THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Friday, February 21, 1997 TAG: 9702210866 SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: BY CAROLE O'KEEFE, CORRESPONDENT LENGTH: 67 lines
History has it that in 1619, 20 blacks settled at Weyanoke, in what is now Charles City County, and became the first African community in an English-speaking colony in North America.
This month, a group dedicated to preserving the culture and history of the time through music and literature will perform as Legacy of Weyanoke, an a cappella ensemble specializing in folk music that has as its roots songs of Africans, Indians and Europeans settling here to escape religious persecution.
``The conversion from African to African American occurred in British America,'' Hugh Harrell III said. He is managing director of Legacy of Weyanoke and he and his wife, Anita, sing with the group.
Besides those two influences, the music also was colored by the rhythmically danced, chanted and drummed music of the Indians, the Gullah of the Georgia Sea Island residents and the calypso of the West Indian Islands, to name a few.
Harrell and his wife, plus Leonard J. Tucker, not touring now because of his health, formed Legacy of Weyanoke in 1990 to perform the music that came about as Africans left their native country and traveled, not by choice, to South America, the Caribbean and the southern United States, adding to their own musical styles at each stop.
In addition to performing, the group's duties include research, preservation and education. Members are working to raise money for the proposed Weyanoke Center planned for Charles City County, not far from that first settlement.
The center will have educational and research programs that bring to life the combined African, Indian and European cultures.
The performance in Suffolk will likely include songs, chants, anthems, poetry and storytelling. Songs will include folk spirituals, work songs and what Harrell called, ``field hollers.'' He said the hollers became the primary communication between slave workers in distant fields, sometimes signaling danger, almost always in coded forms.
Some songs that will be performed are ``Moses, Moses,'' from the Georgia Sea Islands; ``Coconut Woman,'' from Trinidad; and ``This Little Light Of Mine,'' a spiritual.
The musicians scheduled for Suffolk Museum have performed professionally for many years throughout the world.
Hugh Harrell was a member of the Eva Jessye Choir, the official choir of the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington. He has performed in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America and the Caribbean. Most recently, he went to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay in the role of Peter in ``Porgy and Bess.'' He is a Hampton Roads native.
His wife since 1988, Anita, studied at the Henry Street Settlement Music School, the Mannes College of Music and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, all in New York City, where the couple met.
She was a member of the 1992 Virginia Opera cast of ``Porgy and Bess.''
Stephanie Anderson, a contralto, was born in Newport News. She has tourned the U.S., Europe and Scandinavia.
Patricia Saunders Nixon, soprano, has recently completed a U.S. State Department tour in the role of Clara in ``Porgy and Bess.''
Orimolade Ogunjimi, percussionist, is also a Newport News native. He served as representative to the United States at the Third International Congress of Orisha Tradition and Culture at the University of Ife in Nigeria.
Performing in Tucker's stead will likely be Peter Lucus, bass, Harrell said. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Staff Map
Weyanoke