Miami, Florida May 18, 2005
“Ngoma Ya Kiasili” (music of the ancestors) is the theme for Jubilate’s 2005 Juneteenth Festival presented by Miami Performing Arts Center (MPAC) in the historic Overtown Folklife Village, June 17- 20.
In partnership with the Lyric Theater, Overtown N.E.T. Office and Booker T. Washington Senior High School, this year’s activities will include a series of free concerts and events featuring the internationally acclaimed Afro Cuban pianist, Felix Spengler; Overtown’s Juneteenth Parade and family fun festival; a rally for quality education with Bob Moses, founder of the Algebra Project; the Jubilate Vocal Ensemble with Kenya’s Mamlaka Music Club and concluding with a musical commemoration to the Freedom Riders featuring an incredible array of world class singers and musicians.
Friday, June 17:
This year's festival begins with “Freedom's Journey” celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Mariel Boat Lift. It will include works by William Grant Still, Ernesto Lecuona, Rachmaninoff, Afro Cuban Folk Songs, Spirituals and more, featuring piano virtuoso, Felix Spengler and tenor Josef Spencer, 7:30 PM, Friday June 17 at St. Agnes Episcopal Church, 1750 NW 3rd Avenue. Mr. Spengler is an internationally recognized pianist that “has thrilled audiences from Barcelona to New York with his commanding stage presence, wonderful musicality, and superb technique." Mr. Spencer "gives voice to the faith and hope of Negro Spirituals... The purity, power and truth of his voice will shiver your spine."
Saturday, June 18:
The festivities continue, 10:30, Saturday, June 18th with Overtown's annual Juneteenth parade featuring marching bands, steppers, floats, dancers and many surprises stepping off from the historic Lyric Theater and finishing at Booker T. Washington Senior High School.
Following the parade, Booker T. Washington Senior High School will host the Rally for Quality Education, with special guest, Bob Moses, founder of the Algebra Project starting at 1 PM. This event will feature various musical performances from local gospel, jazz, rhythm & blues artists, along with booths from local vendors, health booths, kid's activities, great food and a tour of the historic Chapman House.
The Algebra Project is retooling the organizing tradition of the civil rights movement to advance an American tradition that argues for education as the fundamental structure for opportunity and meaningful citizenship. In the early 1960's, Bob Moses, working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC or "snick"), organized a revolutionary grassroots movement that helped thousands of African Americans register to vote. More recent, as an educator, he started the Algebra Project to improve the way algebra is being taught in predominantly African American schools.
Following the rally at 4 PM, the talents of Dr. Nelson Hall, the Jubilate Vocal Ensemble and Kenya’s Mamlaka Music Club will explode with “Ngoma Ya Kiasili” (music of the ancestors); a festive collaboration performing Spirituals, Gospel selections, African Folk songs and jazz; complete with traditional dances and poetry in the Booker T. Washington Senior High School Auditorium, 1200 NW 6th Avenue.
The project also includes the premiere of a Kenyan Folk composition by Fulbright Scholar, Kennedy Wakia and Dr. Robert Gower of the University of Miami. The Jubilate Vocal Ensemble and Kenya’s Mamlaka Music Club will perform the finished work during the concert. “Working with the Kenyan Arts organizations, exposes us directly to “ngoma ya kiasil,” the music of our ancestors at the cradle of civilization,” said Dr. Nelson Hall, Jubilate’s founder. “We should through this collaboration begin to “reconnect – continue” with those interrupted traditions of our heritage; exporting musical artifacts that will lead to new understandings and changed perceptions.”
Sunday, June 19:
At 5:30 PM, the festival returns to St. Agnes for the Juneteenth Freedom Rider’s Concert, based on the original Freedom Ride of 1961, when a racially mixed group of civil rights campaigners traveled through the southern states to challenge segregation. Capturing the emotional power of the era, this concert will include traditional and not so traditional music of the civil rights movement, including works by Charles Mingus, Mahalia Jackson, Thomas Dorsey, Oscar Brown, Jr., Bob Dylan, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln and Nina Simone. To present this wonderfully diverse program are a group of incredible musicians, working together for the first time. They include, the legendary opera singer Ed Pierson; 2004 Grammy winner Fred "Bam Bam" Scott; tenor, Josef Spencer; Downbeat Magazine's Collegiate Jazz Vocalist of the year, Dr. Julie Jensen Silvera with local blues icons Ike and Val Woods and introducing Kamilah Kennedy, Leah Marie- McCoy, Anna Creed and the Jubilation Band.
ABOUT JUNETEENTH
Cited as the African American Independence Day, Juneteenth (Freedom Day) originates from Galveston, Texas, whereas on June 19th, 1865, the word of the Emancipation Proclamation reached the enslaved. It is recognized as a Statewide Observance in Florida through legislation authored by former State Representative Alzo Reddick in 1991. Today, Juneteenth is embraced and celebrated by all races and ethnicities in honor of freedom and emphasizes education and achievement.
Sponsors
The 2005 Juneteenth Festival is sponsored by Miami Performing Arts Center, The Knight Foundation, Miami Dade Cultural Affairs, The Black Archives / Lyric Theater, The Overtown N.E.T. Office, St. Agnes Episcopal Church, Booker T. Washington Senior High School, Carl and Toni Randolph, The Keith and Renata Ward Family Fund, Bill and Beverly Parker and the Wolfson Foundation.
For more information, please visit our web site at www.jubilatearts.org
