Join us for an afternoon of poetry offering a fresh perspective on history and culture, blended with spirituals, jazz, blues, R&B, soul, and gospel music. Medford native Erika DeSimone and co-editor Fidel Louis share choice pieces from their new book, Voices Beyond Bondage: An Anthology of Verse by African Americans of the 19th Century. The New England Conservatory's faculty, award-winning doctoral student, and performance stylist Nedelka Prescod leads an ensemble and a quartet of NEC-trained vocalists and instrumentalists as they trace black music from its origins in Africa to American concert halls.

"The Literary Movement America Forgot" is what the Huffington Post wrote in a review of the Voices Beyond Bondage anthology of works by free and self-emancipated African Americans writing and publishing in the 1800s. The Conservatory's African American Experience Through Music Ensemble and the Earth Tones quartet are extensions of NEC's Contemporary Improvisation Department, through which various ensembles offer unique opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to learn about different cultures, music, and performance styles. <more>