oh, and it's one of the problems that will be some kind of one single object. no. oh no. so we'll have home broad at the same in the sense giving. so she with problems or the problems or syria problems with alice. i asked the city and you have to think in some way what problems. countries not, not just one. ah, i'm sammy's a dan with a look at the headlines here. now jesse are now un secretary general antonio cherishes asking nations to urgently inject cash into afghanistan's economy. the countries in the midst of a humanitarian crisis that's already affecting half of population retardation praised the efforts of aid agencies,

but said it's not enough already before the taliban takeover in august, afghanistan's for a child economy which has been kept afloat by foreign aid over the past 20 years suffered from the impact of drought and coughing. right now, with s its frozen and development, 8 pulsed the economy is breaking down, banks are closing, and the central services such as l scared, had been suspended in many places. north korea's later kim john says his country's weapons development is an act of self defense. he says, the build up is necessary to face hostile policies from the u. s. and increasing military forces in south korea. preliminary election results in iraq point to a strong outcomes of the party of shia cleric knocked out a sub form of prime minister in order. malcay looked set to have the 2nd largest vote among sheer parties,

a car bomb or the market place in northern syria is killed at least 3 people. it targeted are 3, which is under turkey, backed opposition control. turkish president roger play, but at the one says he's determined to eliminate the threats and syria. astrazeneca says it's cove 19 antibodies, drug helps reduce the risk of disease or death in patients. the treatment reduce the risk of death by 50 percent and patients had been symptomatic for up to 7 days . pilot st. louis space southwest airlines are blaming an outdated crew scheduling system for hundreds of flight cancellations. the disruptions come just days after a union representing employees asked the court to block the airlines order that its entire workforce get vaccinated. it's the stream now stay with us. here are now 20. talk to al jazeera, we ask what gives you hope that it is going to be peace because the situation on

the ground seems to be pointing otherwise we listen. we were never on the. 3 whatever road to off migration we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on al jazeera, i, ah, the music of fire shot up in my bones with its compose a terrence blanchard, on trumpet and by raton, will live. and then what you saw just that,

that is musical history as opera history for the 1st time in a 138 years. the metropolitan opera is producing like action by an african american composer. this is why we're all here in today's episode. we're looking at the contributions of african americans of black people around the world to the form of opera. let's me out guess hello terrace. hello, kevin. hello, michael. say good to have you here on the stream at terrace. introduce yourself, do i go? i will audience. well, my name is terrance blanchard, i'm a jazz musician, brad trade from new orleans, louisiana. and now apparently, i'm an opera composer. i've already so i was so happy about that. i know karen i room dina entities is al. hello, my name is karen slur. irma soprano and i, i originally originated the role of 1000000000 in the original production of fire

shopping, my bones, the st. louis. ah, i think to hello. hello ma'am. wow. like a welcome to the street. please introduce yourself to our audience around the world . i am michael mohammed. i am a director and an educator based in san francisco, california, all right, unfiltered 1st thoughts about fire shot up in my balance. what does it mean to you, michael? karen, tenant, michael, you sound? i think the importance of it is representation representation on its deepest level of what happens when we actually get to see a black stories, black bodies on stage and in see one of the largest platforms possible for opera. and how does that welcome in a new set of people? how does that actually make space at the table for new stories and for stories that are contemporary and, and stories. i mean something to the, to the bodies that are in the seats and who's getting to experience what that story

i. i knew there fire was an incredible piece of history. when i read the libretto for the 1st time, i wept and 2, and i already knew terence as music by singing the opera champion, which was here. it's his 1st opera. and i knew it was that he's special. and this to see such a prolific story or by such an incredible musician, it welcomes what opera, what we say we want to be in the 21st century to have the full culture, as we say, for the culture on the stage of a place there is so white i've been on that stage, you know, i've been in that company but to have it on the largest operatic platform in the world to have our story. so prolific by parents and casey and charles is incredible for our i don't think they even understand how great it the movement parents south. well, i think for me, you know,

what this means is we get a chance to see our culture. you know, i meg karen and because of karen, i had this conversation with the cast here. we talked about it a while ago can remembers this when we're in my home in new orleans, when we were doing champion. we talked about how so many african american oper, singh as grew up in a church and grew up singing rhythm and blues of some of them even grew up sing and jazz. but when they enter into the operative world, they are told to throw all of that and put it aside. and what i've wanted people to do in this production is to bring all that back to this format, you know, and allow them give them space to, to experience and express themselves. you know, angel blue. she took it very seriously while everybody has but angel was the 1st approach. ready me and dodge, she said, you know, do you mind if i take some liberties and i'm like, please enter the one that, you know, he's one of the characters in the production 5 set up in my bag. yes,

he's one of the principal. she plays 3 characters. she plays loneliness, bethany, and now granted, the woman charles dates. but she sings this area peculiar grace, which is about charles. and you can hear her bringing in her background as i am, a spiritually based performer. you know, you can hear and, and as she marries that with her training as an opera, singer, and for me and create something very unique but distinctly our own. you know, and the other thing about it too, is that because we have an all black task, which was something we didn't set out to do with just wound up happening to be that way. is that the world gets a chance to see this level of talent that it's existed in our community because, you know, i did one interview and a journalist asked me, he said, man, do you think your opera is going to inspire people to sing opera in black community dabbling. dude, they've been ha, ha, ha, ha ha. all right, sick parents and karen and michael,

i am going to share you with that international audience. if you want to right now, you're on you chip. jump into the comments section. our conversation tonight is black artist flipping the libretto. see what i did there in opera comment section is clear. please join our discussion to see the missing authorize storytelling. and pretty much up to this point. the offer that happened before we're really composed by one demographic, which ignores in stories of people. for example, hulu, find me. we also have to tell stories that are romantic, tragic, funny, sad, joyful. so that a need to be told on the contrary stage to this beautiful medium of opera, the production of irish and my bones says, are stories and should be endured anymore. because we have math to say

many i have to ask you a pay, hit ok, and i have to ask you when you are playing billy, which is the mom in 5 shell up in my band. did that? did it feel different from other productions that you were in? you? you are an experienced soprano. you you've what the world over. did it feel different? absolutely. first of all, terrence knew my voice very well, because i had sung his 1st opera, so he crafted the piece for my instrument particularly, but i didn't have to get into the skin. i was playing my aunt's. i mean, my, my mom, my, my cousin women that i saw in my church in the, you know, it, there's something about getting into oscar trying to turn yourself into and you know, an 18th century italian, so operate the piano. you know what i mean? that's one thing, but to say something like billy said to live her and i were,

i know who i represent it on that stage. it was important for women who look like meets us to see themselves when i walked out. be even before open my mouth. that comment michael came from earlier from shown e, aka polo. he's a composer anna conductor. and he talked about that being relate to pull stories. is this a time now where operate is realizing that you have to encompass the diversity of the community? you can't just be eurocentric. i think from last summer, with the reckoning, as i keep calling it from the reckoning last summer as realizing that our institutions have to reflect the as the bodies, the people who, who, who are around it. i think and i think because as, as opera is an institution that is old and it's, it's slow to change. so i think that we as good current living people trying to live and work and create in this media. i think that we're seeing that more and

more it's gotta open up and we gotta be hospitable to people who want to explore this as, as a storytelling medium. because i think as he said in the video that that it won't theater storytelling. it's narrative. well, one of the things i wanted to add to what michael was talking about is that, you know, what's the definition of insanity doing the same thing and expecting a different result, right? so that's what the art world has been doing when it's trying to sell this art form . and people have gotten to the point, you know, where we start to realize now that has to change. and i think when george floyd was, was murdered on on television at video was sent around the world. it opened up a lot of people's ad as to what we would have been complaining about in this country for generations. and people have sought to make a difference in our give peter gilbert the credit for, for saying that we need to not only do stories that are related to our generation,

but we need to do stories. ready like this to let people know that there are other voices out there that need to be heard. and here's the thing that's most important . it's a universal story. it's not a start is just unique to the african american community, but it's a story that's told through our lands. and by being told through our lands, you know, there's so many people who can come and relate. one journalist said this is the most diverse audience. he seen at the met in his 20 some years of covering the met that i want to talk over whole, don't know, the so fire shut up in my bones. it is based on the memoir of chas blow, who was a really well known new york times columnist and a writer. it is an extraordinary story, but is also a story about an african american man. and you're hearing karen and michael and carrots, talking about stories being relate to boy and stories from our community. what would that look like, for instance in rehab?

so a practice session, i love this video. this is a movement excise. the fire shot up in my beds. halleck, i told you not to dallas. ah .

my so many people around the world are now going to go see. all right, what about? i'm going to bring in another voice voice. say this is juliana historian, who, who really gets to the matter of why it has been challenging for african americans for people of color to be involved in opera patients. i think the thing with black roses contributions to a brush is not necessarily that they are treated better or worse, but the del always treated is somehow different. this is not just oprah, but black, oprah, or indigenous oprah or phone call, or any of the other names that are used to describe these contributions. so black goes is we're always comes with a qualifier which implies that it somehow falls outside the norm, or that it's not normal. and because of this,

i don't think it is treated on an equal footing. know how you're looking thought for your thoughts 1st and then michael me what kind of stuff? what i also think it is a lack of education with the administrators and a lack of courage with those who get to make decisions. you know, people, we hear a lot about gay keeping because of the time that we were in with the racial racial reckoning. but it is the administrators, the general director as the intent arts, who get to dictate what culture is, where the community to come to the the come to the opera. and we can change that. this is not 1930 by it's 2021 and i think every art organization has a responsibility to their community, the show them the granite of what's available. yeah,

and i also think it even begins even beyond that with them. the pipeline in and who it's, it's a reaching forward and reaching back and we're reaching forward. we're moving things forward, but we're also reaching back to bring people along with us. and i think that's an part of the gate keeping. and how do we break open the gates? how do we disrupt the any of the systems that are there, have kept what the ideas are normal and not normal and who gets to be part of the conversation? and who does it? i think the more we can disrupt and break those doors open and bring people along, and that's the part and, and they, they did an t sorta colonial mindset of opera. and that were really trying to, to widen the conversation, democratize the space so that most more people get a chance to, to be in the space and to talk about it in a healthy stories be till i have questions for you from you cheer. i'm gonna fire

them at you. come back with instant artists or we can get in as many as possible. i parents, i'm going to get this wanting. this is donovan, and he wanted to know about their met opera and quoting doors at dark donovan. he, it's racist history making a black op or is big, but it's a hell, a sad that he took this long to do this. ah 138. yes. that me and now the rest was donovan doris in south. well, here's the thing you know about this, you know, wow, i'm very proud of my heritage. i'm very proud of everybody. let's in this production, we made oper. you know, we're not trying to be separate us in our up. and i think this really important. karen is my sister and we know we've had a lot of conversations and one of the things that we have never talked about is her being a black soprano. we talked about her being an amazing soprano. it just so happens that she's african american just so happens that the story is told through the lens

of the african american community. but you know, there are other communities, asia commute ever, all peoples of what different walks of life who have stores towel. and i think that's where i think we start to fall short. you know, one guy asked me, did it, did i think that why people will gonna come listen to this opera? and i told him, i said your question implies that we shouldn't go see opera. that's done by verity opportunity. you know, i think, you know, at the end of the day we are trying to be the most accomplished artist that we could be. we're trying to bring all of our communities are a background. oh, up bringing our experiences to the stage. and if we're really trying to be artist that business people are politicians. if we're trying to be artists, then everybody should be welcome. everybody should have a form to tell stories. i'm going to get back to you chief in a moment because i some really good questions and you cheap for you guys. but 1st, we take a pause to bring in the gorgeous flights of parents flat. he singing here in minnesota

. oh productions. dad mom walking based on the book of the same name, his miss slack. ah . 2 ah oh i got oh parent i keep on is if you're okay, want me to call you kiki because i've been watching your 2 key conversations and you are having have a look here on my laptop or karen. those issues me having during, during locked down during the pandemic. she's, she is being bringing to the opera community together. he is. she is, this is my favorite one with soprano angela brown. and there was

a moment where angela told her story, you were really good cuz she let her tell the story about how she didn't get a role because the dress wasn't big, the right size for her. but then she went to see the production and the woman playing the part who won the part was exactly the same size of angela brown. so there's this sense of unfairness in the upper world or at what point does the fact that this impact your ability to play and sing a fictional character oftentimes? oh my goodness. yeah. that yeah, definitely questionnaire for you. yeah, exactly. that was the conversation before black before color about size. you know that there were void is one of the most prolific germanic sopranos the word time. and she had had this gigantic career. and because she couldn't fit a dresser, covent garden, that they wanted to have a smaller woman, she was hired. and so the,

you know, the common denominator or that we don't get rules unless i guess they are the, the leon, teen price rules. ideally, if you are not just singing the bed with cheney as if, you know, black people can't sing german musical french music, you know, i mean, it does matter in this, in that, but again, it goes back to the people who get to decide who gets to have a career who doesn't, what rolls, what offers, get shown and produce we have to change the people who make the decision. we have to make that more inclusive, you know, because again, we want people to come to the theater to see themselves in every, every oper, every role we present, you know, not just then people make love. not just then people fall in love, not just white people. you know, have happily ever after winning or, you know, poison a death, whatever that is, you know, and, you know, just shot me with that. the it, me a walking i was, i was beautiful on, on youtube, where, where we're at, this is a reading. if you could question mike,

i'm going to get this one to you want to do in op, if he want to be much more diverse. but the funding comes from white don't who that's a rich question. iraq, actually, i mean it's priced in because you know, and, and funding in the united states is so not tied to the government. it's not, it's, it's untethered to any sort of real system of support, so it does rely on donors. so there's always this, this balancing act between what do you expect the donors to want to support and what do you expect audiences, because audiences rely on, you know, companies relying on ticket sales. so it's, it's a delicate dance that companies have to do am. yeah, i'd, when i look and i'm her, i'm sorry, go ahead. good. well, no,

i think i think there's a misconception about that too. you know, it's just like anything else because what i was very, very proud of with the production of fire should have been my bones were, was that darren walker, who's an african american who runs the ford foundation, was a big supporter of this production. sheila johnson, who's also african american and last classical music was also a big supporter of this production. so we made history in that regard as well. and i think, you know, we have people in our community who have money, you know, who have been raising dollars and they need to understand that they can have a say. so in what goes. ready on the stage at these performance theaters, you know, and i think darren walker and sheila johnson have set a precedent by doing so at the mit i've tense, i want to pick up on, on a point that you made earlier about the universality of opera and, and stories that they can be for all people or around the world. so for this last

coming, i'm going to count town to an o, please student who is a soprano. and she took that universality of, of, for, it's not just a white people. is he him? papa itself is as, as, as a european half form by the stories that have been told in his office require universal which is why we find different adaptations of the stories done all over the world are relating to the culture, experiences of those areas. for instance, there was once a production of i am that was done here in, in this production me and died because of i have in a sling tv. and you do also get um, oprah companies who go even further to even alter the orchestration ways not, you know, or to strive issues, getting those big houses. so parents are just looking to pick to him on my

laptop. and i, i love this picture so much, i'm just going to do this on here. never saw this pub in. 7 0, i know a so much when i was a kid, i used to go to the rural opera house in covent garden. in london, i used to place the other black person if there was another black mountain. i be like looking. we'd have all who got these on. i would be looking. i don't know how i'm heading to death. i know what all 3 of you doing in the community of black performers. i think because i think that game of smoke they have a black person is going to be less rewarding. now that they're going to be so many that it will no longer be a game talents, closing thoughts. go ahead. well i think it's a shame when i listen to the young lady talk to think that in order to have a black task, we need to do a retake arm coaching. and i love watching. i love libel one's one of my favorite offers, but i'm so proud of the fact that we're doing stuff that can ready to people's last

a day. and hopefully that will open the door for that young lady. and now the people just like her to tell their stories the way they see fit. because i know with what the level of success we've had with fire shut up in my bones at the met gibson. it's a, it's been a reckoning for people who understand that they are people who will come to oper if they will see themselves on the cell like it is. it is a perfect segue into the closing video. i'm going to show you is the famous step down from fire shot up in my bones. michael. karen parents, thank you so much. i will leave you with fi shock, my bones the step down. thanks for watching everybody. oh,

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india coming soon. analysis either question the narrative. you don't have ways to shake weight or disinformation east squeal or not. you don't have any way to verify. identify who is telling the story that those debates and these are multi national corporations that are interested in profit, anticipate the consequences. the media was complicit in perpetuating this myth. i'm here to tell you that i think that many people died because of the lifting pace. deconstruct the media on out is era. the city of cobble has experience so much upheaval for decades, and they says another change to get used to. and one that's boss from easy umbrella situation and now it's not clear all the people are just lost and confused. there are deep rooted fears about the erosion of basic christ in particular for women and girls, despite assurances from the taliban and about to return to cruel punishments for

certain crimes, everybody will be safe. nobody's kid will be kidnapped again from rats. now together, they're feeling thy way forward into their new reality. ah, if you do not take help afghans whether the storm and we'd soon, not only day, but all the world would buy a heavy price, the un warns action must be taken to stop a humana tarion crisis in afghanistan. ah, i'm sammy's a dan. this is.