The Coloring Pages.
How the first Afrofuturistic opera reached every hand in the room.
The opera
In July 2026, Cincinnati Opera premiered LALOVAVI at Music Hall, the first Afrofuturistic opera, with music by Kevin Day and a libretto by Tifara Brown, part of the Black Opera Project. A work that big can feel far away. I was brought in to close that distance.
The invitation
ROMAC brought me in as an artist in residence, through its founding director, Toilynn O'Neal. The assignment was simple and serious at once: take the world of this opera, its queens and scholars and star travelers, and put it into pages anyone could hold in their own hands.
The youth work
The pages were not dreamed up alone in a studio. I led a three-day ideation workshop with young people from ROMAC, and their thinking lives inside this work. Ten of them are named on the credit page, because credit is a lesson too: Cole Coffey. Shaila McGivens. Anaiah King. Mackenzie Gill. Matthew Gill. Timothy Gittens. Tiara Gittens. Trinity Gittens. Kylah Bell. Giovaughni Garcia-Moore. A child who sees her own name in print, attached to an opera, learns something about what rooms her imagination belongs in.
For three days, a brick wall filled up with notebook paper. That wall was the real drafting table, and these are its pages, in their own handwriting.
Trinity's concept sheet for Syndica and Pallorant: market days, warm little stores, solar panels, tree houses, floating ads and fountains.
Tiara's opera project sheet: Seneca in earthy solarpunk outfits, buildings made of stone, and a tattoo for every tribe.
The Syndica character sheet: flower crowns, earth tones, a handmade leaf skirt, and a leg guard for what the woods provide.
The mixed daughter: outfits of both sides worn in her own colors, and eyes of two colors, the hope of unity.
Trinity's Syndica fashion system: flowing silhouettes, layered handmade fabrics, utility belts with seed pouches, and a full color palette, sage green to clay pink.
The worldbuilding notes: two sides split after the war, Syndica under a sunflower symbol, Paloryn under a metal ball of lightning, nature against tech.
Giovaughni's monorail station: a man hurrying for the train beneath a job poster, everyday life on the tech side of the world.
Giovaughni's blessing scene: a woman kneels to meet a child among the pink trees, everyday tenderness on the nature side.
From the workshop wall: the young collaborators' original concept sketches, photographed as they hung.
The credit page from the coloring pages, naming the ten young collaborators from ROMAC.
Opening nights
Ten of the pages were printed and shared with audiences at the world premiere, July 9 and 11, 2026. At the pre-party, a coloring table waited in the lobby, and children sat down in their best clothes and went to work. Some art belongs on a wall. This art belonged in their hands.
The coloring table at the Music Hall pre-party, July 2026, with the LALOVAVI pages in use, one already blooming with color. Photo by Donise Coleman.
The pages
Pages from the LALOVAVI coloring pages: the world of the opera, drawn for every hand.
The book
The pages grew. With my brother, Malachi Brightsun, I expanded the work into Love and Blood, a full book of our own, carrying the same spirit further than a lobby table ever could.
With gratitude
To ROMAC and Toilynn O'Neal, for the invitation and the trust. To Cincinnati Opera, for opening the doors of a historic premiere to families. And to the ten young people whose names are on the credit page, who are, in every way that matters, co-creators of this work.
Jide' Fresh, creator of the Lalovavi coloring pages. Who is Jide' Fresh?
Jide' Fresh
Artist in Residence, ROMAC
In Fly We Trust