Kimmel jazz residency sheds light on Black Lives Matter

Although the Black Lives Matter Movement has lost news column inches to whatever White House shenanigans dominate today's front pages, we must keep saying the names of those lost to police violence, including Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, and Philando Castile. Pianist and composer Luke Carlos O’Reilly, one of three current jazz residents at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, isn’t forgetting. His yearlong residency focuses on these victims, crafting compositions that explore the pain, injustice, and sadness surrounding incidences of police brutality against unarmed black men.

Music, movement, and voice for Black Lives Matter

In his upcoming work-in-progress preview performance at the Kimmel Center on April 5, O’Reilly will sample roughly 10 pieces he’s created thus far that will culminate in a world premiere on May 5. Accompanied by lyricist and vocalist Pannan Hewitt and choreographer and dancer Sanchel Brown, O’Reilly brings to the stage dynamic performances that will give voice to the victims, loved ones, and officers affected by the violence Black Lives Matter fights.

“Sanchel’s movements are very in tune with the brutality we have seen in America,” O’Reilly explains. “The movements are very strong, physical, and forceful. The Black Lives Matter Movement is very much about the body — the abuse of the body and disrespect shown to black bodies. Pannan has a very deep and a very rich voice. The richness in her voice was what I wanted to utilize when talking about the police killings.”

A personal connection

Black Lives Matter is a movement that resonates with O’Reilly deeply, because it serves as a poignant reminder of his personal experiences with police brutality. In 2008, a police officer attacked him, O’Reilly says, and he ended up in the hospital. The case was thrown out when the officer did not show up to court. Years later, when O’Reilly saw a heavyset black man by the name of Eric Garner pulled to the ground and choked by police for selling untaxed cigarettes, he immediately empathized. At 5 feet 11 inches tall and 225 pounds, O’Reilly (a man of African-American and Hispanic heritage) saw himself in Garner, and wondered whether he and Garner would have been treated differently by authorities if they had been white.

O’Reilly includes a piece inspired by Garner’s death in the roughly 20 compositions he’s writing for his capstone performance. This piece comes from the perspective of Garner and imagines his thoughts in the minutes during his attack and after his death.

Revisiting these killings perpetrated by police “immediately triggered feelings of sympathy and empathy,” O’Reilly recalls. “In composing the song for Garner, there were moments when I cried. My emotions fully took over. Good art can console, but also make people feel discomfort.” He says the song “serves as a reminder that issues of police brutality aren’t going away.”

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (300 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia) will present a performance of 2018 Jazz Residency Artist Luke Carlos O’Reilly’s work in progress, Black Lives Matter, on Thursday, April 5, at 8pm. The finished work will premiere on May 3 at 8pm. For tickets and more information, visit online.