With much of the material re-enacting the harsh and shameful realities of the European slave trade this show won't be your typical feel good Broadway fare - even if the stage props are impressive. Still, the overriding moral and message within revolves around the idea that music can provide an important beacon of hope in the process of healing and overcoming almost any situation. So, even though the narrative begins in the jungles of Africa we ultimately end up in a jazz club in Harlem. And while the script traces the extensive suffering of a people it is a concluding psychedelic guitar riff in the style of Jimi Hendrix that reminds us all of just how far we have come.

The Jonah People in Nashville. (Photo Credit - Dokk Savage)

Tracing back 400 years when the first Africans were kidnapped and sold into slavery, Lokumbe's taps into his own family's legacy to recount the atrocities of the Middle Passage, the stripping of identity, and the oppression and servitude of slaves. Though the subject matter is challenging, Lokumbe's work is one of peace and transcendence, and a celebration of the human spirit of those who persevered to become Black visionaries, and whose achievements in every discipline have changed the world forever.

Audiences who attend the four-date run from April 13-16 will experience the journey from captivity, oppression and servitude, the loss of all freedoms, to the struggle to sustain hope for a way forward. Over the course of this powerful and epic production Lokumbe will celebrate the spirit of those who endured, those ancestors whose gifts of hope, perseverance and resilience have produced successive generations of Black visionaries and world-changers.

The Jonah People in Nashville. (Photo Credit - Dokk Savage)

Related Links: For more information on THE JONAH PEOPLE and the other organizations mentioned please visit the following links - The Jonah People | Nashville Symphony