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Funding provided by:

Songs and Stories from the American Railroad

In partnership with:
Museum of African American History
With support from: Lowell Institute
Date and time
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
In-person:
Event begins at 6:30 PM

Hear a set of historic American and international songs interpreted by Silkroad performers and learn about the legacy and impact of Boston’s Black Pullman Porters.

Silkroad artistic director and Grammy award-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens leads a trio in a performance that demonstrates the power of musical storytelling. The event honors the legacy and impact of Boston’s Black Pullman Porters and brings history to life with the recognition of porter family members in attendance.

Family members of one Pullman Porter, George C. Greenidge, speak during the event. George's namesake, his great-nephew George "Chip" Greenidge, tells the story of discovering his uncle and finding his cousins, who he then welcomes up to the podium for brief comments.

Following the performance, Paris Alston, host of GBH's show Rooted, leads a response and discussion with Ingrid Monson, the Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music at Harvard University; Cliff Notez, an award-winning multi-digital media artist, musician, organizer & filmmaker, and Angela Tate, Chief Curator and Director of Collections at the Museum of African American History, and Rhiannon Giddens.

Performers:
Rhiannon Giddens, voice, banjo, fiddle
Sandeep Das, tabla
Niwel Tsumbu, guitar, voice

Songs performed:

  1. "Swannanoa Tunnel" Traditional, Arr. Rhiannon Giddens, Sandeep Das, Niwel Tsumbu
  2. "Pipi Donga" Traditional, arr. Rhiannon Giddens & Niwel Tsumbu
  3. "Have You Seen My Man" Cécile McLorin Salvant, Composer
  4. "Rainy Day" Traditional, arr. Wu Man
  5. "Milimo" Niwel Tsumbu, Composer
  6. "Steel Driving Man (John Henry)" Traditional, arr. Rhiannon Giddens

Support for Silkroad's Songs and Stories of American Railroad: The Legacy of Boston's Pullman Porter Communities is generously provided by Mass Humanities through their Expand Massachusetts Stories initiative.

An African American woman with long black hair and glasses wears red lipstick in a photo cropped at the shoulders
Angela Tate
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).
An African American man in a white shirt buttoned to the top with a brown suede hat against a white background with a yellow square directly behind his head
Cliff Notez
Cliff Notez is an award-winning Boston-based multimedia artist, musician, and cultural connector whose work moves fluidly across hip hop, jazz, folk, soul, and R&B.
A woman with blonde hair smiles at camera
Ingrid Monson
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).
New Alston.jpg
Paris Alston
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.
Headshot of a woman in an orange top against a blue background
Rhiannon Giddens
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.
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