New opera teaches a classical music class in the ongoing fight for civil rights
Tamar-kali, who composed the music for Mudbound and Shirley, has a new project: an opera that you can watch online.
When people ask Tamar-kali where she's from, it can be a frustrating conversation.
"They want me to be able to compartmentalize it in this really neat package," she says, "like, 'Oh, well, I'm Jamaican,' or 'Oh, I'm Nigerian.' And it's like, 'No, boo, my people were literally kidnapped and enslaved and brought to America, and I'm the descendant of enslaved Africans and indigenous folk,' you know. It's like people just don't like the truth — and we're seeing that manifested so aggressively right now."
She used to channel her own aggression into rock music.
