A public gathering and sing-along of the music that the late, great Evelyn Harris taught in Northampton: freedom songs! The program will feature the Ujima Singers, the Afrocentric music collective founded by Harris, and singalongs with alumni of the Ku’umba Women’s Choir, which she directed at NCMC for 16 years.
This is a free event; we look forward to singing with you! Those with the means are invited to contribute towards the Evelyn Harris scholarship fund, a new scholarship that will be awarded to a young Black or indigenous NCMC student annually. Donations can be made on our website at ncmc.net/donate
ABOUT
The late Evelyn Harris (1950-2025) celebrated her 20th year as a faculty member of the Northampton Community Music Center (NCMC) last June, and performed with the Afrocentric music collective that she founded, the Ujima Singers, just a week before her sudden passing on December 16th, 2025. To honor Evelyn’s legacy, and promote the power of music as activism, the Ujima Singers and alumni of the Ku'umba Women's Choir will present a free program of acapella music that Evelyn taught at NCMC, inviting the Northampton community to lift every voice and sing. This program will feature music from Sweet Honey In The Rock and popular spirituals and freedom songs of the African American canon.
In this time of particularly devastating fascism on the part of the American government, this program will equip our community with protest music and the courage to speak and act in solidarity with one another. We are honored and grateful that Evelyn chose our community to activate through her work, and we show our thanks by pushing on in her legacy, and demanding justice through song.
