Please join us for a special Juneteenth presentation‍

Juneteenth and the Blues will be an hour-long presentation and discussion by composer, bassist, and bandleader Marcus Shelby about the importance and historical significance of Juneteenth in Black American culture. The presentation will include live music, readings, poetry, and observations on the legacy of June 19, 1865-the date Africans in Galveston, Texas were freed long after the emancipation proclamation.

‍Marcus Anthony Shelby is a composer, bassist, bandleader, and educator who currently lives in San Francisco, California. His work focuses on the history, present, and future of African American lives, social movements, and music education.

In 1990, Marcus Shelby received the Charles Mingus Scholarship to attend Cal Arts and study composition with James Newton and bass with Charlie Haden. Currently, Shelby is an artist in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, and the Healdsburg Jazz Festival.

Shelby has composed several oratorios and suites including “Harriet Tubman”, “Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio”, “Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”, “Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues”, “Green and Blues”, and a children’s opera “Harriet’s Spirit” produced by Opera Parallel 2018. Shelby also composed the score and performed in Anna Deavere Smith’s Off Broadway Play and HBO feature film “Notes from the Field” (2019)

‍Registration is a simple 2-step process. Start here. Once you have registered with MoaD, you will receive a confirmation email with information on how to join via zoom. Next, follow the instructions in the email to register for the program with zoom, then you will receive a confirmation email with the zoom link to join the program on June 19th at 4pm.

DONATIONS OF ANY AMOUNT ARE ALWAYS WELCOME, SO IF YOU ARE ABLE TO, PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO MOAD ONLINE HERE, OR DONATING THROUGH GIVE BY CELL BY TEXTING THE WORD (USING ALL CAPS): MOADSF TO THE NUMBER: 56512 ON YOUR CELL PHONE, THEN FOLLOW THE LINK PROVIDED TO MAKE A DONATION. ALL DONATIONS WILL GO TOWARDS SUPPORTING MOAD AND CONTINUING TO BRING YOU ENGAGING PROGRAMMING

Funding has been provided by California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act economic stabilization plan of 2020.