In Detroit’s North End neighborhood lies The Schvitz, a historic Russian-Jewish bathhouse situated in the heart of America’s largest Black city. Cleansed is an opera on the theme of ceremonial bathing in this intersectional cultural community, one that is focused on the role of cleansing, both as public ritual and within the soul and spirit. Our ensemble of four vocalists and two electronic instrumentalists will perform a new operatic work, with a libretto written by Detroit poet jessica Care moore, and a score composed by myself and Austin T. Richey. Public spaces like The Schvitz are few and far between, and this opera will create a crucial site for reconciliation and dialogue in a historically fractured community.