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Women Make A Way Outta No Way: Vienna Carroll and The Folk perform at Cooper Union

Weds., March 8, 2023,
7 – 8:30 pm,

Frederick P. Rose Auditorium,
41 Cooper Square (on Third Ave. bet. 6 & 7th Sts.),
New York, NY (see directions).
FREE. Must register.

Vienna Carroll and The Folk — whose soulful Afro-Future Roots music presents African American spirituals, work songs, and the blues through a modern lens — perform a special program honoring ordinary and extraordinary women, such as Harriet Tubman, Clara Lemlich, Big Mama Thornton, and Audre Lorde, in celebration of International Women’s Day.

Visitors must register and show security proof of (1) vaccination, or (2) a negative PCR test by a third party (no home tests) within three days of their visit to campus, or (3) a negative rapid test result taken by a third party (not home test).

A griot who mixes song, storytelling, and history, Carroll’s sound takes you back to her roots in the Black church. At the same time, her message examines American history and questions from whose perspective that history is told. Her stirring and powerful performances invite audiences to sing along in the African call-and-response tradition, adding emotional resonance to the stories shared.

Her band, The Folk, features Stanley Banks (George Benson, Esther Phillips) on bass; Washboard XT/Newman Taylor Baker (Matthew Shipp, Ebony Hillbillies, Henry Grimes) on washboard; and Keith Johnston (Jon Hendricks, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam) on guitar. Their latest album, Harlem: Afro-Future Roots, is a special collection of spirituals that honor 31 shackled-and-chained enslaved ancestors who in 1826, on a boat from Baltimore to deep south death, threw their captors overboard and escaped to freedom.

Carroll formalized her musical studies at Yale University with a B.A. in African American Studies and served as an artist-in-residence at the Hudson River Museum. She also received an Audience Favorite Award from the NY International Fringe Festival for Singin Wid A Sword In Ma Han, a musical docudrama she wrote and starred in, about a family escaping slavery. She conceived of and produced the First Annual NYC Underground Railroad Festival Juneteenth Celebration with the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrim, a nationally certified Underground Railroad site and the Brooklyn Historical Society, which WBGO broadcasted, NYC’s premiere jazz station.

This performance is presented by The Cooper Union Black Student Union, Student Affairs, and Public Programs.

Hear Our New Afro-Future Roots single “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.”

Release Date: February 10, 2023.

By: Vienna Carroll & The Folk – Stanley Banks, bass. Newman Taylor Baker/Washboard XT, washboard. Keith Johnston, guitar. and Me! 🎼❤️

In honor of 31 enslaved Africans headed from Baltimore to certain Deep South death in 1826 who overthrew their captors and escaped to freedom.

Photography – Jane Feldman @janefeldmanphotography

Lyrics
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Coming for to carry me home
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Coming for to carry me home

I looked over Jordan
And what did I see
Coming for to carry me home

A band of angels
Coming after me
Coming for to carry me home

Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Coming for to carry me home
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Coming for to carry me home


If you get to heaven
Before I do
Coming for to carry me home

Tell all my friends
I’m coming too
Coming for to carry me home

Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Coming for to carry me home
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Coming for to carry me home

Review

Jazz Lives
Jan. 27, 2023,
Reprinted from https://jazzlives.wordpress.com…

The late Sam Parkins used to say of certain powerfully emotional music, “Gets you right in the gizzard, doesn’t it?” We all have our personal collections of Gizzard Music. To them, I would like to add SWING LOW, SWEET CHARIOT, as performed by singer Vienna Carroll and the Folk.

A friend sent me this recording and I was enthralled. So many recordings are over-produced, tinkered with, and electronically fussed-over, that their essence is obliterated. Not this utterance — deep, unaltered, aimed directly at the listener.

“Swing Low Sweet Chariot” is Vienna Carroll & The Folk’s new single from their upcoming CD, Harlem: Afro Future Roots, a special collection of Spirituals honoring 31 enslaved Africans headed from Baltimore to certain Deep South death in 1826. Instead, they took their future into their own hands, threw their captors overboard, and escaped to freedom.

Vienna is joined by her “groovetastic” band, The Folk: Stanley Banks (George Benson) on bass; Washboard XT/Newman Taylor Baker (Matthew Shipp, Ebony Hillbillies, Henry Grimes) on washboard; and Keith Johnston (Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Jon Hendricks) on guitar.

“We freed ourselves from slavery. We are the center of our own freedom stories. The Spirituals are our liberation songs,” says Carroll.

Now, hear the music: haunting, compelling here.

Keith and Vienna created this passionate sound during the award-winning run of Singin Wid A Sword In Ma Han, Vienna’s musical docudrama about a family escaping slavery. This was followed by Vienna’s first album of the same name, a reprise of Spirituals from the play, in collaboration with Washboard XT. The CD Harlem Field Recordings, recorded with the Folk and released in 2020, celebrates early Black music and its influence on the music of today.

“Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” to be released on Friday, February 10, 2023, will be available on viennacarrollmusic.com, Spotify, Bandcamp, and Apple Music.

Get Swing Low Sweet Chariot (2023)

For more information visit www.viennacarrollmusic.com & https://viennacarroll.bandcamp.com/track/swing-low-sweet-chariot-2.

Vienna Carroll and the Folk will be at the Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC, to celebrate the Met’s Seneca Village exhibit with their Afro-Future Roots music on February 24 and 25th, 6-8:30 pm, Petrie Court Cafe. Read more on The Met’s website.

Hear Our New Afro-Future Roots single “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.”

Combahee River Raid

“Mary Had a Baby” commemorates Harriet Tubman and the United States Colored Troops who destroyed major confederate supplies and rescued nearly 800 people from slavery.

Background of the Combahee River Raid

Vienna Carroll
Sharing the story

Tubman partnered with the Second South Carolina Volunteers, a regiment of the United States Colored Troops to plan and execute this raid to destroy wealthy confederate rice plantations and rescue enslaved people.

First, she forged a relationship with the local enslaved community among whom were the folks who had placed torpedoes in the river to blow up Union boats. They gave her the torpedo locations. She also spread the word throughout the community that folks should be ready to escape to freedom when the raid took place.

On the night of June 1st, 1863, and into the 2nd, Tubman and around 300 men including the Second South Carolina Volunteers and a Rhode Island Regiment set off on three ships: the John Adams, the Sentinel, and Harriet A. Weed. When the Sentinel ran aground troops from that ship transferred to the other two boats.

They proceeded upriver to the plantations where they successfully set fire to and destroyed the houses, mills, and outbuildings; and took or torched the stores of commodity rice and cotton, as well as supplies of potatoes, corn, and livestock

Harriet Tubman rescued to freedom nearly 800 people. 

They then went on to rescue to freedom nearly 800 people. Folks didn’t at first believe, but when the ships actually turned up, they were soon on the verge of being sunk, so vigorous was the response. Ms. Tubman brought order, calming folks with a song. She said about that day:

“I nebber see such a sight. We laughed, an’ laughed, an’ laughed. Here you’d see a woman wid a pail on her head, rice a smokin’ in it jus’ as she’d taken it from de fire, young one hangin’ on behind, one han’ roun’ her forehead to hold on, t’other han’ diggin’ into de rice-pot, eatin’ wid all its might; hold of her dress two or three more; down her back a bag with a pig in it. One woman brought two pigs, a white one an’ a black one; we took ’em all on board; named de white pig Beauregard, and the black pig Jeff Davis. Sometimes de women would come wid twins hangin’ roun’ der necks; ‘pears like I never see so many twins in my life; bags on der shoulders, baskets on der heads, and young ones taggin’ behin’, all loaded; pigs squealin’, chickens screamin’, young ones squallin’.”

Harriet Tubman

Mary Had A Baby

Storyteller Corinthia starts her tale with the 1863 Combahee River Raid. In her story, the song her family and neighbors waited for was the now-classic Spiritual “Mary Had a Baby.” When they heard it they knew “Moses” had really come.

Corinthia follows the trail and trials of her family and community to the Union camps, transitioning to freedom, learning to read and write, getting paid to work, and being granted the right to vote (men). She celebrates the 16 Black congressmen of the Reconstruction era and highlights their accomplishments – roads, public schools, 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, and Civil Rights bills.

First Black Members of the U.S. Congress

Setbacks also are duly noted: the withdrawal of the Union Army troops from the South, the re-establishment of the Southern landowner class, and the Black Codes which practically re-established slavery in all areas of life: land ownership, voting, work and personal liberties.

Spirituals and work songs are interwoven throughout. We had great fun with our audiences singing along at Hofstra University, Gowanus Dredgers, Bayou Theatre, and The Essex and Portsmouth Sea Music Festivals.

Vienna Carroll
New York State Council on the Arts: State of Opportunity

“Mary Had a Baby” is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.  

7 Program Series: African Americans and the Civil War in Westchester

Weds. October 19: 1:30pm, Arts in the Afternoon.  Performance 2 of 7
Hudson River Museum
511 Warburton Avenue
Yonkers, NY directions/map
Weds. hours: Noon – 5pm; 914-963-4550, hrm.org.

The Union & the Confederacy in Westchester: African Americans and the Civil War
Simeon Tierce and his wife, Sarah Jane, leading residents of the African American Westchester community called “The Hills” reflect on Lincoln’s defeat in Westchester. Performed by Vienna Carroll and Keith Johnston. A play using storytelling and song to present the African American perspective on the Civil War and featuring The Hills community. 

Red Grooms - Lincoln on the Hudson - walk-through scene
Red Grooms: “Lincoln on the Hudson” walk-through scene. Click pic to enlarge.

This presentation  is part of a series about “The Westchester Hills Community & The Civil War” inspired by the Red Grooms Civil War exhibit at the Hudson River Museum. Learn more about the grand history of the African American experience in the Civil War through the human story of the resilient and heroic African American community–The Hills Community–in Westchester County, NY. Perfect for all children and adults living in Westchester County and the greater New York City area.

Thank you to Dr Edythe Ann Quinn for bringing The Hills community ancestors out of the shadows through her book Freedom Journey: Black Civil War Soldiers and The Hills Community, Westchester County, New York by historian/author Dr. Edythe Ann Quinn. Read first chapter.

This Wednesday come explore:
· the larger-than-life, walk-through scenes created by Red Grooms;
· experience the story with theater and music (30 minutes at 1pm and 3pm);
· see additional exhibits of paintings by Red Grooms, the Civl War and more.

Get a combined rail and admission discount ticket (Buy at Grand Central Terminal/Harlem-125th Street: adults, $17.25; seniors, $12.50; children 12-16, $14.25; children 5-11, $3; children under 5, free. See Metro North schedule from Grand Central, NYC to Glenwood Station & return. Price from other stations  & Schedule.)

 

*African Americans and the Civil War:  A Series will be presented at the Hudson River Museum from October 2016 – February 2017.  There are seven performances, See below for full schedule and download in PDF format.

Sun. October 16: 1 and 3pm, Gallery (Two 30-minute performances)
Mr. Lincoln in Peekskill
Members from The Hills’ Methodist-Episcopal Zion Church of Colored People attend President Lincoln’s Peeksill speech.

Wed. October 19: 1:30 pm, Arts in the Afternoon
The Union & the Confederacy in Westchester
Simeon Tierce and his wife, residents of the African American Westchester community called “The Hills” reflect on Lincoln’s defeat in Westchester.

Sun. October 23: 1 and 3pm, Family Day (Two 30-minute performances)
Generals, Gentlemen and the Draft
Despite draft riots and heated opposition, Simeon Tierce of The Hills community decides to enlist.  Performance followed by talk/Q&A about the general terms of conscription and the Westchester Draft Riots.

Sun. November 13: 1 and 3pm, Gallery   (Two 30-minute performances)
Title:  Lady Spies and the Slave Grapevine
A formerly enslaved fugitive from Maryland describes her life as the lady’s maid of a secret Union sympathizer to her new friends in The Hills.

Sun. December 11: 1 and 3pm, Gallery
Fredrick Douglass, Freedman and Abolitionist
Frederick Douglass attends an Abolition meeting at the Methodist-Episcopal Zion Church of Colored People in The Hills. 

Sun. January 29: 1 and 3pm, Gallery (Two 30-minute performances)
A Road to Freedom:  Black Sailors and Soldiers
Letters from Sergeant Simeon Tierce of The Hills Community to his wife

Sun. February 12:  1 and 3pm, Gallery (Two 30-minute performances)
Harriet Tubman, Freedom Fighter and Civil War Hero
The Hills’ Methodist-Episcopal Zion Church of Colored People honor “Moses” Harriet Tubman after the Combahee River Raid

Download a schedule of all seven performances of African Americans and the Civil War:  A Series