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Ruth Naomi Floyd

Are We Yet Somehow Alive?

Event Location: Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, 19 South 38th Street

Philadelphia’s own sacred jazz vocalist/composer, Ruth Naomi Floyd, makes her Penn Live Arts debut in Are We Yet Somehow Alive?, a moving world premiere that pairs jazz, blues and gospel with fine art projections to share compelling first-person accounts from enslaved Africans in America. At the intersection of despair, endurance and resistance, these narratives explore what it means to be human amidst the struggle for liberation and dehumanization. Praised for her distinctive sound and progressive jazz ensembles, Floyd uses her soaring mezzo-soprano voice to shine light and find defiant joy in our experience.

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Performances

• Thursday, April 25 @ 7:30 PM

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Insights Events

The Making of Are We Yet Somehow Alive?
Apr 24 at 7 PM
Kislak Center Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, 6th Floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center

Join us at the Kislak Center for a lecture and Q&A with Ruth Naomi Floyd on the making of her world premiere work, Are We Yet Somehow Alive?. Floyd is an Equity in Action Visiting Scholar with Penn’s Office of Social Equity & Community.

This event is free and open to all but registration is requested. » Register now

Artist Information

Program Notes [PDF]

Co-presented with the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral.

Photo credit: Courtesy Ruth Naomi Floyd