Rising draws inspiration from the restoration of the Muddy River to highlight our collective need to recover and regrow as a society after the Covid-19 pandemic. Rising explores the potential of renewal from the simplicity of nature through live music, dance and poetry as performed by a multidisciplinary ensemble. Each aspect of the performance is designed to sonically, visually, and verbally guide the audience through the cyclical nature of growth and restoration.
Sam Feldman – Contemporary Theater 23’ | Tess Stevens – Dance 23’ | AnnaLotte Smith, Piano Performance MM 22’ | Rachel Kempenaar – Dance | Jacob Windeler – Dance 24’ | Featuring 42 Boston Conservatory at Berklee students
Friday, May 28 at 12:00 PM and 12:30 PM | Two 15- minute performances | Back Bay Fens, next to the Kelleher Rose Garden
Rising Poems
POEM #1
By: Alex Leondis, Yitong Zhu, Mel Tanaka, Dylan Gombos, James Paquette, Monique Lonergan, San Feldman
What is this muck on the pulse of the community?
Why does this water choose to rage infinitely?
Overflowing and drowning. I am bursting to breathe.
These days are all the same
falling from grace
it’s all too slow a pace for me
Scratching at the earth with a sneaking persistence
Rollover and rollover and rollover – I have dirt in my nails from a distance
A quiet tornado rages and weaves
You should breathe what you believe,
Reset what it means to grieve
It giveth and it taketh away,
What are you doing here?
Why did you stay?
Sensing instead of seeing
Perceiving is believing
And we are all healing
Stop the flood but not the flow
I watched life burn, dampen, then grow
POEM #2
By: Alex Leondis, Yitong Zhu, Mel Tanaka, Dylan Gombos, James Paquette, Monique Lonergan, San Feldman
Basking in the sun, I sit
As the park revolves around me
Pedestrians and Passerbys
Walkers and Wanderers
All moving past the same patch of grass and asphalt
I have seen much change from this spot.
The wind blows cooler now.
At first it chilled me to the brittle bone.
Now, it is almost refreshing.
A familiar ice can that aches in a specific way.
But now the sun is awake
Starting to poke out from behind ty
The todwering trees and buildings that peer
Ipark.
And I am starting to get warm.
Warm in my hands.
Warm in my feet.
My toes, my nose
And my heart.
A new wind is blowing
Blowing past me and through me.
A warm wind, for the first time in a long time.
And it is welcomed back like an age old friend.
A new breath. Fresh air.
Spring is here.
Make me a gathering place
a safe place
a resting place
Let the children play
let the runners run- let there be a moment to rest and a moment to love.
Let there be first dates and old friends and new friends and light.
Let the sun shine, the breeze blow, let the geese take flight.
POEM # 3
By: Sam Feldman
What is rebirth?
What does it mean to grow?
Through autumn leaves and fallen snow
The spring is here and flowers come
And birds add to the quiet hum
To change
To turn a page
To re-arrange
To re-estrange
And be regained
To stop the flood
To a come undone
Unfinished, as you are
And be unjudged
To delight in the small and good things
That come and go on birds wings
To honor the land on which we stand and plan for the future
To unapologetically and empathetically be.
Rising marks the culmination of Boston Conservatory’s new, credit-bearing summer course called Beyond Walls: Performance in Public Space, led by acclaimed artist and entrepreneur Maria Finkelmeier of MF Dynamics, who garnered praise earlier this year for her inventive multimedia public space project, Hatched: Breaking Through Silence, at the Hatch Memorial Shell in Boston. Learn more about this program and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy’s partnership with the Boston Conservatory here.
Learn more about the Muddy River and the ongoing restoration efforts here. Explore the work of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and
