Art from "Cancelled" Grants

In 2025, countless federal research grants have been cancelled, rejected, or remain unsubmitted due to authoritarian censorship and destructive restructuring by the administration, affecting scholars across all fields. 

 

In protest of these extreme measures, I have written a work for solo soprano called "Say, You Don't Say," which uses the text of some of these cancelled grant proposals. The work draws attention to the "DEI" words by at first "bleeping" them out and ultimately showing resistance by allowing the bleeps to take on the strongest expression. Integrated with the singing is choreographed movement, which brings added layers of commentary. 

​

Add Your Voice

The final passage of the work will include a "voice collage"—a chorus of actual voices of scholars reading passages of their grants. All scholars whose research has been impeded by the partisan realignment of federal granting sources are invited to participate in this chorus.

 

The purpose is to highlight the human impact, the diversity and importance of academic research, the tragedy of all this cancellation, and the possibility of collective resistance to these changes. These voices will not be "bleeped" out, but the creation of a cloud of voices will likely obscure content. Where possible, the composer will allow specific words and phrases to emerge and be discernible.

 

If you have a "cancelled" grant and would like to add your voice to this chorus, you can submit a recording of yourself reading 2-4 sentences of what you consider to be the core content of your grant proposal. 

​

Please find more info here, and complete this form.

​

Any questions, please feel free to reach out to me using the form or my contact page on this website.

 

Thank you for your consideration!

 

           — Yvonne, May 2025

 

Collaborators

 

The piece is commissioned and will be premiered by Tiffany Du Mouchelle on June 22, 2025 in Medellín, Columbia at the International Conference 2025 held by the International Alliance of Women in Music (IAWM) in partnership with the College Music Society. Future performances are being arranged, so the chorus can grow over time! 

 

Choreography by Rosely Conz.

​