Wednesday Folk Traditions Presents The Amherst Area Gospel Choir
PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON FOUNDATION, INC.
130 RIVER DRIVE HADLEY MA 01035
WEDNESDAY FOLK TRADITIONS at the
PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM CONTINUES ITS 43rd SEASON WITH
The Amherst Area Gospel Choir
presenting the 12th annual Horace Clarence Boyer Memorial Gospel Concert
JUNE 19, 2024
HADLEY—The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum continues the 43rd season of Wednesday Folk Traditions concert series on Wednesday, June 19th with The Amherst Area Gospel Choir presenting the 12th annual Horace Clarence Boyer Memorial Gospel Concert with a compilation of songs deriving from slave spirituals, African Diaspora, Boyer’s music, and contemporary pieces in celebration of Juneteenth, which recognises the Emancipation Proclamation. This and all other performances are held Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm in the Sunken Garden at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, 130 River Drive, Route 47, Hadley MA 01035. Admission is $12, $2 for children 16 and under. Picnickers are welcome on the museum’s grounds starting at 5:00 pm. The museum and its grounds are a smoke-free site. For further information please call (413) 584-4699 or view www.pphmuseum.org.
The Amherst Area Gospel Choir was created to promote a gospel singing community that preserves and advances Black gospel music in its spiritual and artistic form. The choir was featured in our Stirring the Ashes program in 2023, commemorating the lives of the six enslaved people who lived and labored on the property.
This annual memorial performance commemorates the life and work of the late Horace Clarence Boyer, a beloved and internationally acclaimed musician and scholar of gospel music. Dr. Boyer, who for 25 years presented an annual gospel performance at the museum, was a pivotal member of the Pioneer Valley musical community, a long-time professor at UMass, and minister of music at the Goodwin Memorial African Methodist Episcopalian Church. Boyer often performed with the groups he introduced, and he cited as part of his mission nurturing Gospel here in the Valley and throughout the world. The museum aims to further that goal with this memorial series, continuing the tradition he supported and preserving his legacy
Juneteenth is a federal holiday held in remembrance of the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation and the official end of slavery after the American Civil War. June 19th is commemorated as a day to uplift African American voices and remember America’s sordid past and present with the struggle for African American civil rights, and to seek greater equity and inclusion.
Wednesday Folk Traditions continues on June 26th with Talamana Trio, who create cosmic rhythm and order in a world fusion ensemble performing original songs, incorporating elements of Indian and Middle Eastern music with jazz and folk music, based on the lyrics of visionary poets.
Wednesday Folk Traditions is funded, in part, by grants from The Adams Foundation, the Amherst and Hadley Cultural Councils, local agencies funded by Massachusetts Cultural Council; Robinson and Cole; Easthampton Savings Bank; Gage-Wiley and Company, and with generous support from many local businesses.
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is located at 130 River Drive, Hadley MA on Route 47 just two miles north of the junction of Routes 9 and 47 North in Hadley. For information concerning tours or special events, phone (413) 584-4699 or check the museum website: www.pphmuseum.org
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation acknowledges that it occupies the unceded lands of the Nonotuck people. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House was built in 1752 by Moses and Elizabeth Porter and was central to the 600-acre farmstead known as “Forty Acres.” Today, the property is surrounded by over 350 acres of protected farmland, forest, and river frontage. The Museum portrays the activities of a wealthy and productive 18th-century household including numerous artisans, servants, and enslaved people who made "Forty Acres" an important social and commercial link in local, regional and national cultural and economic networks. Since 1799 there have been no structural changes to the house. In the 19th century the house evolved into a rural retreat for family and in the mid 20th century became an early example of historic preservation. The museum is listed on the National Historic Register and contains a collection of the belongings of seven generations of one extended Hadley family. Open May 18th through October 15th, Saturday through Wednesday. For more information check out our website at: www.pphmuseum.org or call the museum at (413) 584-4699.
PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM
WEDNESDAY FOLK TRADITIONS 2024
June 12th Tim Eriksen, leader in the “shape-note” tradition, experimentalist and ethnomusicologist, performs traditional ballads from the Appalachians to the Pioneer Valley and original pieces that have been described as “magical realism in song.”
“…a storyteller at heart, with a distinctive, unvarnished voice.” -Washington Post
June 19th Our 12th annual Horace Clarence Boyer Memorial Gospel Concert features The Amherst Area Gospel Choir who continue Boyer’s tradition of bringing gospel to all with a compilation of songs deriving from slave spirituals, African diaspora, Tommy Dorsey’s Big Band hits, Boyer’s original music, and contemporary pieces to celebrate Juneteenth.
June 26th The Talamana Trio create cosmic rhythm and order in a world fusion ensemble performing original songs, incorporating elements of Indian and Middle Eastern music with jazz and folk music, based on the lyrics of visionary poets. Musicians include Laila Salins on shruti, Jim Matus on laouta and Robert Markey on sitar.
July 23rd Stories of Slavery and Independence: Stopping Stones remembrances of Caesar Phelps and Margaret (Peg) Bowen, freedom songs, and a reading of Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" A free program offered in partnership with Ancestral Bridges & funded with a grant from MassHumanities.
July 10th Zikina - featuring Uganda native Gideon Ampeire, play an exciting fusion of Ugandan folk music with contemporary influences of traditional East African vocals and instruments including enanga, adungu, and kalimba. Mike Cardozo, Roston Kirk and Kade Parkin ensconce Gideon’s vocals within a sonic landscape that flows seamlessly from intense grooves to joyous dance beats to dreamy textures with Gideon’s vocals cutting powerfully through the fabric or floating lightly above
July 17th StompBoxTrio features Evelyn Harris, the powerhouse vocalist, former member of Sweet Honey In The Rock, and Grammy nominated composer performing with John Cabán on dobro and stompbox and Paul Kochanski on upright & electric bass and foot-percussion. The group explores the multicultural depths of 20th-century American blues, rock, and soul with some 21st-century mojo.
July 24th Jose Gonzales and Criollo Clasico- contemporary rhythms of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic led by one of today’s foremost exponents of Caribbean music, acclaimed for his original compositions featuring the cuatro. “Full of rhythms, flowing melodies and masterly guitar playing.” – Union News
July 31 Thea Hopkins, acclaimed singer songwriter and member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Martha's Vineyard, performs modern “Red Roots Americana,” the scope and reach of Indigenous music in the 21st century along with a sprinkling of traditional, timeless tribal artistry. Grand Prize Winner of the 22nd Great American Song Contest for her song, "The Ghost of Emmett Till"- “a stand out writer” The Washington Post
Wednesday Folk Traditions is funded, in part, by grants from The Adams Foundation; the Amherst and Hadley Cultural Councils, local agencies funded by Massachusetts Cultural Council; Robinson and Cole; Easthampton Savings Bank; Gage-Wiley and Company, and with generous support from many local businesses.
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