Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 11 - safronia

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 18 Creator’s note By avery r. young i. wont say this is a ghost story. but i will say surphonia met me in dream. in an air bnb in nola. on elysian fields. a few doors down from Baldwin & Co. coffee + books. surphonia said, avery . my eyes found her at the front door. her face &; carseda’s face — identical. but surphonia’s face harder. not hard like rough but hard like razored in structure. everything a line as opposed to round. i sat up. wiped my eyes. said yes granny . & then. at her feet, i was. & she knew i write poetry & drip Curtis Mayfield. she knew i holy roll in gospel, blues & Funkadelic. she said the harmonica in the score blew her skirt up in a good way. we laughed. in her face, i saw all her brothers & sisters. her children’s children. her mother. her father. she said she liked the names that i gave them. magnolia. baar [b/air]. she knew the a-f-r- change in her name was my honoring of Nina Simone’s Four Women & Africa. she said, but we be from de blood of jee-sus. alla us. especially my daddy. so un-crook him spine. yo word(s) mus(t) set him bac(k) straight. han(d) him a grace amerikka did not. does not. & erywherr yo opera go u will give yo people a box on erf. then safronia walked out of the door. all of my tossing & turning to get her right stopped. i slept easy & assured that a story would be told. & my message would land.