Oakland Public Conservatory of Music in Collaboration with Upsurge! Jazzpoetry Ensemble Presents an Alternative 4th of July Celebration

AN ALTERNATIVE 4TH OF JULY CELEBRATION

Commemorating Frederick Douglass' Independence Day Speech at the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, 1852

Tuesday, July 3, 2007
8:00 PM Concert, BBQ dinner starting at 6PM
Oakland Public Conservatory of Music
1616 Franklin Street, downtown Oakland http://www.opcmusic.org/

Tickets: $20 concert admission. BBQ meal option additional $10.

OAKLAND, California--In commemoration of Frederick Douglass' speech, “What To The Slave Is The 4th Of July?" the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music (OPCMusic) and UpSurge! JazzPoetry Ensemble have joined to produce a special Alternative 4th of July Celebration. Highlighting this event will be performances by UpSurge! JazzPoetry Ensemble and the Count Basie Tribute Orchestra under the direction of Angela M. Wellman.

Also featured will be a special presentation by noted Bay Area actor/ playwright and vice-president of Bay Area Repertory Theater, Michael Lange joined by actor/director James Brooks. Lange and Brooks will perform excerpts from Douglass' speech.

The son of a slave woman and an unknown white man, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born in February of 1818 on Maryland's eastern shore. Considered one of the greatest orators of all time, Frederick Douglass delivered one of the 19th century's most powerful abolition speeches; highlighting the inherent contradictions between slavery and the nation's founding principles. Of Douglass' oratory, one correspondent wrote, “Flinty hearts were pierced, and cold ones melted by his eloquence." Lange and Brooks are sure to do the same on Tuesday, July 3rd at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music.

The concert and presentation begins at 8:00 p.m. and the admission is $20. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music (1616 Franklin Street), Funky Soul Stop Records (1811 Jefferson Street in Downtown Oakland) or online at www.brownpapertickets.com. Starting at 6 p.m. there will be a BBQ meal accompanied by the sounds from Funky Soul Stop Records. The cost of the meal is $10 (separate from the concert admission.)