Howard University Brings Music to CC Atrium
Photo: Marleen Van Den Neste
Photo: Marleen Van Den Neste
Photo: Marleen Van Den Neste
Photo: Marleen Van Den Neste
Photo: Marleen Van Den Neste
Photo: Marleen Van Den Neste
Photo: Marleen Van Den Neste
Photo: Marleen Van Den Neste
Photo: Marleen Van Den Neste
In celebration of Black History Month, the Clinical Center (CC) hosted a lunchtime concert, “A Journey Through Song of the Underground Railroad,” featuring several groups from the Howard University music department.
The CC north atrium was filled on Feb. 27 with songs representing classical to jazz genres.
Musicians in the school’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, the student and alumni artists assembled into a few different ensembles, including a classical choir; the HU Jazz Singers; SAASy (soprano, alto, alto, soprano), an all-female jazz group; and Afro Blue, the university’s premiere jazz vocal ensemble that in recent years was the subject of an award-winning film.
Accompanied by a pianist, bassist and drummer, vocalists performed traditional favorites such as Wade in the Water and Deep River as well as original compositions The Trauma Express and 1+1 by HU students.
In one of its most entertaining and informative selections, Afro Blue delivered an a capella account of Henry Box Brown, who was born into slavery in 19th-century Virginia and nearly died while escaping to freedom in a wooden crate he arranged to have mailed to Philadelphia.
“Brown laid down the shovel and the hoe | Down in the box he did go | No more slavework for Henry Box Brown | In the box by express he did go”