Ramón Bryant Braxton, Artistic Director & Conductor for the annual concert series Songs of Black Folk held at The Pareamount Theatre in Seattle, which celebrates Juneteenth and highlights themes of Black freedom, faith, and culture.
The film SONGS OF BLACK FOLKS is sublime cinematic story telling about the origins of the Pacific Northwest’s Songs of Black Folk Symphony & Chorus musical production that honors and celebrates the rich musical traditions that originated in Africa: Africans swept up in the slave trade endured its horrors and in the course of that reality that experience became a transcendent source of strength and resistance for Black folks in America.
From the rise of Negro Spirituals to the evolution of blues, jazz, gospel, R&B, hip-hop, and spoken word, the film showcases how Black music has shaped and influenced culture worldwide. Though the historical and cultural accounting in this magnificent story has a West Coast Seattle-Tacoma perspective, it’s easy to see how it can resonate across the country if not the globe.
Songs of Black Folk 2025 concert is a testament to the resilience of a people who have turned struggle into song. Music is the connection for fight for freedom, justice, and dignity of the shared struggles of marginalized communities, reminding all of the enduring power of art to inspire change.
“It will be,” says a key film voice about the first Songs of Black Folk musical production, “the single greatest concentration of elite African American musical talent on one stage anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.”
“The Songs of Black Folk is the depiction of the best of black Folks, Yes, you affirm my whole life. My grandmother, my grandfather, yes. There’s a picture there of who we are at our best. Not some stereotype or caricature. Yes. Sons of Black folk will literally generate generations of musicians and artists because they – see it.”
Scheduled Screenings
Saturday, June 7, 2:30 p.m. Shorts Theater at Spring Studios. Friday June 13 at 9 p.m. Shorts Theater at Spring Studios. Sunday June 15, at 3:15 p.m. AMC 19th St. East 6.
Click Here for Part 2: The Who, What, Where, When, Why & Wow
the WORD Editor, Reviewer, Gregg W. Morris