SHEFFIELD, Mass. — Music in Common announces the premiere screening of "The Black Legacy Project" docuseries June 17-19 in honor of Juneteenth. 

 

The Black Legacy Project (The Black LP) is a musical celebration of Black history to advance racial solidarity, equity, and belonging, according to a press release. The Black LP is a national project produced in partnership with community stakeholders at the local level.  As it travels the country, the Black LP brings together Black and White artists and artists of all backgrounds to record present day interpretations of songs central to the Black American experience and compose originals relevant to the pressing calls for change of our time. 

 

Community roundtable discussions help inform how these songs are interpreted and written.  The Black Legacy Project launched in September 2021 in the Berkshires and will travel to Denver, Atlanta, Los Angeles, the Mississippi Delta, Denver, and Boise in 2022 - 2023. 

 

Music in Common has partnered with Berkshires-based Outpost to produce a docuseries of the Project. The team has just returned from filming another episode of the series in the Ozarks of Arkansas. 

 

"This has been an incredibly meaningful journey," said iin Purwanti of Outpost. "We have learned so much and are honored to be part of such an important and powerful project."

 

The docuseries will make its world premiere with the screening of the pilot episode from the Berkshires on Friday June 17 at 7:30PM at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Saturday June 18 at 7:30PM at Studio 9 at the Porches in North Adams, and Sunday June 19th at 7PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. All events are free and open to all. Project producers and filmmakers will be on hand to talk about the series and the project.

 

Each event concludes with a community conversation about Juneteenth, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans. 

 

Originating in Galveston, Texas in 1865, Juneteenth has been celebrated annually on June 19th in commemoration of the anniversary of the end of institutional slavery in Texas, the last hold out in the Confederacy. Juneteenth was signed into law as a Federal holiday in June 2021 by President Biden. 

 

"Raising awareness of the historic and symbolic importance of Juneteenth is near and dear to my heart," said Black Legacy Project Berkshires co-director, Mia Shepherd, a Texas native and direct descendant of the earliest Juneteenth celebrations there. "It is also very much aligned with the mission and spirit of the Black Legacy Project." 

 

The Black Legacy Project launched in September 2021 in the Berkshires and featured nearly three dozen local musicians including Wanda Houston, Billy Keane, Gina Coleman, Matt Cusson, Rufus Jones, Annie Guthrie, Diego Mongue, Eric Reinhardt and others.  The Project is produced by Music in Common, a non-profit organization that repairs the fractures dividing communities worldwide through collaborative songwriting, multimedia and performance. Since 2005, Music In Common has directly served thousands of people in more than 300 communities across the globe and across religious, ethnic, cultural, and racial axes. The organization was founded by singer-songwriter and producer Todd Mack in response to the murder of his friend and bandmate, Daniel Pearl, the Wall St. Journal reporter abducted by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002.