A cel­e­bra­tion of free­dom, his­to­ry and African cul­tur­al ex­pres­sion un­fold­ed Au­gust 5, with a pro­gramme com­bin­ing the­atre and mu­sic to mark the lega­cy of Eman­ci­pa­tion.

The event opened with Free­dom Morn­ing Come, writ­ten by Ein­tou Springer, an imag­ined con­ver­sa­tion among en­slaved Africans who gath­ered to hear the read­ing of the Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion on Au­gust 1, 1834.

Through the char­ac­ters’ ex­pe­ri­ences, the play ex­plores the an­tic­i­pa­tion, un­cer­tain­ty and sig­nif­i­cance sur­round­ing the end of slav­ery.

The pro­gramme con­tin­ued with a con­cert fea­tur­ing songs from Springer’s Kam­bule, per­formed by the Kam­bule Per­form­ing Arts Col­lec­tive, with spe­cial guest vo­cal­ists Stacey Sobers, Sheena Aji­bo­la Richard­son and Kee­gan Tay­lor. Draw­ing on the his­to­ry of African re­sis­tance and cul­tur­al sur­vival in Trinidad and To­ba­go, the per­for­mance con­nect­ed the lega­cy of Eman­ci­pa­tion with the mu­sic, move­ment and tra­di­tions that have be­come cen­tral to the na­tion’s cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty.