Clare Coss News Today

The lost 'Blues Opera' for an all-Black cast from Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer has been restored - can it be staged without controversy?

Many Black audiences are justifiably weary of works about their community told from white perspectives. But authorship isn’t always black and white.

“Emmett Till, A New American Opera” opened at John Jay College’s Gerald W. Lynch Theatre on March 23, despite a petition with over 10,000  signatures circulating to cancel the show just few days before opening night. The opera was created by playwright Clare Coss, composed by Mary D. Watkins and conducted by Tania León. Based...

Emmett Till opera faces backlash as white woman leads production

While the creators of a a new opera about Emmett Till hope it will inspire white people to confront racism, others worry it depicts Black trauma for white entertainment while masquerading as activism.

While the creators of a a new opera about Emmett Till hope it will inspire white people to confront racism, others worry it depicts Black trauma for white entertainment while masquerading as activism.

The musical dramatization of the 1955 lynching that helped to inspire the mass civil rights movement has been denounced by black nationalist fanatics because one of its creators is white.

While the creators of a a new opera about Emmett Till hope it will inspire white people to confront racism, others worry it depicts Black trauma for white entertainment while masquerading as activism.

The show focuses on Till’s mother and a fictional character the creator said is “a white woman who represents the people who care, but are silent” — but...

More than 12,000 people have signed a petition led by Mya Bishop, a second-year student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, calling to stop the