BCU Arts is launching this season’s tour with a chamber music concert in Hartford. The performance marks the second consecutive year of the tour, which came to New Haven, last year.
The concert in Hartford will take place tomorrow evening, Saturday, July 10 at Asylum Hill Congregational Church.
Hartford marks the first stop on the Blacknificently Divine tour, which is a collaborative effort between HBCU Arts and Castle of our Skins, defined as a Black art institution, based in Roxbury, Massachusetts. It is designed to foster cultural curiosity and celebrate Black artistry through music.
Artists will perform works by the Blacknificent 7 Composer Collective.
The artists a part of this collective include, Jessie Montgomery, Jasmine Barnes, Shawn Okpebholo, Damien Geter, Dave Ragland, Joel Thompson, and Carlos Simon.
Jaylin Vinson, an emerging composer, also has newly commissioned work making its world premiere in Saturday night’s concert.
Dr. Jolie Rocke, a New York native, who got her start as an opera singer, founded the Houston based, HBCU Arts in 2023.
HBCU Arts is a division of Driven Theater Company, which is designed to support and showcase artists of diverse backgrounds, including Black, Indigenous and people of color, through arts education and leadership development.
Rocke says she wanted a way to highlight students in the arts from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).
When Rocke became a professor at Prairie View A & M University, an HBCU in Texas, she noticed disparities between HBCUs, and schools in the Northeast.
“When I got there, I noticed in comparing the schools that I had worked at before that the HBCU’s don’t have as many resources and access to resources and opportunities compared to the schools I had worked at or attended in the Northeast,” Rocke said.
That’s when Rocke thought to herself, “I need to try to change that.”
“Our students are worthy; they do wonderful work; the faculty does wonderful work. How do we broaden and showcase what these students in the arts are capable of?” Rocke said.
Having done concerts in Connecticut and New York last year, HBCU Arts is hoping to expand, according to Rocke.
“In the future, we’re hoping to be able to go to more places; the concert will also go to Oakwood," Rocke said. "We’re having conversations with Oakwood University in Alabama to go and do the same concert with their orchestra in late September or early October of this year. So, this is where we're starting to branch out and really go out, and Oakwood is an HBCU.”
The tour’s next stop after the Hartford concert, will be on Martha’s Vineyard in Oak Bluffs. The performance is being held on Aug. 1 at Union Chapel, followed by a Martha’s Vineyard HBCU Arts Festival, where the concert series got its start. The festival runs on the vineyard from Aug. 1- 6.
The concert at Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford is tomorrow at 7:30 pm. The concert is free of charge; however, donations are welcomed and encouraged.
