Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company to present ‘Cultural Roots & Routes’ Feb. 23 and ‘God’s Trombones’ beginning March 3

Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company to present ‘Cultural Roots & Routes’ Feb. 23 and ‘God’s Trombones’ beginning March 3February 09, 2006Teri Turnerteturner@syr.eduThe Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company (PRPAC), a unit of the Department of African American Studies in The College of Arts and Sciences, will present two cultural productions during February and March.

For its Black History Month celebration, “Cultural Roots & Routes,” beginning Feb. 21, PRPAC will bring a group of renowned artists back to Syracuse for the third consecutive year. The celebration will examine African American cultural roots and the cultural routes or paths African Americans travel to reach self-actualization. The group includes blues guitarist and storyteller Guy Davis, jazz cellist and lecturer Karen Patterson, urban jazz violinist Rodney McCoy, master percussionist and composer Michael Wimberly, and master dancers Maia McKinney and Catherine “Cat” Foster from the Forces of Nature Dance Troupe.

The artists will be on campus and in the local community Feb. 21-23 and will meet with SU students, local public school students and community representatives in a workshop setting to solicit material that will culminate in a final performance Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. in The Underground in the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center. Admission to the performance is free for SU students with valid SU I.D. and $10 for the general public. Tickets are available at the Schine Box Office, (315) 443-4517, and at the door. The event is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts and sponsored in part by SU’s Division of Student Affairs.

Beginning March 3, PRPAC will present “God’s Trombones,” a compilation of seven Negro sermons in verse by James Weldon Johnson, every weekend in March at South Presbyterian Church, located at the corner of West Colvin and South Salina streets. Performances will take place Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. Admission is $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Group and fundraising rates are also available. Tickets can be purchased at the PRPAC Box Office, 805 E. Genesee St., Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Under the creative direction of PRPAC executive artistic director and assistant professor of African American studies William H. Rowland II, PRPAC associate artistic director Annette Adams-Brown and Syracuse poet Jackie Warren-Moore, the production is a mixture of oration, song, dance and music. Ministers from the local community will recite the production’s opening prayer, “Listen, Lord — A Prayer,” and choral director Lagreer Cummings will lead a mass choir of choral members from churches across the Syracuse community. Actors from SU and the community will perform the remaining sermons — “The Creation,” “The Prodigal Son,” “Go Down Death — A Funeral Sermon,” “Noah Built the Ark,” “The Crucifixion,” “Let My People Go” and “Judgment Day” — through recitation, dramatization, narration and storytelling. The event is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.

For more information on PRPAC and its upcoming events, call (315) 442-2727.