Towards Light is a reflection on the truly awful news cycle from 2017. In the work, the year is divided into four quarters, each corresponding to the four movements in the piece. The first movement focuses around the Women’s March from January; the second moves to the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement; the third focuses on the horrific events that transpired in Charlottesville; the fourth focuses on increased tensions with nuclear powers in the world.

Text, used with permission, by Katarina Knehans. Video, used with permission, by Jedidiah Knight.

Towards Light: Text by Katarina Knehans (used with permission)

I. Empowered

We the people
United
In fear

In order to form a
Correct,
Not corrupt
Nation

March
Hands bound with olive branches
Scream
Voices lifted by the masses
Voices overflowing with truth

II. Faltered

Running away from
Truth
And
Reason
Leads to lead-soaked minds

Moths replace eyelids
Beetles wither upon fingernails
Return
To the broken, sinking
Earth

III. Disquieted

Close
We hang in the balance
Right and wrong fused by power
False

They feel like
Nails
Hammered into spines
We
The butterflies they hang on their walls

IV. War

A cliff hangs upon the precipice
Youthful eyes
Mourning
for lives not yet lost
Marching

Tiny children play dress-up
Pretending to bravery
And instead
Petrified

Falling towards
Gaping
Deathly
Light