Uncover the legacy and impact of Boston’s Black Pullman Porters.
Experience the power of musical storytelling alongside a dynamic panel discussion as we honor the legacy and impact of Boston’s Black Pullman Porters. This event brings history to life, celebrating the voices, contributions, and lasting influence of these trailblazers through meaningful dialogue and shared narratives.
Leading this dialogue are distinguished speakers, including Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music at Harvard University; and Angela Tate, Chief Curator and Director of Collections at the Museum of African American History.
Step into this powerful exchange of history and perspective and help carry these stories forward.
Rhiannon Giddens has made a singular, iconic career out of stretching her brand of folk music, with its miles-deep historical roots and contemporary sensibilities, into just about every field imaginable. A two-time GRAMMY Award-winning singer and multi-instrumentalist, MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, Pulitzer Prize winner, and composer of opera, ballet, and film, Giddens has centered her work around the mission of lifting up people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been overlooked or erased, and advocating for a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins through art.
Angela Tate is an historian currently serving as the chief curator and director of collections at the Museum of African American History Boston | Nantucket (MAAH).
She has served as Interim Dean of Arts and Humanities at Harvard and chair of the Department of Music. Monson is the author of Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa (Oxford University Press, 2007), winner of the Woody Guthrie Award of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music; Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996) winner of the Irving Lowens Book Award of the Society for American Music; and an edited a volume entitled the African Diaspora: A Musical Perspective (Garland/Routledge 2000).
Paris Alston is the host of GBH News Rooted. She was previously co-host of Morning Edition and The Wake Up podcast at GBH News. Feedback? Questions? Story ideas? Reach out to Paris at paris.alston@gbh.org.
