Faculty Affairs and Academic Programs
Akua Naru
Performing and Fine Arts
LONGING TO TELL: A BLUES OPERA
Longing To Tell: A Blues Opera is an interdisciplinary performance work for which I serve as librettist and lead performer, with composition by Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow Tyshawn Sorey. The opera transforms scholar Tricia Rose’s foundational Black feminist text Longing To Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy into visceral performance, centering Black women’s testimonies. Merging hip hop, blues, jazz, soul, and spoken word with classical orchestration, the project claims the Black female body as a site of trauma and triumph, fracture and freedom, pain and power—the spirit of the blues, embodied. The work was funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation), one of Europe’s most prestigious arts funders, supporting workshopping and development toward a European premiere in August 2025, in which Longing To Tell headlined Hamburg’s Kampnagel Festival to sold-out audiences and rave reviews. Sorey and I performed alongside Grammy winner Josiah Woodson, UCSC Assoc. Prof. James Gordon Williams, a chorus, and a 17-piece orchestra Ensemble Resonanz. The blues opera has been presented at Wien Moderne Festival and is scheduled for Kölner Philharmonie (May 2026), generating interest in a U.S. premiere.The Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Award would support revision of libretto, musical score, and scenographic design with UCSC faculty, and a closed performance bringing Sorey, Woodson, and select cast to campus before invited guests including donors, UC leadership, and campus community. This would position the work for its U.S. premiere, support my tenure path, and expand my presence in the worlds of music and theater.