Going Up in Smoke

Our People Brings 2020's BLM Energy Back to the Opera Houseby Adam WillemsGrammy Award-winning tenor Freddie Ballentine and (equally accolade-laden) Indian-American pianist Kunal Lahiry premiered their recital Our People, a celebration of LGBTQ and Black artists and histories, at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center in December 2021. It’s a production that Ballentine, who is Black, says was a response to the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd. “It was