A Million Dreams

First Presbyterian Church, Ottumwa
7:00 PM, November 9, 2018

The Ottumwa Area Community Chorus presents its 2018 Fall concert, “A Million Dreams”, featuring African American Spirituals and Songs from South Africa.   African American spirituals are an integral and powerful part of the history of our country. They represent the period of time when the south allowed slavery to flourish and were commonly found both before and during civil war times. The terms Negro spiritual, Black spiritual, African American spiritual, Jubilee, and African American folk songs are all synonymous. Spirituals originated between 1740 and 1900 and were sung by enslaved African American people in the United States, passed from one generation to another by word of mouth. African American spirituals are believed to be the predecessors to what would later become the style of music known as the blues. Spirituals have influenced both popular and classical music, as seen in minstrel songs, jazz, blues, country music, swing and big band music, rock, soul music, gospel music, rhythm and blues, and rap. They paved the way for the freedom songs of The Nonviolent Movement and other songs that “demonstrate justice and human dignity. They beautifully represent the “message of oppressed people around the world, and promote Christianity, patience, love, freedom, faith, and hope”. (R. Nathaniel Dett)