They Still Want to Kill Us

World Premiere
Music by Daniel Bernard Roumain
Featuring J'Nai Bridges

Join us for the world premiere of the short film They Still Want To Kill Us, an aria by composer and activist Daniel Bernard Roumain, performed by mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, and directed by filmmaker Yoram Savion, to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. It speaks truth to what transpired in 1921 at the Tulsa Race Massacre, an atrocity all but deleted from history until recently. The work is being premiered to mark one year since the murder of George Floyd: a commentary on our progress this last century on the issue of race and America’s treatment of Black life. They Still Want to Kill Us will premiere on YouTube and Facebook; beginning May 26 it will stream for free on the Opera Philadelphia Channel until July 31.

The program will include the premiere of the piece by Savion, and a discussion with DBR and Bridges, moderated by Jamilla Deria.

Check out our Virtual Learning page at operaphila.org/learntulsa.

Learn more about the uncensored aria and project at www.theystillwanttokillus.com.

This work of social justice and global change is produced by Rika Iino and Ichun Yeh of Sozo Creative with support from Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, OK, and is commissioned by the Apollo Theater, Opera Philadelphia, the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage Anywhere, Joe's Pub, Stanford Live, University Musical Society at the University of Michigan, Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University, The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, Creative Alliance, Bill Bragin, and Washington Performing Arts with support from National Sawdust and the Lotus Education and Arts Foundation, distributed by ActiveCultures, Esty Dinur, globalFEST, ¡Globalquerque!, and HotHouse.