Program Type:
Historical PresentationProgram Description
Event Details
Hidden Messages in Negro Spirituals Used on the Underground Railroad
Presented by Connie Martin, MA.
Powerful, sacred songs that derived from the heart of the antebellum enslaved Africans were melodic outflowing of religious expression, passion, and the hope to be free. Negro spirituals, as originated in America, tell of sorrow, trials and tribulations, secrecy and hiding, and hope for a sense of community.
Join Connie as she explains the connections of plantation songs, or Negro Spirituals with meanings and interpretations of lyrics of some songs used in regions of the South that signaled a multiple of signs and tips that aided freedom seekers as they headed to Canada.
Bio-
Connie Martin is a retired middle school Language Arts teacher of 32 years, a 35-year Aqua Fitness Master Trainer, Senior Fitness Instructor, mother, and G-Ma to four grandkids. She earned a BA from Illinois State University with a Thesis in Integrating African American History in Educational Curriculums. Connie finds joy in sharing the secret codes and hidden messages in generational quilt patterns used over 200 years ago by abolitionists and freedom seekers to signify escape routes to Canada. She shows how quilts were used to warn of dangers, indicate how transport might occur, and who might help as "Friends" on the Underground Railroad.
Connie's mother, Dr. Clarice Boswell, wrote a book, Lizzie’s Story: A Slave Family’s Journey to Freedom, the foundation of the presentation, and then created and performed this family presentation for 16 years. Her book is currently being made into a movie named, "Freedom Code" (R).
LEARN MORE AND FOLLOW CONNIE
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