Holding It Down: the Veterans' Dreams Project September 20, 2012

Commissioned and produced in association with Multiplicity Musics, LLC, 'Holding It Down' was created by composer/pianist Vijay Iyer and poet Mike Ladd, with Iraq Marine veteran Maurice Decaul, and directed by Patricia McGregor. It is a thought-provoking, sometimes harrowing, and ultimately exhilarating combination of music, poetry and song, woven from the actual dreams of young American veterans of color of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The work explores veterans' internal battle with the psychological remnants of war, and their struggles to achieve dignity in an atmosphere of public indifference and widespread disillusionment