My Story “The Migration Suite: A Study in C Sharp Minor” is up on the Uncanny Magazine site. But I wanted to talk about my inspiration for the story.
Pianist extraordinaire, Joshua A. Thompson, was doing his part of his “Black Migrations, Urban Realities” series down at Indiana Artsgarden and I wanted to check him out. He was performing with Manon Voice (it was actually my first time meeting the two of them face-to-face). By the time he got to the piece ‘Melancholia’ (composed in 1953 by Duke Ellington), with Manon Voice reciting the original composition “We Are Here,” I was through. I didn’t even realize that my pen had been jotting down ideas.
I’m constantly pushed by the artists in my city, no matter their craft, as they live their art out loud. This is a story inspired by community. (Special shout out to William Rasdell who let me pester him with questions about his work with the migration of the Diaspora.)
Anyway, here is the link to the story.
Also, the wonderful Caroline M. Yoachim did an interview with me about the story. You can read it here.
And the story was picked as one of the Must-Read Speculative Short Fiction: July 2019:
The Migration Suite: A Study in C Sharp Minor by Maurice Broaddus
“I believe all our journeys are to be celebrated, mourned, and remembered.” If you aren’t already familiar with the great Maurice Broaddus, let this story be your introduction. Broken into five stanzas, this science fiction-tinged tale tells of the movement, both willing and unwilling, of Africans and their descendants. We see glimpses of their lives from the first people to slave traders to runaway slaves to those who moved from the South to the North to those who left Earth entirely. Broaddus writes worlds that feel eerily similar to ours and uses them to expose the harsh truths we don’t want to see. “The Migration Suite: A Study in C Sharp Minor” is a distillation of the best of Broaddus.
Uncanny Magazine – July 2019, Issue 29
It’s also a story with homework assignments, if you want to know the soundtrack that I was writing by:
7 Traceries: No. 4. Out of the Silence
William Grant Still (A Deserted Plantation: Spiritual)
Valse Suite, Op. 71, “Three-fours”: II. Andante
Adagio in F Minor by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Duke Ellington: Single Petal of a Rose
In the Bottoms – Suite: Prelude: Night
In the Bottoms – Suite: Honey: Humoresque
In the Bottoms: II. His Song
Africa (arr. for piano) : Africa: II. Land of Romance (arr. for piano)
