Melissa Dunphy

Other Arrangements

SSA choir

Originally commissioned by Dr. Carol Lines through a Juliet Hardtner Endowed Professorship, McNeese State University. Arranged for Jamie Barton.

Related Works

Four Poems of Nikita Gill (solo soprano(s), piano)

Four Poems of Nikita Gill (solo mezzo-soprano(s), piano)

The song cycle Four Poems of Nikita Gill sets poetry by British-Indian Sikh author Nikita Gill, who first drew attention for her works by publishing them on Instagram and Tumblr. Her writing often draws on her experiences as a woman of color, exploring themes such as trauma recovery, mental illness, feminism, and identity. Four Poems of Nikita Gill was first commissioned in 2018 by Dr. Carol Lines at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, for a premiere performance by three of her voice students. Each singer chose one of Nikita's poems to be set to music, but the three students then put forward a joint proposal to add a fourth poem to the cycle, "Me Too," as all of them connected strongly with the words and theme. This song was originally written for three a cappella voices, but is here arranged for solo voice and piano for mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton.

Me Too
By Nikita Gill

This is our riot act,
our manifesto,
our revolution:
because the ones
who did this know
we are talking about
their monstrous actions.
It’s time for them
to have the nightmares,
for them to suffer
for what happened,
for them to fear being
named by the same
voices they silenced.
I hope they are
forever haunted
by these two words:
"Me too"

Artwork by Abby Markov.