Martin Simpson, Musician: “Phenomenal” Sidmouth Folk Festival: “Engaging and powerful, beautiful singing and playing”. GreenBelt Festival: "Wonderful, unique and really moving"
Standing ovations; full houses; tears and joy have been the Summer Festival responses to the stage version of the Grace Will Lead Me Home Folk Album of the year, which is touring the country this October – Black History Month.
Angeline Morrison, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne and Jon Bickley are joined by narrator John Palmer, who has written a script to enhance their songs of enslavement and salvation on the critically-acclaimed CD.
The show, which was performed at Sidmouth, Broadstairs, Penzance and Greenbelt Festivals this summer, explores the contrasting but intertwined story of two significant abolitionists, through their original writings, old songs and new ones written for the show.
John Newton was the captain of a slave trading ship who “saw the light” and became a preacher. He wrote many hymns, including Amazing Grace, and later became a prominent abolitionist, mentoring William Wilberforce.
Equiano was a kidnapped African slave, shipped to America. He bought his freedom, came to London where he was a vocal leader of the Sons of Africa abolition movement, which brought him into the same influential circles as Newton and William Wilberforce.
The tensions and contradictions in their stories, and how much or little we know about them both in 2025 has surprised, engaged and entertained audiences in equal measure.
You may also like the following events from The Stables MK:
- This Saturday, 13th September, 08:00 pm, Paul Zerdin: Jaw-Drop at The Stables, Milton Keynes in Milton Keynes
- This Saturday, 13th September, 08:45 pm, The Cadillac Kings in Stage 2 at The Stables, Milton Keynes in Milton Keynes
- This Sunday, 14th September, 08:00 pm, This Flight Tonight - The Songs of Joni Mitchell at The Stables, Milton Keynes in Milton Keynes
Also check out other
Music events in Milton Keynes,
Arts events in Milton Keynes,
Literary Art events in Milton Keynes.
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