The Story:
Universal Child: The Emmett Till Story tells the story of Emmett Till, a 14- year-old boy from Chicago who was tortured and lynched by two white men in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman. His mother, Mamie Till Mobley, made the courageous decision to show his mutilated face in an open casket at his funeral so that the world could see what had happened to her son. Although his murderers were never convicted, her action caught the country’s attention and helped ignite the Civil Rights Movement.
Universal Child: The Emmett Till Story is based on Clare Coss’ prize-winning play, Emmett, Down in My Heart. For the opera, Clare Coss wrote the libretto and Mary D. Watkins composed the music.
The New York Premiere:
A concert version of Universal Child: The Emmett Till Story was performed at John Jay College Gerald W. Lynch Theater in New York on March 23 and 24, 2022. The presenters were librettist Clare Coss and composer Mary D. Watkins, in association with John Jay College, Opera Noire of New York, and the Harlem Chamber Players. Tania Leon conducted.
Robert Mack, general director of Opera Noire, performed as Emmett Till, and Lucia Bradford played Mamie Till. Tania Leon conducted; Damien Sneed served as Choral Master.
Audio Sample from Emmett Till, Scene 4:
In this scene, Mamie Till Mobley regrets her decision to let her son Emmett go Mississippi, and Roanne Taylor, a fictional white character, questions God about why he allows evil in the world. The musicians are Nicole Mitchell (Mamie Till), Kathryn Guthrie (Roanne Taylor), Jennifer Peterson (Pianist).
Statements by the Collaborators:
Composer Mary Watkins – I grew up in Colorado yet knew first-hand about discrimination. The difference between my southern sisters and brothers and me was that I was one Black among fifty or sixty whites at any given time every day of the week except Sunday.
I lived in a white neighborhood where some of my neighbors were blatant racists. As a child I heard derogatory remarks and jokes about “colored people/Negroes” and had no peers in a community where many people did not see or respect me or my people. Fortunately, much of my ability to cope came through my artistic pursuits. I was able to be alone, and to find ways to deal with the anxiety of being “the only one.” I dealt with that pain through drawing, story-telling and music.
Setting music to the Libretto of Emmett Till has been an exciting challenge for me. I remember when Emmett Till was murdered, and the horror and sadness that affected me so deeply.
I never expected that I would write an opera about Emmett Till’s lynching, but I am deeply grateful that I have been given this opportunity to examine one of the great tragedies of the 20th century . I am an eclectic composer, and this opera has given me the space to exercise a wide range of musical expression to establish empathy for the characters and the complex emotional texture of the period.
Librettist Clare Coss – I grew up in New Jersey and New Orleans. At a very young age my southern mother taught me to introduce myself as “Half Yankee and Half Rebel.” Summers visiting my grandparents in New Orleans I was immersed in the disturbing and painful Jim Crow reality of separate water fountains, a separate entrance to the Bell corner movie theatre, “For Colored Only” wood signs separating seats in street cars and buses.
Until U.S. history in fourth grade, I thought “rebel’ meant a rebellious spirit. I was distraught to learn “Rebel” meant a member of the Confederacy, the perpetrator of “For White Only/For Colored Only.” Mother tried to explain, the South never got over losing the war between the states and the end of slavery.
In August 1955 I was starting my junior year at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge when Emmett Till was killed not far up river. Haunted and marked by his horrific lynching and the failure of justice, I awoke one dawn in the winter of 1993 with a “spiritual” directive to write the play, Emmett, Down in My Heart.
I invented one character, a white woman teacher, Roanne Taylor, my entry into the story. Roanne Taylor represents white people who care but who remain silent. Emmett Till’s mother, Mamie Till, broke the silence and changed history when she made her courageous decision to have an open casket: “so the world could see what was done to her son. So the world could help her tell the story.”
Composer Mary D. Watkins and I seek to pay respect to the greatness of ordinary people who suffered, stood up, and struggled to bring about change in this country. I am grateful to be working with her on this extraordinary collaboration.