Singing the Gods: Songs of Devotion, Praise and Invocation

Singing associated with religious practice is one of the ways to achieve relationship with the divine. This program of lecture/demonstration performances teaches how music shapes religious devotion in diverse Brooklyn communities. Performers include Rita Silva (Bahia, Brazil candomblé sung invocations), Maalam (teacher) Said Damir with Aminou Belyamani (Moroccan gnawaa ) presented by Hafida Torres; Shobana Raghavan with her student Amrita Vijay (Hindu devotional Carnatic), and Winston “Jeggae” Hoppie (Caribbean spiritual Baptist hymns). Presented in cooperation with the H. Wiley Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music at Brooklyn College. 

Presented with support from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation

THIS EVENT IS PRESENTED AS PART OF:

Brooklyn Arts Council’s The Sweetest Song Festival (TSS), is a month long focus on Brooklyn’s traditional singers and song styles. From April 26 through May 27, The Sweetest Song will present 12 concerts and 8 singing master classes at various Brooklyn venues. The programs will explore a range of singing traditions as practiced and performed in Brooklyn’s immigrant and diaspora communities and engage New Yorkers in a creative, cross-cultural exchange with some of the finest traditional singers living in Brooklyn.