Black History Month Closes With AN EVENING OF NEGRO SPIRITUALS At The Marsh

To conclude Black History Month at The Marsh, singer and actress extraordinaire Dr. Candace Y. Johnson will recreate moments of history through story, song, and spoken word in An Evening of Negro Spirituals: Crossing Rivers and Building Bridges through Song, available via MarshStream.

Combining her powerful voice and scholarly understanding, Johnson offers a deeper look into the African immigrants and their descendants, who gave birth to uplifting spirituals even amidst the horror of slavery. A captivating mélange of mystery, tenderness, resistance, and triumph, Johnson's songbook and stories aim to entertain, enlighten, and build bridges across generations, races, and cultures.

Oakland-based Candace Johnson has been praised for her vocal clarity, dramatic presence, and expressive interpretation as a soprano. She has concertized widely, including guest appearances at Carnegie Hall and The Manhattan Center. A familiar face to The Marsh, Johnson premiered her one-woman show, Vox in a Box, at UC Berkeley in 2018, followed by a 2019 Marsh Rising performance. She currently leads a truly out-of-the-ordinary virtual class for all levels that combines physical activity with vocal training in CJ's FitnesSing! - offered free at 12:00pm every Friday via MarshStream. Johnson is on the Music Faculty at UC Berkeley, where she teaches voice classes and specializes in the research and performance of classical works by African American composers. She earned her doctorate in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan.

Presented as part of the Solo Performer Spotlight series, An Evening of Negro Spirituals: Crossing Rivers and Building Bridges through Song will be performed at 7:30pm, Saturday, February 27 and 5:00pm, Sunday, February 28 on MarshStream. For more information, the public may visit www.themarsh.org/marshstream.

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