We Will Not Be Composed
We Will Not Be Composed is a multimedia performance created in collaboration with saxophonist and composer Stevie Manning, author and activist Soraya Chemaly, and projection artist Xuan to challenge gendered perceptions of anger in America. Audience members simultaneously experience a live performance of a musical score by Manning featuring ondes Martenot, projections of light and texture from Xuan, and recorded voices of women expressing their experiences with and ideas about anger in immersive spatial audio. Whether these expressions of anger are startling, familiar, or provoking, audience members discover how collective recognition and expression of anger in the face of abusive power and domination can become a catalyst for justice and change.
Drawing from jazz, experimental improvised music, and chamber music, the instrumentation of We Will Not Be Composed features the recorded voices and a six-piece ensemble with Manning on alto saxophone, Jessica Ackerley on electric guitar, Ha-Yang Kim and rocío sánchez on cello, Devon Gates on double bass, and Suzanne Farrin on the ondes Martenot.
Main Image: We Will Not Be Composed, 2025. Pictured: Stevie Manning. Courtesy the Artist. Photo: Elle Walton.
Jamia Wilson is the author of This Book Is Feminist and Roadmap for Revolutionaries.
Annie Delgado is finally learning to embrace her rage without apology after nearly half a century.
Jaclyn Friedman Founder & Executive Director, EducateUS.
Renee Bracey Shermann is an abortion activist and co-author of Liberating Abortion: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve.
R.O. Kwon author of Exhibit and The Incendiaries and co-editor of Kink.
Tara Jaye Frank, a leadership and culture consultant who builds bridges between people and ideas, and is the author of The Waymakers and You Are Before the World.
Marcie Bianco is a writer, editor, cultural critic, and author of Breaking Free: The Lie of Equality and the Feminist Fight for Freedom (PublicAffairs, 2023).
Cindy Gallop is the founder & CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn — 'Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference.'.
Mona Eltahawy is a feminist author and disruptor of patriarchy.
Koritha Mitchell is a literary historian, cultural critic, and author of From Slave Cabins to the White House.
Rebecca Nagle is an award-winning journalist and citizen of Cherokee Nation
Anonymous
Anonymous
Dates + Tickets
Duration: 60 minutes
Ensemble
- Stevie Manning: Alto saxophone
- Suzanne Farin: Ondes Martenot
- Jessica Ackerley: Electric guitar
- Ha-Yang Kim: Violoncello
- rocío sánchez: Violoncello
- Devon Gates: Double bass
We Will Not Be Composed received 2020 and 2021 awards from the MAP Fund, which is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Manning began composing the score during a five-week period in the fall/winter of 2021 as a Composition Fellow at MacDowell in Peterborough, NH.
The musical score for this work is supported by a 2021 NYSCA Composer Commission.
EMPAC programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
