The American Baroque Orchestra Presents
Little Liberia!
Music from their Front Porch
Streaming on social media started Saturday, November 7th!
Video Recording at the Housatonic Museum of Art (HMA), Bridgeport, Connecticut
In collaboration with the HMA's Little Liberia exhibit
Mark Bailey, artistic director, Kevin Sherwin, assoc. artistic director, Edson Scheid, concertmaster
The American Baroque Orchestra performs "Little Liberia: Music from their Front Porch," a program that brings together the history of Bridgeport's Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses with music of the 17th through 19th centuries, highlighting overlooked composers of African descent. The program is in partnership with the Housantonic Museum of Art, and their Little Liberia exhibit.
Little Liberia was a neighborhood in Bridgeport, Connecticut, settled in the early 19th century, comprising freed blacks, runaway enslaved persons from southern states, and individuals from Native American tribes in Connecticut. On the front porch of the houses that made up Little Liberia, community members discussed local politics, religion, and the latest developments in the town. The town became renowned in its time as a safe haven, projecting a global vision of equality in the 19th century and onward.
This program of online performances imagines the intersection between the free black community that built Bridgeport's Little Liberia in the early 19th century, and composers of African descent from America and abroad. The concert will include music and melodies from the historic Little Liberia community, as well as composers including Joseph Bologne (1745-1799), José Mauricio Nunes Garcia (1767-1830), Rafael Antonio Castellanos (1725-1791) and Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780), who was also the first person of African heritage to vote in a British election.