The origins of Past Tense lie in Weems’s powerful work Grace Notes, which was inspired by President Obama singing “Amazing Grace” in the wake of the 2015 shooting that killed nine African-American members of a church in Charleston, SC. Weems says, “While working on Grace Notes for months it occurred to me that I was telling the story of Antigone, wherein an innocent man dies by unjustified means, and his sister fights for the right to bury him honorably. But the wider community refuses her; her right to justice, and to peace, is denied.” Weems, looking for permission to “bury our brothers,” incorporates video of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and Eric Garner, among others, into this work that mourns those lives of unknown potential that were ended by those who were supposed to protect them.