Brooks’ Maud Martha, which remained unpublished in Britain until 2022, traces the life of a young Black woman in 1940s and 50s America through a series of lyrical vignettes, employing a unique third-person interior voice.
Across four acts, Hey, Maudie follows the character of Maud Martha (sung by soprano Gweneth Ann Rand), as she converses with a choral ensemble that represents her soul and another intimate, interior voice, spoken by Jones.
The performance's structure also references the compositional technique of call-and-response, a musical and cultural tradition with West African roots, which became an intrinsic way for Black women to express themselves individually and collectively.
Through the opera form, Jones establishes a dialogue between the pictorial desire of Brooks's Martha and a realm of metaphysical redress that moves beyond Brooks, who was a central figure in the Chicago Black Renaissance. The salutation of 'Hey, Maudie' leads to moments of first- and second-person address — not you but I', sounds the choir and, at another point, 'and he approves to you and us' — reaching towards a form of protective intimacy, representing a care for Martha and, more broadly perhaps, black experience of being in the world.
Art Monthly, November 2023
