Title: Kumbaya: Stories of an African American Spiritual
Speaker: John Fenn, Stephen Winick, Judith Gray, Todd Harvey, Jennifer Cutting, Joe Hickerson, Griffin Lotson, Henry Wylie, Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer, Bessie Jones, Ethel Best, McIntosh County Shouters, Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters, The Folksmiths, Paul Williams, Pete Seeger
Series: Folklife Today
Date: January 22, 2019
Running Time: 41:14 minutes
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Description:
With the help of AFC archivists, Stephen Winick and John Fenn reveal the history of a great work of African American folk creativity: the spiritual "Kumbaya" or "Come By Here." You'll hear how it was collected from oral tradition in Georgia and North Carolina in the 1920s, and hear it become the first State Historical Song of Georgia on the floor of the Georgia State Senate. You'll find out how the words "come by here," sung in a regional dialect, came to be spelled "Kumbaya" around the world. You'll hear how some people came to believe the song was written by a white evangelist from New York, while others thought it came to America from Angola. And you'll enjoy performances and commentary from Grammy-winning recording artists, expert archivists, and self-described library nerds. This is the story that got the Folklife Today blog covered by the New York Times!
For full audio of items excerpted in the podcast, and more great folklife content, visit the Folklife Today blog.
