Raven Chacon

For the exhibition Nine Lives at the Renaissance Society, in fall of 2020, artist and Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon created a new score in his ongoing American Ledger series. Inspired by journalist and activist Ida B. Wells, American Ledger No. 3 is written for two choirs of women who meet in a public place, like a field, street, or town square. Unable to be staged at the time of the exhibition in the early days of the pandemic, this outdoor performance now makes its Chicago debut, co-presented by UChicago Presents and the Renaissance Society.

Gather at the Logan Center courtyard on the University of Chicago campus, as the two groups of singers converge for this evocative work, which links past and present and takes on new resonance today, joined by the sound of drums, glockenspiels, and coins.