In 2010, a 16-year-old African-American child named Kalief Browder was accused of stealing a backpack. a crime he insisted he hadn’t committed. Because his family couldn’t afford bail, he endured three years on New York’s notorious Rikers Island and his case was postponed 31 times before it was dismissed. While being held, Browder spent months in solitary confinement, missed the last two years of high school, and become so despondent that he tied his bedsheets into a noose. In June 2015, Browder committed suicide by hanging himself. Last year, the New York Legislature passed a bill known as “Kalief’s Law” to ensure that persons arrested receive a speedy trial. It’s the least they could do.
Composer Judah Adashi is working on a new piece about the Kalief Browder tragedy called Unseen. This is an excerpt from that work called “Last Words” which imagines Browder’s final hours, on the night of June 5, 2015. The text comes from a conversation that Browder’s mother, Venida, shared with Jennifer Gonnerman of The New Yorker. Gonnerman writes: “his mother explained that the night before [he took his own life], he told her, ‘Ma, I can’t take it anymore.'”
“Venida Browder fought relentlessly for her son’s release, and, after his suicide, shared his story in support of criminal justice reform,” Adashi writes. “She died of heart failure in October 2016 at the age of 63. “Last Words” is dedicated to her memory.”
This demo recording features vocals by Matthew J. Robinson, photos by Zach Gross, and audio of Venida Browder, courtesy of The Marshall Project. Unseen is funded by a grant from the Johns Hopkins University Berman Institute of Bioethics.