I Can't Go to Florida
instrumentation: soprano sax and piano
duration: 3 minutes
written in: 2025
written for: Nick May and Alex Siu Lun Li
text: Alex Temple
In 2023, Nick May and Alex Li started the I Exist Project for commissioning new pieces by queer composers. My contribution is an expression of my anger and disgust at the ever-escalating right-wing attack on trans people's civil rights, human dignity and public existence. At first, I Can't Go to Florida may sound like nothing but a light-hearted chamber piece, but the sax part has "secret lyrics" that are never sung or spoken out loud. They bluntly address the vicious transphobia of Florida's laws — it's one of just two states that Erin Reed advises trans people not to travel to at all — as well as Governor Ron DeSantis's ugly history as an enabler of torture, and, more gently, a pleasant visit I made to the Miami suburbs as a teenager. These lyrics can be printed in the concert program, or, if the show is taking place at a venue where that might be inadvisable, the audience can be directed to this page to download the pdf.
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