Thursday October 16, 2014
7:00pm – 1199C Hospital Workers Union Hall, 1319 Locust Street
Underground Railroad in Words and Music
Kim and Reggie Harris present Music and the Underground Railroad, a concert of songs, stories and narratives about slavery and the quest for freedom which reveals the hope, the power and eventually the triumph shared by a network of people of many races. Through sing-a-longs, audience involvement and a multi-media presentation Music and the Underground Railroad provides an understanding of the secrets and passion of this powerful era. Primarily based on Kim & Reggie Harris’s CD’s Steal Away: Songs of the Underground Railroad and Get on Board: Underground Railroad & Civil Rights Freedom Songs
Rev. Joe Williams will deconstruct some of the songs showing how the spirituals contained secret codes giving instruction on escape. Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon and her students will perform poetry of the Frances Harper, the Grimke sisters and others
Nzadi Keita has a new book of poetry on Anna Douglas
Vernita Hall has a book of poems drawn from W.E.B. Du Bois and the struggles in Philadelphia
Sandra Turner-Barnes has a poem set to Wade In The Water as well as other poetry
Norman Marshall is John Brown.