Blood Memories

This episodic work recalls hundreds of years of African heritage through robust dancing and Howard Roberts’ music, with symphonic echoes of many genres of Black music. The three river settings—the Nile, the Mississippi, and Harlem River—serve as a metaphor for the Black man’s journey. 

I’ve known rivers:  
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in the human veins. 
My soul has grown deep like the rivers. 

– Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”