GREENSBORO – The Jubalo Singers of Kentucky will give a Juneteenth performance of “A Journey of Freedom: Songs of Slavery and Emancipation,” at Highland Center for the Arts, Friday, June 19, 7 to 8:30 p.m.
A singing workshop from 4 to 5 p.m. will precede the performance so the community can learn some of the songs.
“A Journey of Freedom” began with the discovery of a song composed by enslaved people planning a revolt in 1813, and has grown to a songbook of works that has not been heard for more than a hundred years.
Performed by the Jubalo Singers, led by conductor Dr. Kathy Bullock and musician Mat Callahan, this program brings to life the voices of enslaved people and abolitionists, placing them in proper historical context and making them available again to the public.
The Jubalo Singers (often referred to as the Jubalo Choir or the Jubalo Singers from Kentucky) are a vocal ensemble dedicated to performing historical songs of resistance, emancipation and freedom. The group is heavily tied to Berea College in Kentucky, where they frequently serve as a cultural and educational ensemble.
The choir frequently tours and performs alongside Mat Callahan and Swiss singer Yvonne Moore.
The choir performs songs composed and sung by enslaved people and abolitionists, works long buried by history and now being restored to public consciousness through the “Songs of Slavery and Emancipation” project founded by Callahan.
While the existence of slave songs is well known, their character is often misunderstood. Slave songs were not only lamentations of suffering or distractions, but some songs called for liberty and revolution, celebrating such heroes as Gabriel Prosser and Nat Turner.
“A Journey of Freedom: Songs of Slavery and Emancipation” is part of a multi-state concert tour and musical pilgrimage retracing the paths of the Underground Railroad through performance, scholarship, and song, reaching Greensboro, on Juneteenth.
Juneteenth is an annual holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Observed on June 19, it marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, bringing freedom to the state’s enslaved population more than two years after it was officially issued.
Running June 12–25, 2026, the concert tour travels through six states as part of America’s 250th anniversary, inviting audiences to reexamine the nation’s founding ideals. The Vermont Humanities Council made the Greensboro performance “The Journey of Freedom” project possible.
The project brings together cultural and historical partners across the United States and Canada, including The John Brown Project and John Brown Lives!, along with Underground Railroad and abolitionist heritage sites throughout the tour route.
The Jubalo Singers perform historical spirituals and liberation songs that were arranged by Dr. Bullock and Callahan. They have toured internationally including performances in Europe as well as across the United States.
For information on current tours, educational materials or upcoming performances, see the Dr. Kathy Bullock website: kathybullock.com.
Mat Callahan’s book “Songs of Slavery and Emancipation,” published by University Press of Mississippi, May 2022, is a critical study that highlights a new perspective of the long-buried and forgotten songs of resistance in the Margaret Walker Alexander Series in African American Studies.
“The book and the record album constitute a rather rare gift: a rich trove of material that is highly edifying and simultaneously entertaining, an excellent pedagogical and research resource,” wrote Richard Flacks, author of “Socialism and Democracy.”
The book and record album are available from the University Press of Mississippi and most places books and music are sold.
