More than 100 Aurora grade-schoolers got a two-concert treat Wednesday — one of Negro spirituals and the other of African drum music — at the Fox Arts Center in Aurora as part of Black History Month celebrations.
Organized by the Colorado Folk Arts Council, students from Sunrise and Independence elementary schools gleefully clapped in time as 10 a cappella singers from the group Grand Design sang American gospel and Negro spiritual songs, including “Deep River,” “Let My People Go,” “Sweet Chariot” and “Wade in the Water.”
“The Negro spirituals were part of the slavery culture,” Barbara Shannon-Banister, leader of Grand Design, told the children between songs. “Often they had a message, like the song ‘Steal Away,’ which gives a message to one of the slaves that it’s his turn to steal away down to the river, that someone is going to pick you up tonight.”
The singing was followed by a riveting performance on African drums by the troupe Kusogea Nobi, playing rhythms from Africa.
Afterward, most kids wanted to know whether it hurt the drummers’ hands to slap the drums so fast.
Black History Month encompasses notable dates such as Feb. 3, 1870, when the 15th Amendment gave voting rights to black men; Feb. 12, 1909, when the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded; and Feb. 1, 1960, when black students began the civil-rights movement by sitting at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C.
In Colorado, celebrations will include the Buffalo Soldiers’ youth group re-enactment, including a visit by a 94-year-old original Buffalo Soldier at the Aurora History Museum, at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Other sites that celebrate black heritage include the Black American West Museum, 3091 California St., 303-482-2242; the Stiles African American Heritage Center, 2607 Glenarm Place, 303-294-0597; the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, 2401 Welton St., 720-865-2401; and Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center & Cafe, 2836 Welton St., 303-297-0823.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
