throughout this project.
Thanks to Ashley’s help and my own creative resurgence as 2021 has come to a close, I’m excited to present the concept for this first consortium, which I’ve entitled go to the garden. It’ll be scored for trumpet (B-flat or C) and fixed media, and I’ll actually be creating three different durations, all of which will be presented to consortium members upon completion. Depending on your programming and technique needs, you’ll be able to program a version of go to the garden that’s approximately 3, 6, or 9 minutes long! I’ve included some of the most important information about the piece in the graphic immediately following this paragraph (thanks to Ashley’s design wizardry), and you can read in more depth about it—and sign up—below that.
Fall 2021, from a tired nonbinary adjunct
There are ten student-accessible all-gender restrooms on the campus I taught at in person for fall 2021. As in, there are ten toilets total. Four of them are in the main administrative building, the southernmost point on campus (and two of those are in part of the building generally reserved for athletics, where other students likely won’t be wandering in). One is newly-converted from a binary-gender restroom in the computer lab (thank you, Facilities!), housed in the building right next door to main admin. Another is in the building across from it, in the southwest corner of campus; this stall is the only one I can think of that is easily located and just off a very open space. Two small satellite-campus/early college program buildings in the far northeast corner contain one each, though they’re only likely to be used by students in those programs and sometimes require a faculty keycard for entry. The final two are housed in a single academic building in the far northwest corner. Something like five buildings—that make up the heart (and center!) of campus—have no gender-neutral restrooms available to students. From any of those buildings, including the performing arts center and the library, you’re likely looking at at least a five-minute walk, round-trip, to the nearest all-gender stall.
Oh, and that information isn’t actually housed anywhere. They aren’t labeled on a map. Faculty and admin aren’t told where students can find these stalls. Students definitely aren’t told. In fact, the only reason I can point you at ten stalls (only eight of which are realistically accessible to most abled students) is because for the first five weeks of the fall semester, I spent my hundred-minute breaks between classes poking my head into buildings and offices to look for them.
See, I didn’t know where I could actually go to the bathroom, and if I didn’t know, I figured my nonbinary students didn’t, either.
