Songs In Flight

 

Shawn E Okpebholo​

Text curated by Tsitsi Ella Jaji
Poetry by Tsitsi Ella Jaji, Tyehimba Jess, Crystal Simone Smith &
Ads from The Freedom on the Move Database

​

Songs in Flight is an artistic response to The Freedom of the Move database, an extensive catalogue spearheaded by Cornell University that houses over 30,000 historical newspaper advertisements seeking to locate enslaved people who had self-emancipated. These dehumanizing ads, often placed by enslavers or jailers, presented individuals as property, offering vivid descriptions of their physical traits, clothing, mannerisms, stories, and last known whereabouts. This work reframes the original intent of these ads by using the detailed descriptions of these individuals to instead emphasize and reaffirm their individuality and humanity. As The New York Times noted, this set of songs "takes these murky, dehumanizing documents and illuminates them, shifting their perspective to reveal the person hidden in plain sight."

​

Thursday, October 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Louise E. Addicott & Yatish J. Joshi Performance Hall at IUSB

Composer talk and panel discussion included with this performance.

​

Saturday, October 18 at 2:00 p.m. at MLK Dream Center​

(Free to the public)​