DC emancipation and the vote
Thanks to all who supported our production of Voices of Zion: The Black Georgetown Cemeteries Project last May 2022. The project was very successful in its initial iteration.
We have now launched the next phase to further develop this project that we are calling DC Emancipation and The Right to Vote.
We hope you will follow and support the development of this project as we work to premiere the opera in April 2025 with full orchestra and staging in celebration of DC Emancipation Day (April 16.).
No story is more important, but still relatively unknown to the greater Washington community and the nation, than the story of DC Emancipation (nine months earlier than Lincoln’s Proclamation of 1863) and the subsequent national election, where the first African American males voted in Rose Park, in the then richly populated Black Georgetown neighborhood.
Company member Ronald "Trey" Walton II is our composer for this new work, which will incorporate musical elements from his original work on Voices of Zion. Walton’s music draws from classical music traditions and training, but he also has an ear tuned to the rhythms and energy of today’s young audiences.
Music Director Evelyn Simpson Curenton, a nationally revered musician who is steeped in the tradition of historic Black church music, will also lead piano/vocal score workshop readings during the development period.
Dr. Anita Gonzalez, Professor of Performing Arts/African American Studies at Georgetown University and co-Founder/Leader of the school’s Racial Justice Institute joins us as Choreographer.
The opera DC Emancipation and The Vote will serve as a Bridges-Across-the-River project, serving to unite our racially and economically divided city, by bringing opportunities for the community to understand more fully the historical significance of the many contributions by African Americans. Read More on our webpage HERE.