Sankofa Song Series
The New Negro Spiritual Project
SANKOFA is an African principle of carrying the best pieces of our past into the present to ensure we build a solid future. It’s based on the proverb of Ghana’s Ashanti Akan tribe, “it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot“.
The SANKOFA SONG SERIES is an Informational – Instigation-al – Inspirational Conversation about identity and belonging in a new paradigm of Freedom....A fully interactive experience that blends Music, Images, Oratorio and Community Singing (and sometimes Dancing) to refresh and ignite hope and optimism, while focusing intently on an organized response to the emerging threats to our Democracy.
The “New-Negro-Spiritual” Paradigm: An examination of the Negro-Spiritual Tradition through a trans-optic* lens that focuses beyond the surface of its cultural origin to investigate:
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The nature of the shell that nurtured the Pearl of that Tradition
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The paradox of that Pearl
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The relevance of all that on humanity today.
* – Trans-optic is “Microscopic with a Spiritual, Scientific and Metaphysical tint of perspective.”
We will illustrate the transposition of the power of the Negro Spiritual Tradition into a Present Day Framing of Freedom and Deliverance.
The presentation of Spiritual – Historical and Prophetic Propositions that reach beyond Culture and Race…to look into the New Face of Freedom…and Seeing Ourselves…as One.
"It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot".
-Proverb of Ghana's Ashanti Akan Tribe
SERIES EDITIONS
There have been multiple editions of the Sankofa Song Series. This includes:
The Ice Age Edition, Resurrection Paradigm Edition, and the, Juneteenth Edition.
ICE AGE
RESURRECTION
PARADIGM
JUNETEENTH
Mission Statement
THE NEW NEGRO SPIRITUAL PROJECT
THE NEW NEGRO SPIRITUAL PROJECT is a collection of original songs and arrangements that celebrate the root and the fruit of the Traditional Negro Spiritual, transposing it from the contextual focus of “enslaved Africans in America” into a contemporarily relevant focus. This transposition represents an evolution of the original Spirit and Message of the Traditional Negro Spiritual into a Message of Freedom that speaks to the present-day context, with a Universal Spiritual Relevance for All Humanity. This new music fuses the Traditional Negro Spiritual medium with elements of jazz, Gospel, and Classical idioms, emerging as a uniquely blended expression of Hope, Promise, Divine Connection, and Resurrection.
We are raising funds for the recording, mixing, mastering, digital promotion, and live presentation and release of this music for:
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Educating students of all ages about the history of the Negro Spiritual and the presence of its DNA within all of the music that exists today;
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Creating a conversational forum for The Issues of Race and Freedom in America through the translation of
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the Negro Spiritual message and substance into a wider frame of contemporary context that includes a Social, Political, Historic, Economic, and Faith-Based focus; Creating a new context for pursuing and embodying Freedom within the United States of America context and beyond.
