The Girl with the Numbers

Program Notes:

“Get the girl.” On February 20th 1962, John Glenn was the first American to launch into space and orbit the Earth. Friendship 7’s success heavily depended on the exactitude of the rocket trajectory’s calculations. A few days prior to the mission, Glenn trusted his life with only one person to confirm by hand these IBM-generated numbers: Katherine Johnson, 44 year-old mathematician; daughter, sister, window, wife, mother of three, friend, teacher, community-builder, chorister; the first woman – and African-American woman – to join NASA’s Space Flight Research Division in Langley’s Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory as research mathematician, and who was part of the Space Task Group for America’s first multiple missions to space. Human computer. “The girl with the numbers”.

Born in 1918, West Virginia, Katherine Johnson lived in a time and place where social norms were being questioned for both women and Black people. Having been denied an education higher than grade 6 himself, Johnson’s father armed her with many tools. One that would propel her beyond many challenges was the following lesson: “You are no better than anybody, but nobody’s better than you.” Johnson was able to gather the courage and ask many questions that some may not have dared to ask both as a woman and an African-American. One of her favourite question was “Why not?”: why couldn’t she integrate the all-white West Virginia University when the Jim Crow segregation law’s justification, “separate but equal”, could no longer stand? Why couldn’t she do creative and theoretical thinking as a woman instead of being assigned the role of a “human computer”, which was the role a female mathematician could hold at NASA (hence the nickname “computers in skirts”)? Why couldn’t she, as a Black woman, participate at all-male meetings pertaining to her research? contribute to one of the first American manuals about space technology? pen multiple research papers …? At every turn, Johnson girded herself with her strengthening lesson that she would then impart with her students at every opportunity: “I am no better than anyone, but no one is better than me.”

“I loved numbers and numbers loved me. They followed me everywhere. No matter what I did, I was always finding something to count […]”. In the end, Johnson got to live her dream as a research mathematician. This choral piece is Marie-Claire’s reaction to reading Katherine’s YA-oriented autobiography, Reaching For The Moon. It was also the subject of the movie “Hidden Figures”. May her story continue to inspire women and men, young and old alike. This choral work was commissioned by La Caccina in Chicago, IL; premiered Saturday, November 20, 2021 ~ 7:30 pm. Wicker Park Lutheran Church, under the direction of Carling FitzSimmons.

Conductor Notes:

SSA a cappella with some further divisi including a small group covering contrasting material.

This is an enjoyable, rhythmic piece to rehearse and perform. About half of it is made up of the choir singing numbers representing the notes of the scale.  Moderate ranges and a great story being told.

On February 20th 1962, John Glenn was the first American to launch into space and orbit the Earth. Friendship 7’s success heavily depended on the exactitude of the rocket trajectory’s calculations. A few days prior to the mission, Glenn trusted his life with only one person to confirm by hand these IBM-generated numbers: Katherine Johnson (1918-2020), 44 year-old mathematician; daughter, sister, widow, wife, mother of three, friend, teacher, community-builder, chorister ;the first woman – and African-American woman – to join NASA’s Space Flight Research Division in Langley’s Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory as research mathematician, and who was part of the Space Task Group for America’s first multiple missions to space. Human computer. “The girl with the numbers”.

Having been denied and education higher than grade 6 himself, Johnson’s father armed her with many tools. One that would propel her beyond many challenges was the following lesson: “You are no better than anybody, but nobody’s better than you.” Johnson was able to gather the courage and ask many questions that some may not have dared to ask, both as a woman and as an African-American. One of her favourite questions was, “Why not?” Her life was the subject of the 2016 film, Hidden Figures.

Text Source

Marie-Claire Saindon