21V • "𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐧" by Mari Esabel Valverde

"𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐧" (𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎) 𝐛𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢 𝐄𝐬𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐝𝐞, 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐦 𝐛𝐲 𝐍𝐚𝐨𝐦𝐢 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐡𝐚𝐛 𝐍𝐲𝐞
𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘤𝘰-𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 21𝘝

Skin remembers how long the years grow
when skin is not touched, a gray tunnel
of singleness, feather lost from the tail
of a bird, swirling onto a step,
swept away by someone who never saw
it was a feather. Skin ate, walked,
slept by itself, knew how to raise a
see-you-later hand. But skin felt
it was never seen, never known as
a land on the map, nose like a city,
hip like a city, gleaming dome of the mosque
and the hundred corridors of cinnamon and rope.

Skin had hope, that’s what skin does.
Heals over the scarred place, makes a road.
Love means you breathe in two countries.
And skin remembers—silk, spiny grass,
deep in the pocket that is skin’s secret own.
Even now, when skin is not alone,
it remembers being alone and thanks something larger
that there are travelers, that people go places
larger than themselves.

𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘪 𝘌𝘴𝘢𝘣𝘦𝘭 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘥𝘦:
"Skin" addresses themes of healing, resilience, passage, and travel. Without mention of any particular name, age, gender, or race, the protagonist "Skin" acknowledges past traumas and ultimately expresses a profound feeling of gratitude "that there are travelers, that people go places larger than themselves." Such a notion recalls Maya Angelou's, that when we know better, we do better. The incessant pulses of the piano create the impression of how an enormous amount of time seems to slip away as we continuously strive to adapt and grow beyond life's adversities. A single line of text is sung twice, "Love means you breathe in two countries," in honor of the two worlds indicated in the title of the poem ("Two Countries"). Through these words Nye suggests that, because we have the capacity to heal, we need not abandon a part of ourselves when we move to nourish another part of humanity thirsting for life.

Completed in 2020, just before lockdowns initiated on a global scale in response to the imminent spread of COVID-19, "Skin" is finally being premiered in 2022 and 2023 by members of a consortium of fourteen treble choruses from across the United States.

Recorded live at 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 Concert
All Saints' Episcopal Church, Palo Alto, CA on April 1, 2023
Martín Benvenuto, Founder and Artistic Director
Kymry Esainko, Piano
Cyperus Media, Video & Sound

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