MANISHA: Enslaved people like Harriet Tubman were the original abolitionists.

ANGELA: She was very to the point, "My name is Harriet Tubman.

I'm here to take you to freedom.

You need to follow me and we need to move right now.” FARAH: She is someone who saw herself as having a purpose and who was on earth to deliver on that purpose.

ANNOUNCER: "Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom."

♪ ♪ Artworks is made possible in part by... And by... ♪ ♪ JASMINE: We are the riot.

Because the same Baltimore, Maryland the world saw in flames is full of crab-eating, Old Bay seasoning, Inner Harbor dwelling, chicken box ordering, unique umlaut accent having dreamers, truth seekers, freedom fighters, riot starting, change makers.

Maryland.

The same land of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman could only ever he only breathe the sighs of the will for freedom.

We stand on the ground they fought for.

The very soil beneath you has seen blood, tears, and sweat of them and of the young and old who lost their lives fighting a war that should've been conquered by now.

Of this, you should never forget.

Ignite the flame that already exists in you.

Fight for your freedom to be, fight for our freedom to be.

Because you know we are the riot.

ANTHONY: Of course, you know, we're always thinking about how we can, how we can bring choral music into the next place that it's, sort of, naturally going.

And, of course, that always means new music, right?

So, we've had a long tradition of commissioning new composers.

A mutual friend of ours, who I think she went to university with and I've done some collaborations with in Baltimore said, “if you're looking for the next best thing, especially someone that's a Baltimore success story you have to, you have to contact Jasmine.

There's just no other choice.” I think that the the way that I choose new commissions, new collaborations, interesting, sort of, cross-disciplinary projects is all about genuine collaboration, genuine, um, partnership.

So, I try to identify people who I can really gravitate to personally, as well as, artistically, and try to develop projects that feel sincere and authentic.

CHRISTINE: When people ask, “Why Baltimore?” I kind of ask, “Why not Baltimore?” Mozart belongs to everyone.

Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Tubman have connections to Maryland that are undeniable and irrevocable.

Maryland had a special place in the Unions history of slavery and anti-slavery, south of the Mason-Dixon line, and has special places on the underground railroad.

Celebrating Black voices from past and present and into the future is critical to the cultural and creative survival of Baltimore.

AMANDA: You have Mozart who didn't get to finish his Requiem and was this musical prodigy that died very young, even in his time.

And then you have Tubman and Douglass whose work is still not done in fighting for equality and justice for all and what I find unique about this concert is somehow we're able to marry these two worlds and you have this ability to continue to fight for justice through music.

CHRISTINE: In a way, everybody was fighting for their own survival, right?

And Baltimore is fighting for its own survival in a lot of ways too and so are its daughters and sons.

ANTHONY: Actually, I think I got her information from James Lee who is her teacher at Morgan and I either just texted or just cold-called her and said, “Hey, we need to do a piece together.

This is what I'm thinking.” And she was just so affable and so, so, willing to, to, kind of, go in whatever direction I was asking her to go and so it's just, it's been, it's felt very natural.

JASMINE: We had to study Mozart, we had to study Beethoven.

It wasn't graded still, but we had to analyze their pieces.

That's why I'm thankful to have gone to Morgan because, studying with Dr. Lee, he made sure that, you know, that we were also including that into our studies.

ANTHONY: And I think it was, probably, a year and a half ago, something like that, that we first started thinking about this project.

During the height of the pandemic and sort of thinking about what, um, what messages we need to be telling in response to everything that's been happening.

The pandemic, George Floyd, everything else that, that, that, um, the many challenges that we face in this city, in this region, in this country and how we can, sort of, pair that with a really, sort of, staple work in the repertoire, being the Mozart Requiem.

CHRISTINE: Mozart has always been one of my favorites, particularly later Mozart.

It doesn't get later than the Mozart Requiem.

It's the first piece I ever heard choral arts perform and it was what made me want to audition.

It also contains some of the most, to me, the most transcendent passages of, of choral music, uh, that I've ever sung.

I think the Jasmine Barnes piece contains a different kind of transcendence, uh, in the way that it tells a story by borrowing from texts from Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Tubman as what becomes a really timeless reminder and motivator.

Um, and I think what connects the two is the fact that they're both works that needed to be finished by other people.

Jasmine Barnes finished her music, but the work that Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Tubman set forth in we have to carry on with.

JASMINE: Baltimore, I was born here, uh, raised here, so yeah, I spent most of my childhood in Park Heights.

When I was younger, when I was real young I started in dance and my mom is a dancer and my oldest brother actually is a professional ballet dancer.

So, he went to the Baltimore School for the Arts, so like, dance has, kind of, been, like, the family's thing, righ”" I was just, like, you know, this younger sister following my brothers around.

I went to school, actually, down McMechen Street and it's Mount Royal Elementary Middle School.

So, I went there from Kindergarten through eighth grade.

And high school, I went to Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.

People here call it “Poly”.

So, I went there for high school and I was, very serious about architecture during that time.

They didn't have a choir, but they had a band and so I ended up joining the band and stayed in all four years.

I was in concert band, I was in jazz band, I was in marching band, I was in, I was in whatever I could possibly be in and I thought it was so interesting that I feel like that was my sanity in all the math classes I was taking and that's, that's what I did.

And then I went to Morgan for college and my master's degree, so I've only been in three schools in my whole life and they're all in Baltimore.

I finally "gave in" I guess you could say once I got to Morgan.

And I started singing opera.

Nothing I had sang before in my life, but um, everything just came so quickly and so naturally and I got casted as Serena in "Porgy and Bess" like, within like, a semester of me changing my major.

Started touring and traveling and the rest is history.

How I ended up writing though...

So I had a voice injury, probably because I was doing so much, so soon, I was so young.

Um, I was only 19 when I decided to change my major and dived into it but... Had a voice, well it was a “budding voice injury”.

Enough for me to have to be quiet though, and so in that time, I started writing.

So, the actual tied...

So, a little tied more closely together.

ANTHONY: Good, yeah, I think where there aren't slurs, you can be a little crisper, a little more sense of urgency.

(mimics note emphasis).

JASMINE: No, that's fine.

Now, what, is it okay if we, maybe take the tempo a little bit faster?

(group laughs and murmurs).

Um, okay.

Okay, the only reason I'm saying is somewhere towards the middle kinda feels like... ANTHONY: I know.

In bar 2:2, that's high energy, that's where it... (overlapping chatter).

JASMINE: Yeah, well not even necessarily that particular portion cause part is supposed to sound a little more... ANTHONY: Sure, sure, sure, sure... JASMINE: Gato, but, uh, after that.

ANTHONY: Yep.

JASMINE: That tempo, pick it back up and I think the, for the choir, the one to listen to would really be, like, the snare because they're marking the subdivisions that you really need to hear.

(mimics notes).

They're marking all of that.

So, I think, uh, that I, because everyone has, like, a beat on it.

It's just a matter of where you enter, right?

Um, so, that's really all I wanted to say.

ANTHONY: Okay, great.

JASMINE: I think you all sound amazing!

What, okay!

ANTHONY: Two, three, four... No, three, “I would.” Two, three... ♪ CHOIR: I would unite with anybody to do right, ♪ ♪ to do right.

♪ ♪ And nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ To do wrong!

♪ ♪ I would unite with anybody to do right ♪ ♪ I would unite with anybody.

♪ ♪ I would unite with anybody.

♪ ♪ And nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ To do wrong.

♪♪ ANTHONY: The Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglass connection was a total stroke of genius from Jasmine.

Um, that was not my idea.

I, originally when I called Jasmine, I said “here's, here's what I'm looking at.

I want to do a Mozart Requiem, I'm doing my own performance edition.” Um, Mozart was very young when he died.

I mean, it wasn't out of the ordinary or out of the question in 1791, but he was 37 years old.

I'm 30.

Seven years from now, you know, if I were Mozart it would be the end of the road for me, which is just hard to fathom.

Um, and I, and, and, I feel, I do feel like in the Mozart Requiem, there are, there are many moments where I do genuinely feel like he knew that there was something really wrong.

And, so, it feels urgent.

It feels, um, raw.

It feels like it's, sort of, a young persons Requiem.

Um, because I do think he was, he, he, he knew what was happening and he was young.

And, and so I wanted to start from that standpoint and this was just after George Floyd and of course, we live in the city of Freddie Gray and I wanted to, to perform this as a young person's requiem with all of those horrible incidents in mind.

Um, and of course, I think that the, the, the route that we've taken is, is, is better because it's sort of, um, it doesn't circumnavigate grief or trauma.

But it, but it does, it, it, comes alongside the Mozart Requiem in such a, more sort of, celebratory way.

And I also, by the way, wanted it to be very Maryland/Baltimore-centric.

Um, Baltimore, Maryland performers.

Uh, Maryland's story, sort of, highlight who we are as people in this particular place.

And so she said, “hey, Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglass.” Huge Baltimore, Maryland connections, right?

JASMINE: So, the point of the commission was, you know, they were doing Mozart's Requiem.

It needed to be a piece that paired well with it.

It also needed to be something that represented Maryland or Baltimore as a whole, culturally, or, just, you know, a real representing piece of the area.

Me, being from here, I, one thing I definitely remember of my childhood is that history is a big thing here.

Like, you are not gonna sit in anyone's, like, history class and not learn a very well-rounded thing about Maryland, as a whole, but also about the United States, right?

Um, the good, the bad, and the ugly, right?

And I appreciated that about my childhood education was that I knew Black history growing up and everyone cannot say that.

Everyone can't say that they were taught that in school and I was taught that in school by black educators, white educators, did not matter.

Black history was something that we learned.

Um, but one thing I definitely can say I learned about Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, was that Fredrick Douglass walked the streets that, you know, we walk on and, um, not even just that but spoke so boldly about things that anywhere else or anyone else would be so afraid to do so.

He, he, stood in front of White audiences and said exactly what he wanted to say.

And, for me that was just like, okay, I need to write something with Fredrick Douglass in mind.

So, that was my first thought.

Then I was like, Harriet Tubman, though, hold up.

She's from the Eastern Shore, specifically.

She was born there and so I try to think about where they were born, why they're significant to Maryland, but then more so why they're significant to the world.

ANTHONY: What ended up happening is she found some amazing quotes and, sort of, tied them altogether to make her piece, which is sort of a little bit of a foil to the Mozart Requiem, actually, because it's, it's uh, it's, sort of, lively, energetic.

I feel like the first movement does carry that urgency.

There's some, some urgency going on in the first movement, “I would unite with anybody to do right and nobody to do wrong.” That's the first Fredrick Douglass quote.

Um, it's really fast and, sort of, biting string sounds and all these really exciting feelings, musically.

JASMINE: Um, how to make that work for like, I don't know, a three, two to three minute, maybe four-minute piece?

Repetition.

(laughs).

Um, which is also something that is really shadowed into Mozart's Requiem as well.

Um, a lot of composers are using a sentence of texts when it comes to, especially like a mass, right?

They're using, like, a sentence of text.

I could've went so many different directions with this, but I think, uh, choosing to talk about Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Tubman was so significant because, um, the Mozart Requiem being a mass that really speaks more so on death, right?

Um, the, I thought, why don't I have a juxtaposition of that or just some type of contrast to that, um, but something that still ties in with the idea of talking about the lives or speaking on quotes of the lives of Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.

Basically and almost, like, in an opposite way, it's not a requiem, but it's more so an honoring of life.

ANTHONY: Good, that was not a bad run at all.

Uh, 78, please.

Is this tempo surprising you?

GROUP: Yeah.

ANTHONY: Okay.

Well, thank goodness it's not Wednesday.

Good, to page 14 on is just a little slower, and remember it goes to G major, yeah?

♪ CHOIR: No one will take me back alive.

♪ ♪ I shall fight for my liberty ♪ ♪ I shall fight for my liberty.

♪ ♪ I got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ Death Or Liberty.

♪ ♪ I mean to have but one.

♪ ♪ I got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I mean to have but one.

♪♪ ANTHONY: Yes!

♪ CHOIR: No one will take me back alive.

♪ ♪ I shall fight for my liberty.

♪ ♪ I shall fight for my liberty.

♪ ♪ I got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ Death Or Liberty.

♪ ♪ I got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ Death Or Liberty.

♪ ♪ I got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death Or Liberty.

♪ ♪ I mean to have.

♪ ♪ I mean to have.

♪ ♪ I mean to have but one.

♪ ♪ Death or liberty.

♪ ♪ But one.

♪ ♪ Death or liberty.

♪ ♪ But one.

♪ ♪ Death or liberty.

♪ ♪ But one.

♪ ♪ Death or liberty.

♪ ♪ But one.

♪♪ ANTHONY: Cool, good, thank you.

♪ No one will take me back alive!

♪♪ My goodness... No one will take me back alive.

This is, this is, like, this is, first of all, this is a true, sort of, spiritual, yeah, one of the reasons why ASE is coming because Jasmine Barnes has written a true, real spiritual here, um, but these are, these are some really, sort of, interestingly, um, just, kind of, unfiltered musings of an abolitionist, former enslaved person.

I think it's amazing and it's also cool that instead of “liberty or death” it's “death or liberty”.

I think that's not an accident.

Um, and I think you need to say, “no one will take me back alive!” Right, with a shadow vowel and it happens on beat five.

One, two, three, four, "ve", breathe.

Yeah?

Everyone chant with me, "no one".

One-and-a-go... ALL: No one.

ANTHONY: I say this as often as I possibly can.

I think that music has the power to change people.

And I think that changed people, inspired people, have the capacity to change the world.

And I think that there is not a more compelling argument for classical music, for concert music, for going to concerts than that.

I mean, I do, in, in a world where sometimes we question the importance of classical music, we question the importance of live events, I would, I always point back to the fact that if you go to a concert, if you let yourself be immersed in the art form there are corners of yourself that can, can be changed.

You can get more, you can have more empathy, you can feel more in community, you can, you can just feel deeper.

And if you go out into the world, I think it makes the world a better place.

So, that's really the aim for almost everything I do.

Um, and I think that's why stories are great and that's why choral music is so great because it's part of that story.

♪ ♪ (group vocalizing).

♪ GROUP: I love you.

♪ ♪ Oh my, do I honey.

♪ ♪ Indeed I do.

Baby you know it's true.

♪♪ JASMINE: It's all the same note, it's all the same.

Uh, but it's a thing too, my barbershop music.

It's an African American art form, a lot of people don't know that, right?

So, a lot of people in America think that it started with these White men, uh, you know, singing in a barber shop, literally, with a top hat and pinstripe, you know, pinstripe suit and a cane.

The reality is it started on the Black street corners.

I feel like the classical world hasn't had the same experience as, like, someone who grew up in church.

Like, in that, that, in a Black church specifically, so that all the sound that's within a Black church, it's so many sounds, like, and I feel like that's something that's worth capturing into the classical world so the community actually learns from it.

Um, cause there's just so many...

I mean, you have the sounds of the preacher, preaching.

That's its own soundscape and its own sound world.

You have the sounds of the conversations of the church ladies in the row, in the pew.

So they have their own soundscape too.

They have so much melody to their voices, I mean, one of my favorite things, uh, in life is to hear my grandmother laugh because she does, I'm gonna make it exactly.

She goes... (mimics laugh).

Like it's literally, it's always, like, its own melodic line, it's always a thing.

You know, that, that's just not her own story.

That's like the story of, like, at least the church that I grew up in, but so many Black churches, like, and it's such a community.

Within it, you could go to any Black church in America and feel that same warm feeling, like, that same Sunday morning, kind of, feeling with organ, or even if they don't have instruments, they're gonna use their bodies as percussion, like, and they're gonna use their voices as the harmony to fill the room, like, it does not matter if you have instruments or not and I think that's something to capture orchestrally.

Like, there's so many sounds.

You know, whispering, you have people crying, you have people shouting, you have people, you know, staying around after the service is over and people flicking the lights, like, “get out.” Like, it's, it's so much soundscape in that and I feel like it's so interesting to me.

Bow, okay, you're looking at the scene at the White House.

It was 2015, it was the last year of Barack Obama's presidency, okay and we met Barack Obama, President Barack Obama, and First Lady Michelle Obama.

Shook their hand, all that good stuff, okay, and we sang, uh, we sang behind Aretha Franklin, Tamela Mann, Shirley Caesar, Michelle Williams...

This was all that day.

I know, it's crazy, right?

There I am, right there.

That's me.

That's another time we were at the White House.

MAN: Who was director now?

JASMINE: Dr. Eric Conway and that's him right here.

Dr. Eric Arthur Conway.

WOMAN: Of the government.

JASMINE: Next to, next to the president of the United States.

WOMEN: Love you too.

See you soon!

JASMINE: Ya'll, ya'll said that in rhyming.

“Love you too.” WOMAN: Juneteenth.

JASMINE: Juneteenth, I'll see you, bet.

ANTHONY: Why do you, what, what are your notes?

JASMINE: Ok, you know, you know my favorite note.

ANTHONY: Faster?

JASMINE: Yes.

ANTHONY: Wow.

Faster.

JASMINE: Just a little, um... ANTHONY: Your speedy.

JASMINE: I, I told you.

ANTHONY: Ok. JASMINE: Gonzalez, Speedy Gonzalez.

(laughing).

Ok. ANTHONY: Altoids, listen up.

JASMINE: Altoids, it's funny.

Um, so your part is obviously as you know, like the melody, and like you know, like the really crucial part, so I think, um, as rhythmic and pointed forward as you can sing, I think that will cut a lot more.

ANTHONY: Rhythmic, pointed forward, you're the melody, um, by the way, the, the American Spiritual Ensemble folks, even the sopran, for, for this movement, the sopranos from the ASE are gonna sing alto.

JASMINE: Ok. ANTHONY: So there will be four extra people on that that aren't here tonight.

JASMINE: Ok, ok, now, now I'm not, you know, criticizing you on sound but I think for like, for cut-in purposes over the orchestra, because it is lower in tessitura and then things are playing higher than you and, yea, I know how that works.

ANTHONY: Be as strong as you can, but with knowledge of four more people will sing with you on Saturday.

Ok. JASMINE: Yea, and the other thing though, if you, if you uh, I'm sorry, I'm just uh, I'm a singer, so like, that's like, you know, my thing, as far as like point as uh, almost more so in your nasal passages, I know that, it's, I know that sounds like, “singing nasal,” but not, not really, just more so, more so in your frontal palette, that'll actually help it cut a lot more and don't worry too much about continuing the note out for as long as you can, the consonants in there will carry you through.

ANTHONY: I'll, I'll translate it.

JASMINE: Ok, sorry.

I was like... ♪ CHOIR: The moral growth of a great nation requires ♪ ♪ reflection as well as observation to appreciate it.

♪ ♪ The moral growth of a great nation.

♪ ♪ Requires reflection as well as observation.

♪ ♪ To appreciate it.

♪ ♪ The moral growth of a great nation.

♪ ♪ Requires reflection as well as observation.

♪ ♪ To appreciate it.

♪♪ ANTHONY: Fine.

Can the (inaudible) be that length at the end or do you want it faster?

JASMINE: Um, faster.

You know I'm gonna say.

(laughs).

ANTHONY: Well, you said faster and then I, I didn't do it.

JASMINE: It's okay, that's okay.

ANTHONY: We'll do it again, but the last three bars... JASMINE: Yeah, so my goal with this was to write a piece that anyone of any race could perform it because it's honoring the two people that are, whose words they belong to, right?

They're short quotes.

So, the first movement, “Do Right” the entire quote is, “I would unite with anybody to do right, and with nobody to do wrong.” That is, literally, the whole quote.

“The moral growth of a great nation requires reflection as well as observation to appreciate it.” And, so, I thought that that quote was significant because we need to, and especially now, what's happening right now with the mass shootings and the schools and, um, obviously the mass shootings that are happening in grocery stores.

Like, you can't even exist in a grocery store.

So, these kinda, this, this quote, to me, like, “the growth of our morals of a great nation requires reflection as well as observation to appreciate it.” Meaning, like, you need to reflect on the things that have happened and you need to observe the things that are happening to be able to appreciate any type of moral growth.

The third and fourth are Harriet Tubman quotes.

“I've got a right to two things: That's death or Liberty.

I mean to have one.” This particular movement is Harriet Tubman's quote.

I love this quote because she is, again, viewed as such a harder woman, like, a hard woman.

This quote is so characteristically different than what a lot of the country perceives her as.

Um, so, the quote is, “Every great dream begins with a dreamer.” ANTHONY: Oh, um, there are eight people singing with the American Spiritual Ensemble right now, there are two or three people who are not here yet.

I see people meandering, that's great.

So, we'll just take the, we'll, we'll kinda take a nice ramp-up for a warm-up, okay?

So, everyone just get your bodies nice and loose and sing this warm-up with the knowledge that A, you have an extremely long day of singing ahead, and B, you don't sing for a while, right?

So, it's 2:15 and the first time you open your mouth it'll probably be 2:25... Or, 3:25.

(overlapping chatter).

(overlapping singing).

♪ CHOIR: To change, to change, to change.

♪ ♪ To change, to change, to change.

♪ ANTHONY: Exactly, brilliant.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, good.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, this is a really, really, really good concert.

You're doing so well.

We're just putting these finishing touches on for, really for the sake of the recording.

In the hall, I've been told that it really, really, um, is super convincing and compelling.

So, congratulations to you for birthing a piece.

That's not really easy to do and congratulations for breathing new life into a quite old piece.

Also, not something that's so easy to do.

I think, you know, um, one of the many reasons why I want to do the Mozart Requiem is because of everything that this city has been through with, uh, with violence, especially with people, younger people losing lives.

Um, you know, Mozart was 37, which of course, 1791 wasn't like super young like it is now.

It's certainly, certainly young but I do think this is a young person's requiem, um, and I think that tying that story into today, tying that story into where we live, tying that story into our own lives is really important and, uh, at the risk of, of, making you, uh, unable to sing on stage.

I wonder if you might be able to identify your favorite movement or one of your favorite movement or one of your favorite movements and, maybe write someones name at the top of that movement or consider someone you love who's no longer here, um, and, and, think about singing that particular phrase, or the beginning of the movement or your favorite phrase in the whole thing for that person.

Because, of course, this is a, this is a concert, in part, of remembrance, right?

Um, and so that would be really great if you could just engage, sort of, your own mind and your own spirit in this really powerful and important music that's, of course, liturgical, but, but it's, sort of, released into the world as something that's even greater than the liturgy that it was written for, right?

Um, I do think that the composer had, had, um, a feeling of importance there as he was writing it, especially towards the end.

Um, I think that's something that we can really come across.

Um, and then, of course, I think, you know, that the Barnes piece is such a celebration of, of dreams.

I think we're going to call the album "Dreamer".

Um, because I think, you know, of course, the last movement is the obvious reason, but, you know, Mozart was a dreamer, uh, Harriet Tubman was a dreamer.

She was looking to the stars to guide her way in, in the operation of the Underground Railroad.

And, of course, Fredrick Douglass.

Quite, quite a dreamer, quite a... All three people, and Jasmine Barnes, I guess so all four people really moved the needle.

(applause).

JASMINE: Oh, my God.

I'm gonna record you.

Thank y'all!

(applause).

Thank you, Blake.

ANTHONY: Thank you, Jasmine.

We'll see you out there.

JASMINE: Thank y'all.

Y'all are amazing.

♪ ANTHONY: Penguin's attention, penguins begin.

♪ ♪ A, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

♪ ♪ CHOIR: Have you ever had a penguin home for tea?

♪ ♪ Take a look at me, a penguin you will see.

♪ ♪ ANTHONY: Penguin's attention, penguins begin.

♪ ♪ A, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

♪ ♪ CHOIR: Have you ever had a penguin home for tea?

♪ ♪ Take a look at me, a penguin you will see.

♪ ♪ ANTHONY: Penguin's attention, penguins begin.

♪ ♪ A, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

♪ ♪ MAN: Penguin's attention!

♪ ♪ 5, 6, 7, 8.

♪ ♪ ALL: A, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

♪ ANTHONY: I love you all.

Great job.

Just really be attentive.

Look at the stick, be with the stick.

Yeah, there's a little bit of, of a delay, yeah?

So, I think if we're all really engaged and really sort of focused while allowing a little bit of self-inspiration.

I think it's going to be a really fabulous concert and certainly a great album, so congratulations.

See you out there, okay?

Bye.

(applause).

JASMINE: I'm excited.

Electric, that's how I'm feeling.

I'm feeling electric.

(inaudible).

You look good, babe.

You look good.

WOMAN: I am so happy to be singing this.

(overlapping chatter).

(laughter).

(audience applause).

(audience applause).

We.

This isn't “Hairspray”.

There's no “good morning, Baltimore” there's just people trying to make it.

We wake, we plan our day, we do our best.

Yet, how easy is it to forget the We?

They say if you want to go far, go together, and together we must.

Try to do what's right, unite.

If we want, we can grow together.

But divided, an untimely requiem.

We celebrate a real good morning, Baltimore.

Ignite the flame in you.

This isn't “The Wire” although we've gone down to it to try and make it, but wait until you see what happenings happen when we become We.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ CHOIR: I would unite with anybody to do right, ♪ ♪ to do right.

♪ ♪ I would unite with anybody to do right, ♪ ♪ to do right.

♪ ♪ I would unite with anybody to do right, ♪ ♪ to do right.

♪ ♪ I would unite with anybody to do right, ♪ ♪ to do right.

♪ ♪ And nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ To do wrong!

♪ ♪ I would unite with anybody to do right, ♪ ♪ to do right.

♪ ♪ I would unite with anybody to do right, ♪ ♪ to do right.

♪ ♪ I would unite with anybody to do right, ♪ ♪ to do right.

♪ ♪ I would unite with anybody to do right, ♪ ♪ to do right.

♪ ♪ And nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ To do wrong!

♪ ♪ I would unite with ♪ ♪ anybody to do right.

♪ ♪ To do right.

♪ ♪ To do right.

♪ ♪ I would unite with ♪ ♪ anybody to do right.

♪ ♪ To do right, to do right.

♪ ♪ And nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ Nobody.

♪ ♪ To do wrong!

♪ ♪ I would unite with anybody to do right.

♪ ♪ (music stops).

♪ ♪ ♪ CHOIR: The moral growth of a great nation requires ♪ ♪ reflection as well as observation to appreciate it.

♪ ♪ The moral growth of a great nation requires reflection as ♪ ♪ well as observation to appreciate it.

♪ ♪ The moral growth of a great nation ♪ ♪ requires reflection ♪ ♪ as well as observation to appreciate it.

♪ ♪ The moral growth of a great nation ♪ ♪ requires reflection ♪ ♪ as well as observation to appreciate it.

♪♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The moral growth of a great nation requires reflection ♪ ♪ as well as observation to appreciate it.

♪ ♪ The moral growth of a great nation requires reflection ♪ ♪ as well as observation to appreciate it.

♪ ♪ The moral growth of a great nation ♪ ♪ requires reflection ♪ ♪ as well as observation to appreciate.

♪ ♪ The moral growth of a great nation requires reflection ♪ ♪ as well as observation to appreciate it.

♪ ♪ The moral growth of a great nation.

♪ ♪ Requires reflection as well as observation.

♪ ♪ To appreciate it.

♪♪ (music stops).

(pages turn and chairs creek).

JASMINE: We are the riot.

Because the same Baltimore, Maryland that saw the world in flames is full of crab-eating, Old Bay seasoning, Inner Harbor dwelling, chicken box ordering, unique umlaut accent having dreamers, truth seekers, freedom fighters, riot starting, change makers.

Maryland.

The same land of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman could only ever breathe the sighs of the will for freedom.

We stand on the ground they fought for.

The very soil beneath you has seen blood, tears, and sweat of them and of the young and old who lost their lives fighting a war that should've been conquered by now.

Of this, you should never forget.

Ignite the flame that exists in you.

Fight for your freedom to be, fight for our freedom to be.

Because you know we are the riot.

♪ ♪ ♪ CHOIR: I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I mean to have but one.

♪ ♪ I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I mean to have but one.

♪ ♪ No one will take me back alive.

♪ ♪ I shall fight for my liberty.

♪ ♪ I shall fight for my liberty.

♪ ♪ I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I mean to have but one.

♪ ♪ I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I mean to have but one.

♪ ♪ No one will take me back alive.

♪ ♪ I shall fight for my liberty.

♪ ♪ I shall fight for my liberty.

♪ ♪ I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I've got a right to two things.

♪ ♪ That's death or liberty.

♪ ♪ I mean to have.

♪ ♪ I mean to have.

♪ ♪ I mean to have but one.

♪ ♪ Death or liberty.

♪ ♪ But one.

♪ ♪ Death or liberty.

♪ ♪ But one.

♪ ♪ Death or liberty.

♪ ♪ But one.

♪ ♪ Death or liberty.

♪ ♪ But one.

♪♪ (music stops).

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ CHOIR: Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

♪ ♪ A dreamer.

♪ ♪ Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

♪ ♪ A dreamer.

♪ ♪ Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

♪ ♪ A dreamer.

♪ ♪ Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

♪ ♪ A dreamer.

♪ ♪ Always remember.

♪ ♪ You have within you.

♪ ♪ Always remember.

♪ ♪ Always remember.

♪ ♪ You have within you.

♪ ♪ Always remember.

♪ ♪ The strength, the patience, and the passion.

♪ ♪ The strength.

♪ ♪ The strength, the patience, and the passion.

♪ ♪ To reach for the stars.

♪ ♪ To reach for the stars.

♪ ♪ The stars.

♪ ♪ To reach the stars.

♪ ♪ To change, to change, to change.

♪ ♪ To... ♪ ♪ To change, to change, to change.

♪ ♪ To change, to change, to change.

♪ ♪ To change, to change, to change.

♪ (overlapping singing).

(overlapping singing).

(overlapping singing).

♪ To change the world.

♪ ♪ Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

♪ ♪ A dreamer.

♪ ♪ Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

♪ ♪ A dreamer.

♪ ♪ Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

♪ ♪ A dreamer.

♪ ♪ Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

♪ ♪ A dreamer.

♪ ♪ A dreamer.

♪ ♪ A dreamer.

♪ ♪ Dream, dream, dream, dream, dream.

♪ ♪ Dream.

♪♪ (audience applause).

(audience applause).

(cheering and applause).

JASMINE: Dr. Lee!

DR. LEE: There you are, hey, congratulations!

JASMINE: Oh, man.

Thank you!

DR. LEE: Music and harmonic language that, that would be in the Negro spiritual, more of the (inaudible) type of language... JASMINE: Thank you!

Okay, I was trying, trying to do something a little different.

I was trying to do, like, a history travel through each movement.

Kind of... DR. LEE: How are you?

Nice to see you.

ANTHONY: Nice to meet you, I'm glad you're here.

TOM: Finding connections between music that is of a different era and, and music that's brand new is very, um, it's very impressive.

The fact that they were inspired by ideals greater than themselves is where we could find that connection.

CHRISTINE: There weren't lots of people who were in the position that Harriet Tubman was in who had the courage to stand up and speak in her own voice.

Cause she knew she was risking her life.

And in a lot of ways, Fredrick Douglass was risking his too.

Mozart gave his life to his work.

Um, Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Tubman didn't want to have to give their lives to their work, but they dedicated their lives to it.

JASMINE: So the quote is, “Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

Always remember you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars and change the world.” Would that sound like that came from Harriet Tubman?

Right?

Like, the character in that is hopeful, and it's dreamy and it's, like, this encouraging and it's so many things that people leave out when they talk about Harriet Tubman.

These are characteristics that people leave out when they talk about her and, um, cause at the end of the day she was a dreamer.

At the end of the day, she was someone who, who, like, literally, I mean, literally reached for the stars, like, this quote is exactly what she did.

(music plays through credits).

♪ ♪ Artworks is made possible in part by... And by... ANNOUNCER: Frederick Douglass was born into slavery.

DOUGLASS: I was a graduate from this peculiar institution with my diploma written on my back.

ANNOUNCER: How did he escape?

DERRICK: Douglass through and through was a revolutionary.

ANNOUNCER: And fight for change.

SARAH: He commands your attention.

ANNOUNCER: Don't miss his courageous journey.

DOUGLASS: If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

ANNOUNCER: "Becoming Fredrick Douglass"