dwb (driving while black)

Composer: Susan Kander
Librettist: Roberta Gumbel
Company: Union Avenue Opera

Synopsis

dwb (driving while black) is a montage of poetic and haunting moments examining the trials and triumphs Black mothers experience as their children come of age in a society plagued by racism and inequality.  In the central narrative, we meet the Mother in her home. The dangerous world outside, however, is out of the Mother’s control, and anxiety builds in her mind and heart as her “beautiful brown boy” approaches manhood and the realities of modern life as a Black person in America. As the Mother takes the viewer on this journey of memory and metaphor, they will be inclined to wonder: is this real?