With a ringing bass-baritone voice that can rise in flight and shake the rafters, acclaimed singer and creator Davóne Tines can bring both gravity and transcendence to a performance. Those are perfect qualities for his current endeavor, taking the structure of the Catholic mass and queering it to function as a humane, multivalent ceremony to “reflect and process human problems.”
His “Queering the Mass” performance Fri/30 and Sat/1 at the Chan National Queer Arts Center (co-presented by 48 Hills) is part of the Chan’s ambitious Q-Lab series that supports the work of boundary-pushing performers to present innovative works, and this one is definitely a must for those who were raised Catholic (guilty!), those who are ambivalent about religion, and those who may suffer some trauma from even the thought of it. The evening will be a musical one, with his band THE TRUTH (John Bitoy, piano and Khari Lucas, sound artist and electric bass) as they “weave classical, gospel, baroque, jazz, and opera into a journey of personal reckoning.”
I asked Davóne a few questions in advance of the performance—and barely resisted snapping and shouting out “maasss queen!” at his profound responses.
48 HILLS What inspired you to take as a starting point the Catholic mass?
DAVÓNE TINES The idea for MASS was born of my phobia for the traditional recital form. At Juilliard, I had an allergic reaction to doing what I’ve seen many singers do: program something based off of a model that they aren’t fully engaged in, and filling in the template with music that checks boxes rather than articulating their own feelings and experiences in an explicit way. I think this idea of explicit context is critical; In order to perform well, the personal impetus for choices in repertoire and interpretation need to be in the front of your mind, for every single note. So I decided to make something that was a ritual for myself to reflect and process problems I was experiencing.
48 HILLS I love the idea of queering and opening up such a sacred ceremony, which is associated with a tremendous musical tradition. How did you approach this musically?
DAVÓNE TINES A mass must be a monumental pageant of a religious device, perhaps mystifyingly impenetrable. It can also be seen as an intimate, non-denominational journey through the process of dealing with a personal human problem.
The order of the mass I’m using here, and which Caroline Shaw has followed in her miniature mass, accords with my own understanding of a spiritual journey. I’m basically queering the mass. Queering in the broad sense of bending it to my own understanding. It’s a very personal journey about crying out for release from pain (Kyrie); making and holding space for the cause of the pain to be engaged (Agnus Dei); allowing the power of your conviction to destroy that cause (Credo); exalting in the release (Gloria); and transferring the energy of the destruction into the fuel for rebirth (Sanctus).
48 HILLS Many queer people may have past trauma when it comes to religious ceremonies and, especially, Catholicism. Or they feel like outsiders when it comes to religion in general. Were you raised in the Catholic tradition? And how can people feel welcome into what may be a thorny psychological space?
DAVÓNE TINES This program is, in effect, an act of reclaiming the mass idea by dumping out its traditional contents and utilizing it not for its potentially exclusive dogma, but reclaiming it for its deeper possibility as a structure for dealing with any human problem. As an outsider to Catholicism, this is how I made the mass make sense to me.
As a child, singing was all religious or liturgical and all in a choral setting with close family and friends. Everyone in my family participated in choir. The urge to sing works like Beethoven’s Ode To Joy followed by Lauryn Hill’s rendition of Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee is a reflection of my actual lived and multivalent experience with liturgical music. It’s composed of so many things: early classical music, R&B, showtunes, Handel, contemporary gospel, spirituals, new music, and beyond. When you put these pieces from seemingly different cultures and perspectives together and acknowledge their connections, you have to acknowledge that there’s something profound shared among them, and thus there’s something profound shared among all people.
DAVÓNE TINES: QUEERING THE MASS Fri/31 and Sat/1 at Chan national Queer Arts Center, SF. More info here.
