Women in Jazz tell us all about their exhibition...Previously known as Womens Jazz Archive, Women in Jazz enjoys a national reputation for research and performance, as well as being an authority on Welsh cultural diversity and heritage internationally. The untold story of Women in Jazz is currently touring Wales in the STEPPING OUT exhibition; for more information contact Jane Minton at Women in Jazz - Tel: 01792 456666, or email enquiries@womeninjazzswansea.org.uk.
Some stories from STEPPING OUT:
JESSIE DONALDSON
Jessie Donaldson, Swansea's anti-slavery campaigner, emigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio at the age of 57 and ran a safe house for fugitive slaves from 1856-1866, on the banks of the Ohio River. Cincinnati was the first stop to freedom across from the slave holding Plantation State of Kentucky. Music was an integral part of abolitionist and anti-slavery campaigns, used to unite members and attract new converts. Some fugitive slaves such as William Brown compiled collections of songs for songbooks. Frederick Douglass, a friend of Jessie's, was celebrated in sheet music. Some Plantation melodies celebrated by Paul Robeson, such as those by Stephen Collins Foster, were sympathetically written by whites and depicted the slaves experience to engender compassion for their plight.
Another friend of Jessies, William Lloyd Garrison the Abolitionist campaigner, used well-known music such as 'Auld Lang Syne', adding stirring lyrics to rouse audiences and attract new members to the cause:
Lyrics sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne:
I am An Abolitionist
Then urge me not to pause;
For joyfully do I enlist
In Freedoms sacred cause.
A nobler strife the world neer saw,
Though enslaved to disenthral;
I am a solider for the war,
Whatever may befall.
To contact Jen Wilson or Jane Miton at Women In Jazz you can email them at:
enquiries@womeninjazzswansea.org.uk.
