Harry T. Burleigh Society: Meet Professor Daphne Brooks: Keynote Speaker

Daphne Brooks

Meet Keynote Speaker
Professor Daphne Brooks

Daphne Brooks is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of African American Studies, Theater Studies, American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University. She is the keynote speaker for the “More than the Promise of the American Myth: Rethinking Burleigh and Sheppard in the Second Gilded Age.”

How did your entry point into black  feminist sonic archives lead you to  inquire about Ella Sheppard? My path to Ella Sheppard started with  one of her stunning  contemporaries, black feminist  journalist, novelist, uplift activist,  and former-concert soprano, Pauline  Hopkins. As editor of the Colored   American Magazine, Pauline  Hopkins covered the concerts of the  Fisk Jubilee Singers, and she  eventually wrote a serialized  novel, the lyrical, pan-Africanist epic  Of One Blood (1902-3) which traced  the mystic trials and tribulations  of a fictional Jubilee singer. What   intrigued me most about  Hopkins’ writing was her passion for  the music made by Ella  Sheppard and her fellow luminous  female vocalists who were  members of the first pioneering  troupe (women such as Maggie  Porter, Jennie Jackson, Mabel  Lewis and America Robinson).  Hopkins championed the virtuosic  complexities of these women’s  performances and their ability to  move and sway white audiences  to advocate for black  enfranchisement in the face of  post-Reconstruction racial  backlash. The kinds of questions  that I’ve been asking of the archive  have to do with the quotidian  details of both Hopkins and  Sheppard’s respective craft. How  might we imagine the nuances of  each woman’s aesthetic  preparation, the rigor of each  artist's study and training—to  write, to compose, to sing and  perform? Can we even imagine  how many hours went into  Sheppard’s rehearsals and  what those rehearsals entailed?  Can we envision how many  composition drafts of  works-in-progress that she  produced? Can we conjure  in our minds the ways that  these women may have sat  at their desks, their kitchen  tables, or on the couch in  their parlors late into the  night making art to liberate  a people? The intimate  artistic life (to borrow an  important formulation from  cultural historian Saidiya  Hartman) of Ella Sheppard’s  sonic world is something  that we might ponder as  we celebrate her enduring  legacies. More Than the Promise  of the American Myth:  Rethinking Burleigh  & Sheppard in the  Second Gilded Age March 3rd, 2019   May Room - Weill Terrace  Room, Carnegie Hall 9am - 3pm    The Harry T. Burleigh  Society's first academic  conference considers  Burleigh's and Sheppard's  impact on the concert  spiritual genre, the  historiographic limits of  composer biography,  Black art music  aesthetics, and the  liberatory capabilities  within the work of  Burleigh, Sheppard,  and their contemporaries.  Dr. Daphne Brooks  will deliver the keynote  address. Other speakers  include Dr. Louise  Toppin, baritone  Kenneth Overton, Dr.  Crystal deGregory and  descendants of Burleigh  and Sheppard.  Free and open to  the public. Registration  required by  Wednesday, February  27th at 12:00pm to  join us for lunch ($30)  Fisk Jubilee Singers®  Sing Harry T. Burleigh  Spirituals March 2nd 2019 Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall 7:30pm    The Harry T. Burleigh Society  and the Fisk Jubilee  Singers® join in a  historic performance  celebrating Ella Sheppard  (1851–1915), an original  Fisk Jubilee Singer, and  Harry T. Burleigh (1866– 1949), leaders of the  concert spiritual  tradition. The Fisk  Jubilee Singers® will  perform the music  of these under-heard  cultural leaders, and  make calls for freedom. Group ticket sales  are now available.  Call the Carnegie  Group Sales office  during normal business  hours at (212)  903-9705 or  email them at  groupsales@ carnegiehall.org for  $25 tickets in groups  of 10 or more.