Oh, Freedom! brings a modernized reworking of abolitionist and civil rights proclamations to a 2015 audience. This collaborative project joins original poems written by the dynamic spoken word artist and 2010 national slam poetry star Amber Rose Johnson with original music composed by COOS Composer-in-Residence and Co-Artistic Director Anthony Green. Both narrative and music use the words, actions and very declamations of activists in an effort to show their ever-relevant existence in today’s American culture. With the urgent effort to inspire change and a call to action once more, Oh, Freedom! seeks to bring the cries for freedom center stage.

Personnel:

Fred C. VanNess Jr., tenor

Adam Eccleston III, flute

Ashleigh Gordon, viola

Javier Caballero, cello

Amber Rose Johnson, poet and spoken word artist

Full Program:

Hold On! for cello and male voice by William (Bill) C. Banfield 

Eyes on Prize, original poem by Amber Rose Johnson

Song of the Coffle Gang words by the slaves

The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America: Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley, poem by June Jordan, performed by Amber Rose Johnson

Oh, Freedom! by Anthony Green