The Promised Land Players perform music of and inspired the great body work W.E.B. DuBois refers to as "the Sorrow Songs." These Spirituals, originating with the 19th century slaves of North America, are the foundation for most of the major forms of popular and art music indigenous to the "New World" including blues, gospel, jazz, and all of their myriad offshoots.

I cannot remember a time when these songs did not direct me towards a universal human narrative that speaks to the rich redemption of the human spirit, regardless of the obstacles faced. Whether the matter be painful or humorous, expressing the truth of one's humanity directly was not possible for the 19th century slave. In my life, I've found myself praying among mystics and sages, Shamans and saints, and I've learned that in all spiritual traditions from the East to the West, at least two key commonalities have been observed: the truth of human suffering, and a yearning to know what it means to be free.

By necessity, these stories had to have been sublimated in order for a full spectrum of self-awareness to be expressed. But these voices of our past speak through these songs, telling us not to get weary, not to give in. They say, with all the wisdom and conviction of our forefathers and foremothers who sit in the spaces beyond time, that the divisive journey of our past will soon be over, and the time for our collective evolution is now. May their voices lead us to The Promised Land.