The Mending Sampler
Event Details
The Center is pleased to present this musical performance—an original song cycle composed and curated by Tulane music professor C. Leonard Raybon, based on The Sewing Girl’s Tale, historian John Wood Sweet’s award-winning book about seamstress Lanah Sawyer. As Sweet writes of her:
Lanah Sawyer had a rare kind of courage. Only seventeen, a stepchild in a working family, she was easy to dismiss as a mere “sewing girl.” Yet, when an affluent gentleman showed an interest in her, she dared to imagine that he might really be interested in her. Violently, he dashed that dream—leaving her disoriented, distressed, and unmoored. Then, she gathered her courage and did what no one else in the nation’s biggest city had done in half a century: she charged a gentleman with rape.
Written for five voices, piano, and harpsichord, The Mending Sampler draws on historical sources, early American music, and newly written poetry to help illuminate Lanah’s experience, the courage it took for her to seek justice, and her determination to move past her assault and rebuild her life.
This performance is a part of the ongoing Sacred Nine Project, which reconsiders and reimagines music, verse, theater, and events from an earlier America in order to help shape a future one.
About the Composer
C. Leonard Raybon, founder of the Sacred Nine Project, is an associate professor in the Newcomb Department of Music at Tulane University, where he also serves as director of choirs and is resident musical director and conductor for the Summer Lyric Theatre. He is also the director of music at Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from William Carey College in music education, Raybon won a Rotary Ambassadorial Fellowship to study in York, England, where he earned his master’s degree. His doctorate, from Louisiana State University, is in choral conducting with a minor in vocal performance. His scholarly writing has appeared in the Journal of Singing, Voice and Speech Review, the Choral Journal, the International Journal of Arts Education, and Commonplace: The Journal of Early American Life.
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
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