Parables is a collaboration between poet Scott Woods and composer Dr. Mark Lomax that challenges us to look beyond the sensationalized headlines and remember the human stories that shape our nation’s soul. In a time of great division, this collection of stories seeks to inspire empathy, provoke reflection, and reaffirm our shared commitment to justice, equality, and compassion that have always bound us together as one people.

The piece is constructed in four movements. These Debts We Pay is a meditation on the Haitian immigrant experience in Springfield, Ohio. Two Be or Not to Be focuses on Women’s rights and bodily autonomy. America May Never Be America… addresses the erosion of civil discourse in American society, and the final movement, The Moral of the Story, is exactly that!