About this Event
The program weaves together performance, creative workshops, and community conversations that explore the key themes and questions of We Were Fridays—cultural memory, Gullah Geechee heritage, diaspora, and intergenerational storytelling.
We Were Fridays is an interdisciplinary music project led by cellist Jeffrey Zeigler – a deeply personal exploration of cultural memory and diaspora. It follows a story that began in the Griot tradition of West Africa, traveled to South Carolina via the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, then north via the Great Migration, and beyond. We Were Fridays explores the music of the Gullah people of South Carolina's Lowcountry, a community that has preserved more of its West African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African American community in the United States. Gullah music has influenced spirituals, gospel, ragtime, rhythm and blues, soul, hip hop, and jazz. We Were Fridays will extend that reach into instrumental cello music. Told through cello, electronics, and dance, We Were Fridays will explore forbidden love, fractured lines, and complex legacies.
As covered in The New York Times, We Were Fridays is one of the most significant works of cultural memory and diaspora to come to Brooklyn this fall.
“My father was raised in Philadelphia with no knowledge of his biological family until 1992, when a woman named Burnice Perry contacted him. She became the grandmother I never knew, tracing our lineage back to George Washington Friday. Before she passed, I recorded hours of our conversations; those recordings are the heartbeat of this work…”
– Jeffrey Zeigler, cellist and project creator
The work centers on new compositions from Etienne Charles, Tamar-kali, Hannah Ishizaki, and Jeffrey Zeigler, and features choreography/dance from Flexn pioneer Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray, plus a bespoke interactive book design from sister sylvester.
The project is deeply rooted in an ethos of community and intergenerational learning, partnering with the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, the University of Georgia Culture & Community program, and the Weeksville Heritage Center to develop community engagement and education platforms. This work brings together community members and elders, along with students and teachers, to engage in dialogue, conversation, and creative exchange around the project’s themes of memory and diaspora.
We Were Fridays x Weeksville Heritage Center: Community Day
We will be updating the schedule with more details on the teaching artist workshops soon - check back for further details.
- 11:30 - Open Doors
- 12:00 - 12:30 Opening Session -- Framing the Day
- 12:45 - 1:45 Teaching Artist Lab #1
- 2:00 - 3:00 Teaching Artist Lab #2
- 3:15 - 4:15 Teaching Artist Lab #3
- 12:45 pm - 5:00 pm The Gathering Space (drop-in workshop sessions around textiles and photos)
- 4:30 - 5:00 Community Conversation & Teaching Artist Session Integration
- 5:00 - 5:30 Break & Snacks
- 5:30 - 7:00 We Were Fridays Performance & Q&A
We hope to see you there!
Event venue & nearby stays
Weeksville Heritage Center, 158 Buffalo Avenue, Brooklyn, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.