Point Blank by Logan Rutledge

Performed at the Detroit Institute of Arts as a part of Akropolis’ 2018 Together We Sound festival.

Point Blank is a brief piece composed by Logan Rutledge in memory of Trayvon Martin. Akropolis premiered Point Blank at the University of Illinois Chicago at an intimate reading of student works. We later performed the piece at our Together We Sound festival in Detroit, MI and several other concerts. The piece simultaneously celebrates Trayvon’s life while illustrating the searing moments leading to his death. Ideas both beautiful and dissonant in nature are utilized in the piece, sometimes in rapid succession and sometimes together. In 2012, the composer was living not far from where Trayvon was killed and felt the impact of his death beyond the local and national headlines. Point Blank is another way of taking in the Trayvon Martin story, and it gives us a chance to consider the implications of his death while celebrating a young man’s life.