Julia Wolfe's Fire in My Mouth is a musical performance that documents the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The title, Fire in My Mouth, comes from a quote from labor activist Clara Lem-lich Shavelson, "Ah, then I had fire in my mouth," and also references the fire itself, which killed 146 garment workers, most of them young immigrants. The music is performed in four parts: immigration, factory, protest and fire. Drawing on oral histories, speeches, interviews and historical writings, Wolfe captures the experience of immigrant life, the language of protest, the sounds of the factory and the horror of the fire through Italian and Yiddish folk tunes, harmonizing and discordant voices and clicking percussion.
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