LOS ANGELES — On Feb. 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, decided to jog in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood in Glynn County, Georgia.
He never made it back home.
Arbery was murdered on the streets of a Brunswick neighborhood by three white men who confronted him during what’s been described as a racially motivated hate crime.
All three of the men, Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan, were found guilty of committing federal hate crimes and other offenses.
Travis McMichael received life plus 10 years, Gregory McMichael received life plus seven years, and Bryan received 35 years.
Tonality Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake’s new work, ‘Running From, Running To: A Musical Reflection on Ahmaud Arbery,” honors Arbery and will have its world premiere at the Wallis May 24 as part of a concert entitled “Put Your Guns Down.”
Tonality combines melodic harmonies to present concerts on themes of social justice to catalyze empathy and community activism. The entire program of “Put Your Guns Down” discusses issues related to gun violence in the United States.
“The concert also focuses on an active sense of peace as we come together to find solutions toward the epidemic of gun violence in this country,” he said.
The musical work, performed with members of Wild Up, doesn’t just focus on Arbery’s violent death; it explores his passions and dreams: how those were stolen and how the public is part of his story.
When it was time to write the show, Blake, who had received a grant to work at Aaron Copland House, a creative center for American music, went into the middle of the woods by himself in upstate New York.
“I went to learn about what I wanted to say in the story,” Blake said. “It was about being angered and then settling and taking productive things.
“I was walking through a peaceful neighborhood. I was the only Black person. I was thinking about what I wanted to say. One of the movements, ‘Oak and Pine Trees,’ is the solo as he’s running. It came to me as I was walking.”
Blake said it has been a lot of trying to be “very still and listening to the melodies that were there.”
“Part of what I wanted to do was to explore what Arbery was doing when he was killed,” Blake said. “That’s such a mundane activity. A human activity. There was nothing Black about what he was doing. Nothing ethnic or cultural.
“He was running in a neighborhood, dreaming about what could happen in his life. His life was special and valuable. The action he was doing highlights and expands that even more. Doing something for his life, looking around, and enjoying the sights. I didn’t want to make it about his death. The piece speaks to who Ahmaud was.”
The production’s second movement is called “Life Defined.”
“There is a humanity here,” Blake said. “We have three men speaking about this tall and athletic person — words used to describe him. Running From, Running To… thinking of his last day. How are modern lynchings justified? When will our being human be justified?”
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, who helped inform and guide the piece’s creation, will speak at the opening event as a special highlight.
Blake, a Jacksonville, North Carolina native, remembers vividly the day Arbery was murdered.
“I remember sitting at home, and I saw it on Facebook,” Blake said. “It just infuriated me. It was yet another Black name of someone who had been murdered, and at the time, no charges were being brought.
“Initially, they were saying ‘There is no crime here.’ I remember talking about it and looking online; the only people I saw talking about it were Black people. I’ve been doing social justice stuff for a while. Everyone was too quiet. I started a project on Ahmaud, and while doing it, George Floyd happened.”
Three months after Arbery’s killing, George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and, as Blake said, “The whole world turned.”
Blake believes there are aspects of Arbery’s story that people need to know.
“More people need to know his story,” Blake said. “George Floyd’s story took over. When you run, your mind drifts. You can imagine things you want for yourself. The potential of dreaming and possibility, which is present in this country, is resistance. It was snuffed out for other people’s fear of us just existing.
“How did we get here? How many times in our world do we ignore people or ostracize them? If we could look at how we treat each other.”
Whether someone is Black or white, Blake said it’s essential for everyone to see the production for “different reasons.”
“I think there is a healing, hopefully, in this story for the Black community,” Blake said. “That is my hope that his mother will feel something. Any non-Black person needs to come and experience some of the emotions that will be shown. It’s not enough to live amongst Black people.
“I hope that music will give insight. I think, for me, as a Black person, we don’t get to see ourselves in this genre a lot. Hopefully, there will be some healing. Our beauty of resilience.”
Blake said that while crafting the show, he leaned on Black people’s tradition of resilience.
“From civil rights songs and spirituals,” Blake said. “Art using music and finding resistance through joy is built into the culture. We share that with the whole community. There is tragedy here, and mourning and being treated less than.”
For Blake, this is a call for action.
“These are exhausting times,” he said. “I’ve been blessed to use music to speak on things that matter. I don’t feel I have to sit on the sidelines. I don’t want to be out of options for things to see or do. There are creative ways to raise my voice and be involved.”
The show comprises music and singers who step out of the choir to speak about their perspectives and how their lives coincide with the music.
There will be songs on police brutality, parents grieving, mass shootings, suicide prevention, classical, jazz, R&B, gospel and some Broadway musical types, and more.
“Soloist Zanaida Stewart Robles is singing the role of Wanda Cooper Jones,” Blake said. “Jamal Moore is singing Ahmaud. Ogi is a singing protester. Jamal’s voice is one of the best baritones I’ve listened to live. He sings classically and with soul. Ogi is a soulful R&B singer. I became a huge fan.”
The show’s second half will feature Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, who will speak.
Blake uses the story to encourage the audience to learn about Ahmaud Arbery and examine themselves.
“We are doing this for a progressive community,” Blake said. “How might we find ways to connect and empathize more?”
Blake concedes that Arbery’s story says a lot about America.
“Our glaring reminder for us as Black people is another kind of sign for those who don’t have this experience that freedom is conditional,” Blake said. “We don’t all get to enjoy the same liberties. We fear your fear of us — in turn, turns into violence.”
The performance at the Wallis is just the beginning. Blake has plans.
“We are going to record an album and get it out at the beginning of 2026,” Blake said. “We know we are going to Oregon. Then, I want to take the show to Georgia.
Darlene Donloe is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers who covers South Los Angeles. She can be reached at ddonloe@gmail.com.
