Featured Work
Album
AUTUMN
“The Animal In You”
Our musical journey began in 2018, on a rooftop in Tulum, when Nehemiah just happened to call Autumn, at the same moment she was thinking of asking him to help her birth new music into the world, even though they hadn't seen each other in years. Five years later with the support of Sterling Duns, Merrill Garbus, Elissa Spencer, Matronimous, Zé Luis and many others their first EP, The Animal In You was born.
Works In Progress
LOVE OUT OF TIME
A Bible-based queer afrofuturist opera
(Formerly know as Jonathan and David)
Music and Libretto by Nehemiah Luckett
Love Out of Time is a new opera based on the biblical love story of Jonathan, the son of Israel's first king, and David, the future king most widely known for slaying Goliath as a young man. This piece tracks themes of family, love, and loyalty over centuries as Jonathan and David continue to find each other, become friends, and fall in love through time. While the biblical story revolves around the question of who will rule a new nation, the twentieth-century chapters probe the power struggles in a growing Black Church in Jackson, Mississippi.
The opera asks “Can we change the narrative of the stories into which we are born and if so how do we take that leap of faith?
ADIA & CLORA SNATCH JOY
a folk opera
::kismet::
By Mfoniso Udofia
With Music by Mfoniso Udofia and Nehemiah Luckett
When Adiaha Ufot turns up in St Helena, SC, seeking answers about her recently deceased mother, she finds herself standing in front of a replica of her childhood home. Unfortunately, any information Adiaha can glean about her mother's last days must come through Clora Abernathy Jr. — a tight-lipped woman with ghosts of her own. Sparks fly between these two women as they fight, make messes, and work to understand their history —all aided by spirit guides who push them into their destiny. In no time, 35 years have been marked between them, and what started fraught has become the greatest love story ever imagined.
A BURNING CHURCH
Book by Alex Hare and Zhailon Levingston
Lyrics by Zhailon Levingston
Music by Nehemiah Luckett
It’s Anniversary Sunday at Heritage Alabama, an aspiring megachurch circa 2015. Jen, the pastors’ new executive assistant, has been tasked with making sure the day is a success -- which means it's her responsibility to deal with the situation outside, namely a one-woman demonstration by her old friend Cleo in protest of the church. The standoff escalates as the pastors turn the service into an all-day/all-night revival, leading Jen, Cleo, and the other members of the church community to ask radical questions of themselves and their lives. A Burning Church is a musical that follows its characters as they attempt to step through the fire and survive.
RISK HALLELUJAH (working title)
by Orion Johnstone
with Nehemiah Luckett (Director and Creative Collaborator)
An unapologetically Queer musical about Jesus!! // A ritual of healing-in-action through the stories and teachings of this radical anti-capitalist immigrant // A love song to Trans and Queer divinity in brazen defiance of Christian Supremacy and the Christian Right’s co-opting of the teachings of Christ
SPUNK
By Zora Neale Hurston
New Production Conceived & Directed by Tamilla Woodard
Music by Nehemiah Luckett
Music Direction by John Bronston
Spunk is Hurston’s adaptation of her 1925 short story. It is a play with music centering on the love triangle between the charismatic Spunk, Evalina, and Evalina’s husband Jim. Set in a black town in Florida in the early 20th century, the music for Spunk is arrangements of, or new compositions based on, Hurston’s vast recordings of folk tunes, spirituals, and hymns from her cultural anthropology work in the American South.
TRIPLE THREATS
Book by Tracey Conyer Lee
Music and Lyrics by Nehemiah Luckett & Tracey Conyer Lee
Trapped in the only lane he's allowed to traverse in 1981, an artist of color whose marriage is on the line, collabs with some career criminals to create a revolutionary show that dares to change the landscape of American theatre. A head on collision of inspiration in 1981, Triple Threats offers lessons we still need over forty years later.
BRICK BY BRICK
A new musical inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe
Book and Lyrics by Ross Wade
Music by Nehemiah Luckett
Struggling writer Leonard LaPage languishes in a crumbling house on a hill, haunted by the ghost of his wife, Lenore. When a means to resurrect Lenore presents itself, Leonard embarks on a killing spree in the name of love. No murder is beneath him: be it bisecting by pendulum, masquerading as the Red Death, or tempting with a cask of Amontillado…Brick by Brick weaves together the works of Edgar Allan Poe into one macabre musical.
The Way Your Blood Beats
The 2nd EP from the Pop/Soul band: AUTUMN
Music & Lyrics by Autumn Brown and Nehemiah Luckett
Produced by Merrill Garbus
Co-Produced by Sterling Duns
Mixed by Matromonius
Mastered by Zé Luis
The Way Your Blood Beats is a sonic ritual that opens time-traveling portals through which the musicians, and those who listen, move into the past and towards the future to access grief, joy, and healing. Their first EP, THE ANIMAL IN YOU, was released in January 2024. Their new album will be available on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms Summer 2024.
“Nehemiah Luckett has a very strong artistic and personal vision for his work and for what our world can be. He’s committed his vision, but he also the most kind, collaborative person I’ve worked with. He makes us better artists and people just by being in the room. He is an incredible writer, orchestrator, music director, musician, dramaturg, galvanizer, and activist. He makes beautiful art and he also helps his fellow artists and musicians create theirs. He brings a vast knowledge of various periods in our history and in the present to draw from. He is protective of the projects he works on and the people he works on them with. He’s thoughtful about the work he does and gives his all to the projects he commits to. There is very little and perhaps nothing that I would not recommend Nehemiah for. He adds a great deal and he will always surprise you in the best ways!”
—Allison Bressi, Producer
