Voices of Freedom: Tracing the African American Experience through Music and Poetry

“The Literary Movement America Forgot” is what the Huffington Post recently wrote about Voices Beyond Bondage: An Anthology of Verse by African Americans of the 19th Century.  After the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, there was a surge in freeborn, self-liberated, and African descendants who were writing and publishing in response to the call for authored works from the nation’s first black-owned periodicals. Erica De Simone and Fidel Louis, editors of Voices Beyond Bondage offer a fresh perspective on American life through poetry, while the New England Conservatory African American Roots Ensemble and the Earth Tones quartet trace the history of black music from its origins in Africa across the seas and into American culture. NEC professor, doctoral student and vocal stylist Nedelka Prescod leads the ensemble and the quartet in a capella and instrumental performances of spirituals, jazz, blues, ragtime, R&B, soul, gospel and other music genres. Reservations: BOSTONrsvp@maah.org or call 617.725.0022 x22. Visit maah.org for more information.