Freedom on the Move: Songs in Flight Preview

515 Malcolm X Blvd,New York NY 10030

10 January, 2023

Description

IN-PERSON Conceived and commissioned by Sparks & Wiry Cries, Shawn Okpebholo’s new song cycle, Songs in Flight, features works that respond to selected primary source materials from Freedom on the Move (FOTM) database. The database consists of more than 30,000 “runaway ads” placed during the period of slavery and acts as written records of fugitive enslaved people. Join us for a preview of Freedom on the Move: Songs in Flight at Schomburg Center. The free event includes excerpts from the new song cycle and a panel discussion with Shawn Okpebholo and the creative team that help tell the stories and contextualize items from the database that move us back and forth in time. The program includes Dr. Tsitsi Ella Jaji, curator, associate professor at Duke University and poet, singer and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens, soprano Karen Slack, countertenor Reginald Mobley, baritone Will Liverman, pianist Howard Watkins, and Dr. Ed Baptist, lead FOTM database historian and professor of history at Cornell University. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Songs in Flight is presented by Sparks in partnership with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Learn more about the January 12 premier happening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, here . ACCESSIBLILITYAccessibility requests can be made by e-mailing [email protected]. _______________________ #SchomburgLive Pictured (l-r): Rhiannon Giddens, Karen Slack, Shawn Okpebholo, and Dr. Tsitsi Ella JaJi Illustration: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Woman with children seek cover with couple" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1857 - 1997. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47db-bc40-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 PUBLIC NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER IN-PERSON | By registering for this event, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. By attending an in-person program at The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold The New York Public Library, its Trustees, officers, agent and employees liable for any illness or injury. If you have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 or suspect you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive, please stay home. FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED Events are free and open to all, but due to space constraints registration is requested.  Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. After the event starts all registered seats are released regardless of registration, so we recommend that you arrive early.  GUESTS Please note that holding seats in the Langston Hughes Auditorium is strictly prohibited and there is no food or drinks allowed anywhere in the Schomburg Center. AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library. PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at [email protected]. Please note that professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.