About Songs of Black Folk
SONGS OF BLACK FOLK returned even bigger, bolder, and grander for its 2024 production on Sunday evening June 16th, at 7:00 pm at the iconic Paramount Theatre in Seattle.
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SONGS OF BLACK FOLK once again presented a music tradition that began on the African continent and was transported to the Americas, via slave ships, and took root in the daily sufferings of an enslaved Black people who chose to survive and who fought to be free. SBF will feature the rise of the Negro Spirituals and their evolution into other Black musical genres including, blues, jazz, Gospel, R&B, Hip-Hop, and even spoken word.
The SONGS OF BLACK FOLK audience experienced how Black music functions as both a tool of political resistance and as a potent source of hope for a Black people who have endured four centuries of white supremacy and its relentless assault on Black lives. Ultimately, the SBF experience will connect the African American struggle for freedom, justice, dignity, and happiness with the struggles of other American communities who have had to fight their way from the margins of American society into the mainstream.
OUR MISSION
The mission of SONGS OF BLACK FOLK is to utilize the Juneteenth holiday weekend as a compelling backdrop for a worldclass “Fine Arts” production that features elite African American artists, both national and local. This provides the Northwest audience with a Black Cultural Arts experience that rivals the most elite productions presented anywhere in the United States. In essence, SBF is the Northwest’s opportunity to annually experience the best of Black folk.
