LEWIS & CLARKE - AURORA 15:34

New Single on Folk Radio UK in honor and tribute to Elijah McClain.

I’m the kind of person inclined to say “this is my art, have at it”. Explaining is tedious, didactic even, and I want the music to speak for itself. But in this case, context is everything. Aurora 15:34 is both a eulogy to an individual and a rallying cry against the systemic violence and racism that pervades our society.

I wrote the music as both a reflection of (and respite to) the hyper-madness of our current cultural unrest.  I am not a scholar of ethnic studies, nor an academic invested in criminal justice science. I am someone who felt something and interpreted it in order to find meaning.

Elijah McClain was a 23-year-old black American who died after a violent police encounter. He was a massage therapist who loved animals and often played violin for cats at Petco. Elijah was listening to music and dancing when he was detained on his way home from picking up an iced tea for his brother in Aurora, Colorado. Bodycam footage reveals manipulation, abuse of power, and undue force. At 15:34, an officer tells another to “leave your camera there”.