On Sunday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m., an ensemble of actors, musicians and the LCPC Chancel Choir will present “The Slave Letters,” which relate the story of slaves through actual letters written by slaves accompanied by their music. Featured performer will be the stage, screen and television performer Michal Dawson Connor.  The concert will include a selection of familiar African American spirituals and the words of Frederick Douglas and Harriett Tubman, as well as readings from historical slave letters. There is no cost for admission (freewill offering accepted).  

“The Slave Letters” is the culmination of a lifetime of work by Michal Dawson Connor. From 1994 to 2006, composer Connor undertook an ambitious research project curating letters written by slaves and former slaves from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. In 2007, Connor’s collection was published by Janssen Publishers CC under the title, “The Slave Letters.”

In 2017, Connor created an immersive theatrical experience drawing from the letters in his book as well as a lifetime of his own arrangements of Negro spirituals. “The Slave Letters” is an hour-long journey spanning the depths of human despair, the transcendence of hope and the unquenchable thirst for freedom.  

The concert will be held in the LCPC sanctuary at 626 Foothill Blvd. in La Cañada with ample parking. For further information, call the church office at (818) 790-6708 or visit lacanadapc.org. 

Prior to the concert at 1:30 p.m., also in the church sanctuary, LCPC’s director of Music & Worship Arts – Jack Lantz – will discuss how enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Americas transformed suffering into musical art, created coded messages of resistance and ultimately contributed to some of the most influential musical traditions in the world. 

For those who cannot attend in-person, the concert and pre-concert lecture will be live-streamed via LCPC’s website, YouTube and Facebook.