Voices of Zion's DC Emancipation & The Vote

Citizens Association of Georgetown and The Alliance for New Music-Theatre Presents a Preview of Voices of Zion's DC Emancipation & The Vote at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church on March 13, 2024 starting at 7:00 pm.

Free and open to the public. A reception to follow. Registration is not required.

The preview from this work in development is by DC composer Ronald ‘Trey’ Walton who created an original musical score that includes melodies found in historic hymnals in the Mount Zion Church archives. Georgetown University professor and choreographer, Dr. Anita Gonzalez recreated period dance for the production. This preview presentation will also include commentary by area professionals.

DC Emancipation & The Vote includes scenes taken directly from historical records of several African American residents. For example, Alfred Pope and his wife Hannah, once reunited after The Pearl Affair and manumitted, took up residence in Georgetown, where the house still stands. Pope helped many others gain their freedom, and even had the opportunity to speak in front of Congress. Along with his friend and fellow elder, Hezekiah Turner, at Mount Zion Church, they became two of the very first African American males to cast their votes in a national election, voting that took place in Rose Park in Georgetown. Their stories are woven together with others like Jacob Ross, from Kentucky who was ordained by the Methodist Church while still enslaved, but when manumitted came to live in Georgetown with his wife and became an itinerant preacher well-known around the area’s church circuit. 

New Music-Theatre has successfully developed and mounted original works, with an emphasis on cross-cultural processes and stories, and believes that in our multi-cultural community that is Washington these stories can most movingly be told through hybrid forms of music-and-text that can prove transformative.

The creative team for this production represents a vast collaboration including Susan Galbraith, ANMT Artistic Director; Evelyn Simpson, Music Director; Lisa Fager, Executive Director, Black Georgetown; Neville Waters, multi-generational Georgetown resident; Garrett Lowe, Director Headstones & Histories, Paul Grant, Director, Multimedia and Projections, Tom Duckenfield, Director, Headstones & Histories, Genealogist, Frankie Bethea, Director, Costume Program, Howard University.

Click here to learn more about the Voices of Zion and The Alliance for New Music-Theatre.

Mt. Zion United Methodist Church is located at 1334 29th Street in Georgetown.