1. |
Are you Ready?
02:49
|
|||
Are you ready?
Please get ready.
I tell a tale that's not pretty but real.
Are you ready?
Please get ready.
I bring you tidings from letters without seal.
Phillis Wheatley a slave celebrity in her time.
Obour Tanner her fellow slave in a friendship sublime.
Are you ready?
Please get ready.
I tell a tale that's not pretty but real.
Are you ready?
Please get ready.
I bring you tidings from letters without seal.
Get ready...
Two little girls, friends fast
met some say on a ship from Africa last
Not a ferry that goes to a fro
Not a cruise ship where the lucky may go
But a slave ship with Africans packed
Head to foot; chained leg to leg;
The sick beside the dying,
The dying beside the dead
Are you ready?
Little one and medium ones
Black ones and brown ones
pink ones and tan ones
Frail ones and sound ones.
Little ones and medium ones
Black ones and brown ones
Pink ones and tan ones
Frail ones and sound ones
Please get ready
The tale I tell for you to hear
Please get ready
Of two little girls without parents near
Please get ready
The tale I tell for you to hear
Please get ready
Of two little girls without parents near
Please get ready
Phillis Wheatley, a slave celebrity in her time
Obour Tanner, her fellow slave in a friendship sublime
You,
Gather round.
|
||||
2. |
Motherless Child
01:22
|
|||
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
A long way from home.
|
||||
3. |
||||
It is early in 1761. Two African girls are stolen from their homes and families. They miraculously survive the forced march from the interior of West Africa to the dungeons where they are chained underground in the dark for weeks until a slave ship comes to buy them in exchange for rum and guns. They move from the dungeon to a watery prison in the hold of a ship called “Phillis.” Having never sailed before, they get sick from the sway of the boat and from the filth on the Phillis. They vomit on each other. They defecate on each other. They hear women and children wailing and screaming; some praying for death. Sometimes they are led on deck where they must move, dance or be whipped. One little girl, the one with no front teeth begins to fade. The other girl holds her hand tightly and hardens her will. She will not die.
|
||||
4. |
||||
“On Being Brought from Africa to America”
Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Savior too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
“Their colour is a diabolic die.”
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin'd and join the angelic train.
|
||||
5. |
Oh Freedom!
02:17
|
|||
Oh, Freedom.
Oh, Freedom.
Oh, Freedom
over me
over me
And before I'd be a slave
I'll be buried in my grave
and go on to my Lord
and be free!
|
||||
6. |
||||
7. |
||||
8. |
||||
“Take him, ye wretched, for your only good,
Take him ye starving sinners, for your food;
Ye thirsty come to this life giving stream,
Ye preachers, take him for your joyful theme;
Take him my dear Americans, he said,
Be your complaints on his kind bosom laid:
Take him ye Africans, he longs for you,
Impartial Savior is his due:
Washd in the fountain of redeeming blood,
You shall be sons and kings, and priests to God.”
|
||||
9. |
||||
Have you got good religion?
Certainly Lord!
Have you got good religion?
Certainly Lord!
Certainly, Certainly Certainly Lord!
Certainly, Certainly Certainly Lord!
Certainly, Certainly Certainly Lord!
|
||||
10. |
||||
11. |
Farewell to America
00:44
|
|||
Susanna mourns, nor can I bear
To see the crystal show'r,
Or mark the tender falling tear
At sad departure's hour;
Not unregarding can I see
Her soul with grief opprest:
But let no sighs, no groans for me,
Steal from her pensive breast.
|
||||
12. |
||||
13. |
||||
Dear Obour,
I have lately met with a great trial in the death of my mistress. Let us imagine the loss of a Parent, Sister or Brother, the tenderness of all these were united, in her, -- I was a poor little outcast & stranger when she took me in, not only into her house but in her most tender affections.
I was treated by her more like her child than her servant, no opportunity was left unimprov'd, of giving me the best of advice, but in terms how tender!
|
||||
14. |
I know I Been Changed
02:03
|
|||
I know I been Changed
I know I been changed
I know I been changed
The angels in heaven
done changed my name.
|
||||
15. |
Phillis: The Bold
00:30
|
|||
16. |
||||
17. |
||||
18. |
||||
19. |
Phillis Lives On!
00:38
|
|||
20. |
Pass it on!
01:02
|
Amanda Kemp Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Ready to change the world? Let's do it together--one song, one poem, one conversation, one breath at a time. I'm a spoken
word musical artist in deep apprenticeship to earth mama. I'm looking to co-create immersive experiences that bring together the natural world, music, poetry, justice and healing.
www.dramandakemp for more.
... more
Streaming and Download help
If you like Amanda Kemp, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp