The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY), one of New York’s leading cultural venues, presents COTTON: Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano and Justin Austin, baritone on Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 7:30 pm at Kaufmann Concert Hall. Tickets start at $30 and are available at https://www.92ny.org/event/denyce-graves-and-justin-austin.

Celebrated mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, acclaimed for her riveting performances on the world’s great opera stages, her activism in support of diversity in the arts, and her championing of new music, is featured with exciting rising star baritone Justin Austin and pianist Laura Ward in the New York premiere of this immersive exploration of African American stories through song, poetry, and photography.

A poignant and powerful multidisciplinary work that speaks to the resilience of soul and psyche, COTTON is inspired by photographer John E. Dowell’s haunting images of South Carolina cotton fields – captured in his 2018 exhibit Cotton: The Soft, Dangerous Beauty of the Past. The work comprises a song cycle by acclaimed composer Damien Geter with text from original poems by Nikki Giovanni, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Afaa Michael Weaver, Lauren Alleyne, Charlotte Blake Alston, Glenis Redmond, Alora Young, and Trapeta Mayson, against the backdrop of Dowell’s evocative photographs. The poetry and music were commissioned by Lyric Fest (Philadelphia) which conceived the project in honor of its 20th Anniversary.

COTTON had its world premiere on February 25, 2023, at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, quickly followed by its Washington D.C. premiere at the Kennedy Center as part of their first annual Ruth Bader Ginsburg Memorial Recital, presented by Washington Performing Arts.