Since Poetry Project, Canada's former Poet Laureate George Elliott Clarke has continued to commission new songs from me, this time centered more specifically around poets of color, especially from the Atlantic region of Canada. This new project has been dubbed by George "Saltwater Spirituals & Uppity Blues" and has been presented in Feb. 2024, Feb. 2025, and Feb. 2026 at the Halifax Central Library, with singers Shanice Skinner and Dean Bowman. Most recently, we performed some of these 14 new songs at the "Emancipation Proclamation!" event in Fredericton, NB at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery:
Here are two selections from the Fredericton concert:
God Struck Down
Africville
The complete “Emancipation Proclamation!” concert at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, NB (open in YouTube to access direct links beneath the video):
D.D. Jackson