2021 - 2022 Season
Fierce. Resilient. Revolutionary. This spring, 19th century Philadelphia luminary Frances Harper's words and ideas get a vivid new portrayal through The Frances Suite. Created by composer and vocalist Ruth Naomi Floyd, and featuring poet Yolanda Wisher and violinist Diane Monroe, this musical powerhouse performance features an all-female ensemble, and explores the endurance, strength, and beauty of bold, Black, woman-led activism and artistry across the centuries.
The Frances Suite was held in person at Fleisher Art Memorial (719 Catharine Street), a wheelchair accessible venue, and was available for online viewing for one week following the performance.
The Frances Suite sits in the fertile nexus of history and imagination, as a project that centers the lives and voices of Black women while dreaming what Black womanhood in the 21st century could be. Drawing from jazz, folk, gospel, funk, and spoken word, Floyd's musical creation defies genre, creating a sound that reflects Harper's interconnected world but sits squarely in a 21st century aesthetic.
Frances Harper’s life’s work was extraordinary, but rather than a chronological retelling of Harper’s story, the suite examines specific moments of her life, weaving together a series of actions into a portrait of Black womanhood and advocacy. One hundred years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat, Harper practiced the same resistance on a trolley car in Philadelphia. Exploring how transformative moments like that can translate into transformative movements for justice, the suite brings forward 19th century lessons in advocacy into a 21st century context that illuminates our contemporary cultural moment.
Listen to “Bury Me In A Free Land” from The Frances Suite
Finding Frances: The Podcast
Finding Frances is a podcast exploring the life and work of 19th century Philadelphia luminary Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911), hosted by Kalela Williams and produced by Intercultural Journeys. Taking inspiration from The Frances Suite, a new musical and poetic work by Ruth Naomi Floyd celebrating Harper's art and activism, this four-part podcast talks with scholars, activists, poets, archivists, and musicians as we explore Harper’s legacy, and work to honor her memory.
Listen to the four episode podcast here:
meet the artists
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meet the artists •
A composer and vocalist for over 25 years, Ruth Naomi Floyd leads a distinctive, progressive jazz ensemble and has released multiple recordings of original compositions, bringing "...an unmistakable emotional integrity that conveys her music's power.” (The Times London). In 2022, Ruth was named to a Lincoln City Fellowship and a Mutual Mentorship for Musicians Fellow, and last year, as a featured artist with The Orrin Evans Trio, was named one of NPR Music's Best Live Sessions of 2021 for their powerful anthem of liberation, the African American Spiritual, "Oh Freedom." In 2020, Ruth and poet Charles Lattimore Howard, were Kimmel Center Jazz Residency artists for their project which centers on homelessness in Philadelphia. Additional recent compositions include the commissioned work “Freedom," focused on human rights activist Mende Nazer’s story of survival as a slave in the United Kingdom, and the Frederick Douglass Jazz Works. In the centennial year of Leonard Bernstein’s birth, the Mann Music Center, in partnership with NEWorks Productions commissioned Ruth as one of four composers to create a community mass inspired by Bernstein’s MASS. Ruth is an Adjunct and Artist in Residence at Temple University.
Diane Monroe is a violinist whose versatility and artistry consistently brings audiences to their feet, and is lead violinist for The Suite. Her visibility as a jazz artist began with her membership in the Uptown String Quartet and the Max Roach Double Quartet, but Monroe is more than simply a fine performer. Her original compositions and arrangements were highlighted on TV and in performances at major concert halls and festivals throughout the world. Monroe has also led her own ensembles for more than 15 years, appearing at the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival and across the country.
Monroe is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and University of the Arts. She has taught at Oberlin, Swarthmore College, Lehigh University and Temple University. In 2002, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Monroe is a 2018 recipient of both a Fellowship and a Project grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
Poet, singer, educator, and curator Yolanda Wisher is author of Monk Eats an Afro and co-editor of the anthology Peace is a Haiku Song with mentor Sonia Sanchez. Wisher was named inaugural Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in 1999 and third Poet Laureate of Philadelphia for 2016 and 2017. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Poem-a-Day and has been commissioned by the Institute for Contemporary Art, HealthSpark, the Statue of Peace Plaza Committee, CBC Radio, and Philadelphia Jazz Project. A Pew and Cave Canem Fellow, Wisher received the Leeway Foundation's Transformation Award in 2019 for her commitment to art for social change. Wisher earned an M.A. in English/Poetry from Temple University and B.A. in English/Black Studies from Lafayette College, where she received an honorary doctorate of letters in 2021.
The ensemble is composed of Lauren Blackwell, Kendrah Butler, Eunice China, Val Gay, Erica McElveen, and Marisa Webster.
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support comes from the The Presser Foundation and the Musical Fund Society.
Funding for the public programs associated with The Frances Suite has been provided by Spring Point Partners, PA Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.