On Juneteenth, people come together to commemorate not just a declaration of freedom but its arrival in spaces that were isolated from news, transformation, and vibrancy. Artists – poets, musicians, sculptors and more – have carried the history of enslavement into collective memory for over a century, renewing the call to liberation in each generation. This talk will consider collaborations between Black poets and concert musicians who have long practiced this tradition. Reaching from the Jubilee Singers of Fisk, Hampton, and Tuskegee through the many settings of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poetry, across songs with lyrics of the Harlem Renaissance, it will arrive at contemporary works, including Jaji’s own lyrics based on fugitive slave advertisements which Shawn Okpebholo set to music in his Grammy-nominated piece, Songs in Flight. The relationships forged between poet and composer, singers and accompanists, audience and performers, and even forums such as this Juneteenth gathering continue to animate the duty to memory, le devoir de memoire, a testament to the relevance of this holiday 250 years after the founding of the United States. The impact of slavery was felt across the Americas, and not only the coasts but also the interior of Africa, and networks spanning Europe and Asia. It is fitting that the music considered emerges from all of these sites. 

Professor Tsitsi Jaji, Ph.D. is the Helen L. Bevington Associate Professor of Modern Poetry at Duke University, where she teaches in the English and the African & African American Studies departments. Her research encompasses global Black literary and cultural studies, and has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, and National Humanities Center, among others. Jaji moved to the U.S. from her native Zimbabwe to study piano performance at Oberlin Conservatory. Collaborating with singers there ignited her interest in artistic synergies between poetry and music, which appears on albums including Songs in Flight and Visions. She is the author of two poetry collections -- Beating the Graves and Mother Tongues, which reflect on kinship, diaspora, powerful women, and climate concerns. Her award-winning book, Africa in Stereo: Music, Modernism and Pan-African Solidarity traces how exchanges between African American, Ghanaian, Senegalese and South African artists shaped political liberation projects. 

About Juneteenth: Juneteenth is a holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans; it is observed annually on June 19. The date marks the anniversary of the proclamation of freedom for slaves in Texas in 1865. The name Juneteenth is the blending of the words "June" and "nineteenth".

We cordially invite you to join us for a reception after the lecture and discussion!

This event will be held in English. 

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We cordially thank the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies and the North American Studies Program at the University of Bonn for their cooperation. This event is kindly supported by the Federal Foreign Office.