In recognition of Black History Month, Lellingby Boyce performed a program titled “My Grandmother, The Great Migration, and African-American Spirituals” on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015 at the Davis Senior Center.
Boyce’s earliest public performances in Davis focused on African-American spirituals and African-American storytelling. Since then, she has presented recitals of art songs and operatic arias, and audience-participation programs of Broadway’s gems.
For this program, Boyce returns to African-American spirituals and enlists the audience in sing-alongs. But the story she tells this time is about her grandmother and the seminal historical event that dramatically altered her grandmother’s life.
This seminal event is known historically as the Great Migration, one of the largest internal migrations in U.S. history and one that has impacted our nation in ways historians are still deciphering.
Watch this richly tapestried presentation of history, personal memories and sing-alongs.