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You are here: Home / Archives for Black Sailors

Black Sailors

New Zealand Tour

Ceremony for twice emancipated Edmund Moody. He escaped slavery and boarded a RI whaler in 1862; then escaped the whaler in New Zealand in 1864. St Andrew’s Church, Mangonui, NZ. Historian and vocalist Vienna Carroll made Edmund Moody come alive for all.

Ceremony for twice emancipated Edmund Moody. He escaped slavery and boarded a RI whaler in 1862; then escaped the whaler in New Zealand in 1864. St Andrew’s Church, Mangonui, NZ
The Barn, Taipa, NA
Dunedin Folk Club
Free Palestine!

Mon., Feb. 18th, 1 pm, Stories & Songs of Pre-Civil War Black Sailors, Centereach, Long Island

Vienna Carroll and Keith Johnston
Stories and Songs of Pre-Civil War Black Sailors
Monday, February 18, 2019, 1 pm

Middle County Library
101 Eastwood Blvd, Centereach, Long Island, NY 11720

Directions by Car: 
Exit #62 North (Nicolls Road) off Long Island Expressway. Go North on Nicolls Road to Middle Country Road (Route 25). Take the exit ramp on your right for Smithtown (West). At the end of exit ramp, make left onto Route 25. Continue 6/10 mile to Eastwood Boulevard. Turn right at light (across from Burger King) and continue 4/10 mile to MCPL-Centereach on the left.

Directions by Train:
Take the Long Island Railroad to Ronkonkoma station; see schedule. Taxis are available at the LIRR station and the Centereach building is approximately 15 miles away.
Train schedule

Train Fares

Stories and Songs of Pre-Civil War Sailors

Shallow Brown: A Staged Reading on October 26th in Harlem

Shallow Brown: Thessalonia and the Free Sailor
A Staged Reading

October 26, 2018
6 – 8 pm

Langston Hughes House
20 E. 127th Street
Harlem, NY


Take 2/3 to 125th St./Malcolm X Blvd. or 4,5,6 to 125th St./Lexington

Shallow Brown, a play by Vienna Carroll

Stories & Sea Shanties of Antebellum Black Sailors

Hear Vienna Carroll & Keith Johnston Perform Sea Shanties Sang by Black Sailors in Antebellum Times

Saturday, October 27, 2018
4 pm to 6 pm
(come early for more fun, read to bottom)
Gowanus Dredgers’ Boathouse

125-153 2nd Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Nearest subways:
G to Carroll St. (three avenues walk)
R to Union Street (two avenues & three blocks walk)
2,3,4,5,B,D,Q,R to Atlantic Terminal/Barclay’s Center (three avenues & 13 blocks walk)

Come early! This event is part of the Gowanus Oktoberfest
2 – 6pm
Free local food samples
Free canoeing
Kid-friendly
Quality beer and food available for purchase

SHALLOW BROWN: Thessalonia and the Free Sailor. New play!

Shallow Brown, a play by Vienna CarrollIn SHALLOW BROWN, Thessalonia falls hard for a free sailor, one of the many who smuggles pages of the radical Black self-defense manifesto, “David Walker’s Appeal”, from Boston up and down the eastern seaboard in 1829. She helps her serious father circulate the prohibited document. Two short years later, her suspicions about her dad are confirmed. He turns out to be a respected organizer in the Nat Turner rebellion of 1831.

HISTORY

Prior to the Civil War, when the primary channel of transport was via the water, one in five boatmen and sailors in the US were Black. Largely independent, both enslaved and free, and often with crews of their own, these Black men moved goods through Northern and Southern US ports and along international waterways.

Their skill and particular knowledge afforded them respect and stature otherwise unknown on land.  An under-appreciated axis of resistance, they brought back stories to their communities of how other colored people lived, they smuggled freedom documents and they helped runaways escape.

As was common in that era, they created sea chanteys songs to help them in their daily chores, to lighten their hearts and to document their experiences.

We’re very excited to be part of the upcoming Langston Hughes Playwright Showcase.  May 3, 2019 7pm
20 East 127th St (between 5th and Madison) Stay tuned for more details.
Shallow Brown, a play by writer Vienna CarrollPast Shows:

Friday, May 25, 2018: 9 pm
Lower East Side Festival of the Arts
Theater for the New City, NYC
155 First Avenue (bet. 9th & 10th Sts)
New York, NY 10003
http://theaterforthenewcity.net

Sat., June 9, 2018: 11 – 11:45 am
(entire day begins at 8:30 am)
Excerpt AND Research Findings
Symposium, 39th Annual Sea Music Festival
Mystic Seaport, CT
https://mysticseaport.org/event/sea-music-festival/

Get Vienna’s full-sized flyer.

More performances to come!

U.S. Colored Troops: Black Sailors and Soldiers

Dalyce Newby- Black Sailor in the Civil War
Dalyce Newby- Black Sailor in the Civil War

Sun. January 29: 1pm & 3 pm (two 30-minute shows)
Sunday Stories: A Civil War Series (Play 6 of 7)
“U.S. Colored Troops: Black Sailors and Soldiers“
Hudson River Museum
511 Warburton Avenue
Yonkers, NY directions/map
Weds. hours: Noon – 5pm; 914-963-4550, hrm.org.
Adults  $6; Seniors (62+): $4; Members Free

With Storyteller and Singer Vienna Carroll 

  • Corp. Henry Gaither- 39th Colored Infantry
  • 33d United States Colored Troops
  • Dalyce Newby civil war sailor
  • 1st Sgt. Nimrod Burke
  • uss-hunchback-crew
  • African American sailor in Union uniform

This  presentation, told through story and song, 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.

This Sunday afternoon come explore:
· the larger-than-life, walk-through scenes created by Red Grooms;
· experience the Multimedia Play; and,
· Docent Tours of exhibit Red Grooms: The Blue and The Gray 

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.

Download flyer of all seven shows in this series The Union & the Confederacy in Westchester: African Americans and the Civil War

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ViennaCarrollMusic.com - Harlem Field Recordings CD
ViennasHerbalCompounds.com - Store
ShallowBrown.com - Black Sailors and the Underground Railroad
SinginWidASword - A family escapes slavery together
UndergroundRailroadFestival.org - 1st NYC UGRR Festival and Juneteenth Celebration

NYSCA

Recent Posts

  • Hear Vienna Carroll at The Bitter End!
  • New Zealand Tour
  • Vienna Carroll performs for Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza
  • Vienna Carroll Sings the Blues
  • Women Make A Way Outta No Way: Vienna Carroll and The Folk perform at Cooper Union

Say It Loud: I’m Black & I’m Proud!

Quakers helped. Mostly, Black people Freed Ourselves through the "Slave Grapevine." Watch the story of African Queens kidnapped, enslaved and resisting. Plus, U.S. Colored Troops and the Slave Grapevine in the Black freedom struggle in the U.S.

Read a brief history of slavery and African rebellions in America freeing ourselves.

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