The Man Behind the Dream was composed by gay African American Steve Milloy, and queer, African American spoken-word artist Vanessa German wrote the libretto.
This One Voice Mixed Chorus 2017 commission honors the life and work of openly gay Quaker, African American civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who mentored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The 55-minute work is composed for a chorus, two actors/Story-Guides, and a five-piece band. The work culminates with the 1963 March on Washington, Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and the work of current-day Black Lives Matter activists.
A master strategist and tireless activist, Bayard Rustin is best remembered as organizing the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. He brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the American civil rights movement and helped mold Martin Luther King, Jr. into an international symbol of peace and nonviolence. Despite these achievements, Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era.
