Grades 7+ We Shall Not Be Moved Opera – Virtual Learning

Inspired by Opera Philadelphia and Art Sanctuary’s after school program, Hip H’opera , Daniel Bernard Roumain and spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s opera explores themes of education equity, gender identity, social justice and more.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES:
A suite of educational materials includes:

• YouTube Making of We Shall Not Be Moved documentary (30 minutes)
• The Un/Sung Stories of We Shall Not Be Moved– oral history videos with:
  • Ramona and Sue Africa, MOVE members
  • Philadelphia Councilwoman Helen Gym
  • A teacher and a student directly affected by the 2013 school closings
  • Christian Xavier Lovehall, transgender activist and artist
  • Valerie Gay on being a teen in Philadelphia in the 1980s
  • Rosemary Morgan, on working in the prison system in the 1980s
• YouTube video about the Hip H’opera program, which inspired the opera
• We Shall Not Be Moved podcast with artist interviews
• Sounds of Learning Student Guide pdf, including:
  • the opera’s complete text
  • historic context
  • interactive worksheets
  • artist interviews
  • SoL Opera History Timeline – on Tiki Toki
  • Apollo Theater pollical/pop history timeline – on Tiki Toki

WATCH THE OPERA ON TV AND YOUTUBE:
The television broadcast premiere will take place on WHYY TV-12 (Comcast 812 & FiOs 512) on Sunday, May 10 at 2:00 p.m. A digital stream will then premiere on Sunday, May 10 at 7:00 p.m. on YouTube. Don’t miss a special student matinee broadcast on WHYY’s Y2 channel on Friday, May 15 at 1:00 p.m. (Y2 is available on 12.2, Comcast 257, Verizon FiOs 474). We Shall Not Be Moved will remain available for viewing on YouTube until August 31.

CONTENT WARNING:
This opera contains profanity and violence.

Visit us at https://www.operaphila.org/in-schools/we-shall-not-be-moved-virtual-learning/

ABOUT THE OPERA:
On the run after a series of tragic incidents, five North Philly teens find refuge in an abandoned, condemned house in West Philadelphia at the exact location that served as headquarters of the MOVE organization, where a 1985 standoff with police infamously ended with a neighborhood destroyed and 11 people dead, including five children. This self-defined family is assuaged and even inspired by the ghosts who inhabit this home and begin to see their squatting as a matter of destiny and resistance rather than urgent fear.

This World Premiere chamber opera by Daniel Bernard Roumain, an acclaimed composer and performer whose work defies genre, and librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, an arts activist known for spoken‐word performance, is “ambitiously interdisciplinary,” according to Bill T. Jones, the celebrated director, choreographer, dramaturge, and dancer. Combining spoken word, contemporary movement, video projection, classical, R&B and jazz singing, and a brooding, often joyful score filled with place, purpose, and possibility, We Shall Not Be Moved is a timely exploration of past and present struggles which suggests an alternate future through the eyes of its young protagonists.