The Prayers of Black Folks: Steph Davis and Jenny Oliver Music/Dance
Schedule
Sun Mar 30 2025 at 04:00 pm to 05:30 pm
UTC-04:00Location
St. Augustine's African Orthodox Church | Cambridge, MA
About this Event
Black History in Action for Cambridgeport (BHAC) is proudly hosting The Prayers of Black Folks: Steph Davis and Jenny Oliver, a music and dance performance.
Steph Davis is a marimbist and cultural activist. Their music engages traditions, epistemologies, and aesthetics from the African diaspora as means for uncovering truthful historiographies, finding creative self-actualization, and reaching for collective liberation.
Hailed by The Washington Post as a "captivating" performer who brings "bright humanity and expressive depth" to contemporary music, Steph is a marimba soloist and chamber musician touring throughout the United States. Integrating Black and Western European classical music, traditional African American spirituals, and Ghanaian gyil songs, their performances explore the cultural and political landscape of the African diaspora.
Through their arrangements and commissions, Steph has contributed over 20 works by Black composers to the marimba's solo and chamber repertoire. They have premiered works by Alissa Voth, Damien Geter, and Pamela Z, among others.
A researcher and scholar of African American music, Steph is a teaching artist with Castle of our Skins, a Black arts institution. They are also an instructor of composition, contemporary music, and core studies at the Boston Conservatory.
Learn more about Steph Davis by visiting https://www.stephdavismusic.com.
“The Prayers of Black Folk” is my artistic response to the belief that all the prayers of our ancestors will be answered in time. The title also sits in the powerful lineage of W.E.B. Du Bois’ classic work, “The Souls of Black Folk.” Our ancestor’s Prayers were prayed in various African languages, uttered on cramped slave ships, uttered on this land, too. Prayers for freedom, life, truth, justice, community, family, home, health, strength, humanity, songs, and many other things. Their prayers protect and encourage me to live out my purpose in music. “The Prayers of Black Folk” embodies the deeply spiritual underpinnings of Black queer identities.
We hope you will join us for this sensational performance!
Where is it happening?
St. Augustine's African Orthodox Church, 137 Allston Street, Cambridge, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
