“May thy divine presence always abide in this church, and the dew of heaven continually descend on those who assemble here to worship Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts.”
Where Heaven’s Dew Divides, a title derived from an 18th century Methodist prayer, is a multidisciplinary exploration of the politics of religion in Philadelphia in the first decades of the new nation. In 1790, Philadelphia had the nation’s largest population of free people of African descent---almost 1500, 15 times the number of free blacks living in Philadelphia in 1765. Another 200 people of African descent were still enslaved in Philadelphia. Where Heaven’s Dew Divides mixes dance forms, original music and song, improvised vocalization and video projection to capture the conflicts, motivations and activism of church-going African Americans, who challenged racial and gender conventions of Philadelphia churches and denominations, and fueled the fight for slavery’s complete abolition.
Percussive dancer/choreographer and vocal improviser Germaine Ingram, modern ancer/choreographer Leah Stein and a company of dance and music ar
tists channel key moments and personalities from the history and memory of Philadelphia’s religious life of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
APRIL 17 - 19
$19.00
Innovation Studio at the Kimmel Center
300 S. Broad Street
Phila, PA 19102
$11 tickets for Students (with ID) and children (18 and under) available at the box office.
All three performances will have a post-show discussion. The moderators for each discussion will be:
4/17 - Josslyn Luckett, PhD Candidate
4/18 - Prof. Herman Beavers, Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania
4/19 - Bill Adair, Director of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
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