Robeson Singers Debut Performance Kicks off Black August Commemoration in Cleveland
Robeson Singers Debut Performance Kicks off Black August Commemoration in Cleveland
Embedded Files
By Benjamin Mullin-Vanneste
“Sounds of Freedom” filled Beachland Tavern on the evening of August 2nd, 2025 as the Robeson Singers Youth Choir and the Cleveland Branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) commemorated the beginning of Black August. The concert featured performances from several other local groups, and attracted a diverse, lively crowd. A founding member of the Robeson Singers, Greg Levy, spoke to the People’s Press on the significance of this night. “The Robeson Singers are a new arts collective united to do cultural work towards the goal of black liberation here in Cleveland and around the world. The PSL is clear about the need for revolutionary transformation towards all working people and specifically oppressed nations like Black people in America and the Palestinian people. This event was to commemorate the beginning of Black August, a remembrance and rededication to the revolutionary struggle for Black liberation here in the United States and around the world. We used the event to remember and uplift our heroes in struggle. We lift up political prisoners and ancestors like the recently transitioned Don Freeman who was a founding member of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) and a Clevelander. We hope that our contribution helps to build collective consciousness of the active struggle towards human emancipation that continues today. We were so thrilled with the great turnout and we welcome community members to come and join us if they have a contribution in the way of skills and talents towards cultural work.”Chris, an organizer with the PSL and member of Robeson Singers, shared poetry that tied popular and historical resistance to the cultural work that the group intends to engage in. “We learning a song we already know,” he declares, “conducted by prisoners who danced through chains. Overture defined by pillage. The melody blared through minds and farms. Through slaves that studied the rhythm. My brother asked me how I feel, I said powerful.”
Google Sites
Report abuse