A Seattle composer and director has written a series of songs about the experiences of people who immigrate to the U.S.
Shaudi Bianca Vahdat's piece is called "The Golden Door: an American immigrant song cycle.” Vahdat is a second-generation Iranian-American.
The project started in 2017. President Trump’s first term in office made Vahdat think about potential impacts on American immigrant communities. And she wanted to explore her background in devised theatre, which uses life experiences to create art.
"And so those two things kind of came together for me and this idea for The Golden Door — that what if I could talk to some real immigrants of color and see what their actual stories and motivations for coming to the U.S. were," Vahdat said.
Three performances of The Golden Door are scheduled for July 18-20 at Seattle Open Arts Place in the Central District. KNKX Reporter Freddy Monares spoke with Vahdat about what she learned from people she interviewed for the project.
Click "Listen" above to hear their conversation and find highlights below.
Interview Highlights
On what people can expect at a performance
You can expect about an hour of different stories from different people in our wider American immigrant community here in the United States, through songs, through monologs. You can expect some choreography, you can expect some laughter, and you can expect some some heaviness as well — some tears.
On what she's learned through her interviews
One of my cast members actually described it in a great way. I'll paraphrase him, he said something like, you know, when we see news about immigration stories right now, a lot of times it is in a neat, tidy narrative. But in an art form like musical theater, we have the room and the space to explore different types of stories that don't necessarily fit into a news segment.
We have time to have people kind of immerse themselves in these different experiences and maybe get a more cohesive view of what it might be like to be someone who came to the U.S. and the many, many, many reasons and experiences that people have when they do that. And that might help foster a greater sense of empathy or understanding.
On what she hopes people take away from her songs
A lot of people I know who are activists and who are working so hard to take action to protect communities that are under fire right now, including immigrant communities, a lot of them are so tired. And so I think one of the purposes that art can serve is to help fill our cups, help give us that energy we need. I think sometimes escapism through art can achieve that. It can just give us a break.
