Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem February 25, 2012

Who was Fortune?

In life, he was an African-American slave who served a doctor in post-Colonial Waterbury, Connecticut. In death, he became a medical specimen and later a walk-by exhibit at the Mattatuck Museum, a skeleton known only as "Larry."

But Fortune was also a husband, father and human being

In 2004, Connecticut poet-laureate Marilyn Nelson published Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem, a book-length poem commissioned by the African American History Project Committee in Waterbury.

Subsequently, the Waterbury symphony commissioned Dr. Ysaye Barnwell to set the text to music. Her Fortune's Bones cantata, performed by a full symphony, two choirs, seven soloists and a chorus of African bells, is the centerpiece of a performance that celebrates the fullness of African- American life. The program will also include spirituals.

Together, the artists will metaphorically set Fortune's bones to rest.

As Dr. Barnwell notes, "God's blessings on Fortune ... da bell done rung."

http://claricesmithcenter.umd.edu/2010/c/performances/performance?rowid=13725