On Sunday, May 17, the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus held an enormously successful concert on New York City’s Upper West Side, with the title “America’s 250th in Music & Lore.” It was opened by opera legend Elvira Green, who read an excerpt from Langston Hughes’ poem:
O, let America be America again—
The land that has never been yet—
And yet must be...
Ms. Green delivered historical narratives, including the “Massachusetts Petition,” and alternated with master storyteller Jonathan Kruk, who delivered anti-slavery speeches by John Quincy Adams and Gouverneur Morris. All of this was interwoven with spirituals sung by a chorus of 70 people.
