Since their enslavement in West Africa and transport to plantations of the New World, black people have made music that has been deeply entwined with their religious, community, and individual identities. Music was one of the most important constant elements of African American culture in the centuries-long journey from slavery to freedom. It also continued to play this role in blacks' post-emancipation odyssey from second-class citizenship to full...

"Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author with a "lively, engaging, and often wise" (The New York Times Book Review) voice, offers a lyrical, introspective, and unforgettable account of her past and her search for the first family of Black country music. Country music had brought Randall and her activist mother together and even gave Randall a singular distinction in American music history: she is the first Black woman to cowrite...

"A celebration of the history of Black music in America"-- Provided by publisher.

Spirituals have been described both as the literature of American slavery and as the jewels that the slaves brought out of bondage. Today, the harmony, percussive precision, and evangelical fervor of gospel music have made it a hit all around the world. This program spotlights two venerable groups-The Sterling Jubilee Singers and The Four Eagle Gospel Singers-and climaxes with a Sunday gospel quartet celebration. Additional performers include the...

Chronicles and captures poetically the history, mood, and movement of African American music.

Enslaved African Americans longed for freedom, and that longing took many forms including music. Drawing on biblical imagery, slave songs both expressed the sorrow of life in bondage and offered a rallying cry for the spirit. Like a Bird brings together text, music, and illustrations by Coretta Scott King Award-winning illustrator Michele Wood to convey the rich meaning behind thirteen of these powerful songs.