SUN SONGS by Deborah Cowell (book & videography) and Katie Madison (music & lyrics) From Nabta Playa in the deserts of Egypt, to a small Brooklyn window, a young child learns they have enough strength to create the Milky Way and enough imagination to rally us through time, and enough hope to guide us all home. SUN SONGS is an existential musical aural experience from the universe reminding us that we are all, ultimately, stardust.  Seamlessly bringing musicians into the narrative, SUN SONGS is an ensemble piece that follows entities of light trying to find their source.  With help from a "narrator", the ancestors guide the story from the past through the present to open the possibilities of the future. SUN SONGS presented at The Leslie Lohman Museum in June 2024 was made in collaboration with The Leslie Lohman Museum, Hi-ARTs, and Queerly, Incite. Our constellation: Zia (SABEDORIA)     Veronica Jiao (CHILD OF THE FIRE)     Thani Brant (ANCESTOR)     Sen Raines (rehearsal Bassist)     Samuel Fougere (audio, mixing & mastering)     MJ Martinez (archivist)     Matthew "Blue" Ritchie (photography)     Lola Johnson (Gutar & ANCESTOR)     Katie Madison (music & lyrics, YATASA'AL)     Jay St. Flono (ANCESTOR)     Jas Ogiste (Piano & ANCESTOR)     Jarrett Murray (Bass & ANCESTOR)     Genesis (SONALI)     Deborah Cowell (book & Videography)     Clerida Eltimé (Cello & ANCESTOR & NARRATOR)     Aaron Hernandez (audio)

"Finding My Way to Fine" by Katie Madison (music, lyrics, video & audio, orchestration, arrangement and vocals) from COSMIC LOVE

I had the immense pleasure of collaborating with these incredible entities of light of the University of Michigan’s School of Music Theatre and Dance summer musical theatre program. One thing I asked myself was if I was doing a disservice to these humans by telling them that who they are is perfect, who are they are is worth it, who they are is somebody who deserves to be exactly who they know they are. In a world that loves to foster, create, and benefit from pain, distrust, and false narratives sold throughout the world, is there room for truth? Does my truth matter? I found myself reflecting back on my own lyrics, learning from these students that something I might have written in my own reality, in a dark day when I needed someone to remind me that by being myself, I’ve already “proven” that I matter, can resonate with humans who I’ve never met before, who’s truth is far from Brownsville, Brooklyn. At one point I was asked, “Katie, can you elaborate on the lyric ‘Days will be rough. You won’t want to be tough. And still they’ll call your bluff.” I know what these lines mean for me in my Black, queer, assigned female at birth, body, and I opened the question to the room, to see if they resonated with anyone else. One student bravely replied, “I think of it like an open channel to our ancestors, like we’re not here alone and there are generations of people rooting for you.” Another said, “I know that my parents would rather that I play sports, than pursue musical theatre, but this is what I love to do.” “What does it mean for you Katie?” they graciously asked. “I wish I could guarantee that the world we live in will keep you all safe, and see you, and hold you, and celebrate you, but I can’t. I experience this first hand. I have rough days, where I’m expected to push through and prove that I can handle it. And I hate that. I wish I could show the world my softness and not have it have any effect on any aspect of my life. I wish I wasn’t expected to work twice, three times as hard as anyone else, to prove that I’m worth it. Just because I have the ability to be tough, does not mean that I want to have to be. Has anyone ever said a joke out loud and maybe even slapped you on the back when doing so, or said it so loudly to insure a majority based response from anyone around? And you somehow found the courage to say, “That wasn’t funny.” or “I don’t agree.” or “I don’t like that you said that.” and the response was “Oh, you’re too sensitive.”, “Take a joke.” “I’m just kidding.” The older I get, the more I’m unpacking my proximity to bullies. And bullies aren’t always who the movies would like us to believe they are. Bullies come in all shapes, shades, sizes and spaces. And sometimes, unfortunately, it’s those closest to us, who feel the most comfortable dismissing our truth. I want to thank these entities of light who shared so profoundly and graciously with me. I want to thank Cynthia Kortman Westphal, who shows up as an ally and a mentor in my life with not just her spirit, heart, and mind, but also with her physical body, and I want to thank my village, the family who I choose, who choose me right back, who support each new chapter in this book of life, that so often feels like it’s being written by anyone other than me. You are, and have always been more than enough.

Time Katie Madison (BFA ’11, musical theatre) Helen Shen (BFA ’22, musical theatre) Chisholm Musical Theatre Scholarship Andrew Lippa Endowed Scholarship Donald R. Shepherd Scholarship in Musical Theatre Christopher Tamayo (BFA ’22, musical theatre) Janet E. and William C. Cassebaum Endowed Scholarship Jeanne and Sanford Robertson Scholarship Donald R. Shepherd Scholarship in Musical Theatre Susan M. Smith and Robert H. Gray Endowed Scholarship in Musical Theatre Eric Banitt, piano (BFA ’22, jazz studies) Professor Cynthia Kortman Westphal, music director Professor Linda Goodrich, director (BFA ’85, dance)

Join Crossroads and Hi-ARTS as we kickoff the 2021 Genesis Festival of New Plays. Ricardo Khan and Aaron L. McKinney will introduce you to playwrights Katie Madison, Zhailon Levingston, and Ernie Da Silva, for a live Q & A.

From LIVE AT WEEKSVILLE: music from [ taking ] space & Sun Songs by Katie Madison Video // Deborah Cowell Bass // Malik McLaurine Piano // Jessi Rosso Audio // Kwame Clarke Audio Recording & Mixing // Sam Fougere Vocals, Video & Audio Edit // Katie Madison

Queer Ladies' Night Lesbian Singer/Songwriters Jessie Standafer & Cassidy Andrews have curated a night of music presented exclusively by Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer women, and we want you in the room. This monthly collaborative show is unlike any other, with every musician onstage supporting one another musically to create a one-night-only band. The incredible & diverse women featured in these evenings are all professional musicians in NYC, with music featured on network tv, film, & podcasts, and performances across the US and abroad. ---------------- "It's Not Your Fault" by Katie Madison @kvmad Cello: Lenaé A. Harris @lenae.h Piano: Janelle Maire @janellemaire Percussion: Alexa Wilkinson @alexabwilkinson ----------------- Video Shot + Edited by Kids on Rocks Productions www.kidsonrocksproductions.com Sound Mixed by Jessie Standafer Poster Design by Alexa B. Wilkinson Rockwood Music Hall NYC

Revolve. Evolve to solve the question. Depart and start to chart a new answer. Only for you, the answer isn’t just what you do, the answer is who...you are. So who are we? Stardust. Mostly...a bunch of atoms held together by gravity. In Sun Songs, a new musical work-in-progress by Katie Madison, suns...stars...characters...bodies...explore their relationship to the natural world to investigate where they are in hopes of understanding where they’re going. Through song, scene, and spoken word We lift off to get a little closer to landing exactly where We were always supposed to be. Developed in collaboration with Deborah Cowell, Jacinth Greywoode, and Jarrett Murray.

I have been looking for a way to say to you, “These are the people I worked with, and here’s what we made!” But I think the best way to start this conversation is to let the artists who inspired the piece, talk: On writing “Lovely Day,” Bill Withers said “We're all sponges in a sense. You put us around very nice people, and the nice things come out in us. You put us around some jerks, and we practice being jerks. We all adjust. Did you ever notice the difference in the way you speak to your grandmother or your best contemporary friend? If I had sat down with the same music and my collaborator had been somebody else with a different personality, it probably would have caused something else to cross my mind lyrically." Gwendolyn Brooks wrote of Paul Robeson: That time we all heard it, cool and clear, cutting across the hot grit of the day. The major Voice. The adult Voice forgoing Rolling River, forgoing tearful tale of bale and barge and other symptoms of an old despond. Warning, in music-words devout and large, that we are each other’s harvest: we are each other’s business: we are each other’s magnitude and bond. And Bessie Smith said, “Listen to my story and everything will come out true.” This new arrangement of my song “Time” is a collaboration of artists, built from love, respect, truth, and commitment to the work that lets our art do the talking, the work that lets our art say the things we can’t articulate without the craft of our lyric, our melody, our scansion, our beat, our rhythm, and our blues. You’ll hear, reinterpreted, Gwendolyn Brooks in conversation with the National Portrait Gallery’s Living Self Portrait Series. You’ll hear Bill Wither’s “Lovely Day” and Bessie Smith’s groundbreaking performance in St. Louis Blues. Featuring: Katherine Thomas (vocals) Daniel James Belnavis (vocals) Jarrett Murray (bass) Cynthia Kortman Westphal (piano & director) Jacinth Greywoode (additional music help) Billy Harrington (drums) Linda Goodrich (direction) Ron De Jesus (direction) Please watch. Please remember. Please honor. Please take time.

Genesis Festival of New Plays presents: Sun Songs and [ taking ] space

Katie Madison at Downtown Live festival