Fortune's Bones
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- Regular: $40
- Subscriber / UMD Faculty & Staff: $32
- Senior Citizen / UMD Alumni Association: $35
- Students / Youth: $9
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- Download the program [PDF format]
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Pre-Performance Discussion
FORTUNE'S BONES
February 25 & 26
Learn more about the Fortune's Bones project, including blog posts and a complete event list.
FORTUNE'S BONES: THE MANUMISSION REQUIEM
- Dr. Ysaye Barnwell, curator & composer
- Marilyn Nelson, poet & narrator
- Dr. Stanley Thurston, music director
- WPAS Men and Women of the Gospel Choir
- Heritage Signature Chorale
- African Drumming Ensemble
- Shannon Finney, contralto
- VaShawn McIlwain, baritone
Who was Fortune?
In life, he was an African-American slave who served a doctor in post-Colonial Waterbury, Connecticut. In death, he became a medical specimen and later a walk-by exhibit at the Mattatuck Museum, a skeleton known only as "Larry."
But Fortune was also a husband, father and human being.
In 2004, Connecticut poet-laureate Marilyn Nelson published Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem, a book-length poem commissioned by the African American History Project Committee in Waterbury. Subsequently, the Waterbury symphony commissioned Dr. Ysaye Barnwell to set the text to music.
The Fortune's Bones cantata, performed by a full symphony, two choirs, seven soloists and a chorus of African bells, is the centerpiece of a performance that celebrates the fullness of African-American life. The program will also include spirituals.
Together, the artists will metaphorically set Fortune's bones to rest.
As Dr. Barnwell notes, "God's blessings on Fortune ... da bell done rung."
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and by support from the Prince George's Arts and Humanities Council.
This project was also made possible by a grant from the Maryland Humanities Council, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Maryland Humanities Council.
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