Pianist Lara Downes has spent the last two years on the road asking everyday Americans a deceptively simple question: "What does life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness actually mean to you today?" as part of 'The Declaration Project' a national effort to capture the country's spirit as we mark the nation's 250th anniversary. This weekend, she's bringing those voices to MASS MoCA in North Adams.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: You've been road tripping across the country, asking people if they're still optimistic about our founding promises or if they're just completely exhausted. But you also spent some real time in western Mass. during your residency. Did the vibe you got from folks in North Adams match what you were hearing nationwide, or did the Berkshires tell you a totally different story?
Lara Downes: No, I think, you know, what was really nice about my time in North Adams was that I was interacting with so many different communities. Spending lots of time with kids, both little and big, and with older folks. I think I got a really good sampling of the population. And, you know, that's sort of a reflection of the work I was able to do across the country.
I do think that people in your neck of the woods are very rooted in history. They have this connection to history and particularly this, you know, our origin story... [that] maybe you don't find in some other places. So it was an interesting exercise to talk about the past and to focus on the future.
We should note that you're on the run this morning and it's a cell phone signal. We're doing the best we can here.
You know, I'm fascinated by how you actually translate this conversation that you had around the country. How on earth do you take this kind of messy, beautiful, real life conversation with an everyday person and then turn that into a piece of music?
Well, in the case of North Adams, I turned all of those conversations not only into pieces of music, but also into a quilt! But I think all these reflections, all these responses that came my way just sparked curiosity and pointed me in various directions.
So many things have come out of that: an album that was released on the 3rd of July called Hold These Truths, and every track on that record goes directly prompted by some interaction and encounter that I had on these travels.
There's different ways of looking at these concepts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and different ways of, you know, reflecting on what it means to be and become American.
I really went through a transformative process, I think both as an artist and just as a human being.
About that quilt. You really created a quilt?
Yes! So this is the magic of MASS MoCA.
We were doing a workshop one day for families, and we were going to be gathering these reflections in spoken form. And I said, totally off the cuff, I said, 'Now it would be cool if we could make something out of this workshop. You know, something that people take with them. Maybe we make some sort of a quilt thing out of paper?'
And then we walked out of the room where we were meeting, and there was one of Jeffrey Gibson's pieces hanging there. He makes these garments that are quilted out of textiles. And I said, 'Oh, like that! [We] can make something like that!"
Then we have this conversation about where I might want to find some fabric.
And I ended up at this amazing place called the Old Stone Mill [Center], which is sort of a repository for, you know, abandoned textiles to reuse and recycle. And I went into this massive place and started talking to the woman who runs it.
And I had my hand leaning on a table on a stack of fabric. And when I looked down what my hand was on, it was an unfinished quilt top from certainly, you know, 100 or so years ago.
And so I ended up taking that with me. And we took many of the reflections that were left on Post-it® notes at MASS MoCA and applied those to the quilt.
So, it's now known as a declaration quilt. I just had it with me in New York, at Lincoln Center at the world premiere of this project, and I'll be taking it with me across the U.S. and abroad.
And it's just beautiful because it's a physical artifact of that place made by somebody of that place many, many years ago, that now holds the words and the thoughts of, you know, the people who are living there now. I couldn't think of a more beautiful outcome of all of this work.
That is delightful!
So, on Saturday night at MASS MoCA, you're presenting this sort of musical road trip. What's the vibe going to feel like? And when that last note fades? Are you looking for the audience to walk out in quiet contemplation, or are you hoping the audience leaves totally sparked up, buzzing and ready to take on the world?
Both of those things! Because that's where we are right now.
I think we have to be constantly questioning and searching both within and outside of ourselves. I think that it's really an important moment not to let go of our questions, but also to have that energy, that togetherness of hope that allows us to, you know, search for the answers.
And that is, that has been happening. It happens to me when I present this work. You know, I don't come with answers. I come with sounds of America as they have evolved, as always asking questions and always pointing towards the past and the future.
And I think when the last note sounds, when you put it so beautifully, there are echoes of all of those questions and all of the crises and all of the, you know, all of the pain and the trials that we've been through, and also of every time we overcome them.
But I think hearing from audiences, is that this music helps us remember where we've been before, the dark places that we've been before, and how we have managed to overcome them, and how we have managed to find something better and how we can do that again.
And the secret to doing that again is that we do have to pull together, you know, and that's kind of the superpower I think, of American music, is that it has pulled us together so many times in the past, and it continues to do that.
She presents "Hold These Truths Lara Downes and Friends" in North Adams on Saturday night.
Note: MASS MoCA is an underwriter of NEPM. That is not a factor in how we cover the news.
