Black Legacy Project Performs in Davis on Coast to Coast Black History Month Tour
By: Simone Alyse, Music in Common (simone@musicincommon.org)
Davis, CA – Music in Common returns to Davis on February 5th for a Black Legacy Project concert and film screening in honor of Black History Month. The 7PM event will take place at the Melon Ball at Watermelon Music and is free and open to the public. Tickets can be reserved online.
The hugely popular Nash & Proper food truck will be on site.The Black Legacy Project is a musical celebration of Black history to advance racial solidarity, equity, and belonging. Developed in the summer of 2020 in the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, the project launched with week-long residencies in seven communities across the country between 2021 – 2023 including Atlanta, Boise, the Mississippi Delta, Denver, the Ozarks of Northwest Arkansas, Los Angeles, and the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. As it traveled the country, the Black LP brought together Black and White artists and artists of all backgrounds to record present day interpretations of songs central to the Black American experience and to compose originals relevant to the pressing calls for change of our time. Community roundtable discussions helped inform how these songs were interpreted and written.Twelve of the twenty four songs recorded for the project were released on the debut album, Black Legacy Project, Vol. 1 in September 2023 and a touring band has been on the road ever since performing the project songs. Vol 2 is scheduled for release later this year.
As the Black LP continues to travel the country, a feature length documentary film is in post production highlighting the full arc of the project with an expected release date of February 2026. A seven-part docuseries comprised of an episode from each of the seven communities the project launched in is also in post-production and will be released following the documentary film. The February 5th event at the Melon Ball will include a screening of the pilot episode of the docuseries.
“We had the honor of hosting Music in Common this past October for their FODfest tour and are thrilled to be the first stop on the February Black Legacy Project tour”, says Jeff Simons of the Melon Ball. “It promises to be a meaningful night of music and community.”
In 2022, Music in Common founder & director, Todd Mack, and Music in Common program manager, Trey Carlisle, were named CNN Champions for Change for their work with the Black Legacy Project. Both serve as project co-directors. To date, more than 100 local, regional, and national musicians across the country have participated in the project include American roots music luminaries such as Blues legend Bobby Rush, Nick Forster of Hot Rize and eTown fame, and Lionel Young as well as the heirs of American music icons such as Abe and Annie Guthrie, Arlo’s kids and Woody’s grandkids, and Keith Johnson, great grand nephew of Muddy Waters. The Black Legacy Project is produced by Music in Common, a Berkshire-born, Atlanta-based nonprofit that strengthens, empowers, and connects communities through the universal language of music. Since 2005, Music In Common has directly served thousands of people in more than 300 communities across the globe and across religious, ethnic, cultural, and racial axes. The organization was founded by singer-songwriter and producer Todd Mack in response to the murder of his friend and bandmate, Daniel Pearl, the Wall St. Journal reporter abducted by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002.