Open Call: Justin Allen

Explain Totality (version 4) is the fourth in a series of performances that responds to and interacts with the origins and evolution of hardcore punk. The ensemble traces shifts and distinctions among post-hardcore, hardcore punk, punk, and rock ’n’ roll with a series of cover songs altered with Allen’s own lyrics about his teenage years growing up in suburban Northern Virginia. The work emphasizes the integral role of Black musicians in these genres, and asks broader questions about the music that characterizes and serves as a soundtrack to personal and collective experience, and the historical, geographical, and social contexts from which this music emerges.