Few artists have wielded their voice as each an instrument of artwork and a weapon of fact with the facility and precision of Sharon Manuel. With the discharge of her single, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” she doesn’t merely return to the musical stage—she reclaims it as a sanctified area for remembrance, resistance, and reverence. This hauntingly highly effective recording just isn’t merely a music, however a residing, respiration monument carved in sound, echoing the ancestral voices of a individuals whose roots run as deep and enduring because the rivers they crossed, bathed in, and wept beside.
Born right into a family pulsing with the rhythms of spirituals and the disciplined reverence of gospel custom, Sharon Manuel’s journey by music started within the glow of the household piano. From these first tentative keystrokes, a lifelong devotion to musical and social consciousness was cast. Alongside her sisters, Cheryl and La Vergne, she turned a cherished torchbearer of the African American religious custom within the Bay Space. Within the Fifties and ’60s, the trio’s voices stuffed church buildings, whispered by transistor radios, and rang out in personal gatherings, affirming Black tradition and spirituality throughout a time when each have been too typically marginalized or dismissed.
A pivotal affect in her youth got here by her highschool mentor, Mr. Eaton, who acknowledged and nurtured her reward for vocal expression. That mentorship did greater than refine her approach—it instilled in her a way of function. Music turned greater than efficiency; it turned proclamation. This ethos would change into the heartbeat of Manuel’s artistry all through the turbulent Sixties, when she aligned her voice with the burgeoning civil rights motion.
Her faculty years positioned her on the entrance traces of historical past. As a member of the Pupil Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), she marched, protested, and arranged alongside icons comparable to Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael. However maybe her most potent weapon was her voice. In mass conferences and candlelit vigils, in sanctuaries and streets alike, Sharon Manuel sang with conviction, providing melodies that soothed the soul and stirred the conscience. Her music, even then, was a balm and a battle cry.
Because the Sixties gave method to the complicated terrain of the Eighties, Manuel’s dedication didn’t waver. As an alternative, it deepened. She turned a revered music educator and the celebrated lead vocalist at Trinity United Methodist Church, the place worship turned each a creative and political act. And but, probably the most transformative chapters of her profession got here along with her collaborative work alongside Gregory Hickman-Williams. Collectively, they launched a marketing campaign to honor and amplify the contributions of Black composers in classical music—a style lengthy steeped in Eurocentric canon. With the help of cultural figures like Emmy Award winner Ben Williams, their efforts cracked open the doorways of alternative, fostering a brand new period of inclusivity in classical efficiency and schooling.
One such landmark second got here in 1983 with the recorded efficiency “Blacks Making Historical past At the moment,” that includes Manuel, Hickman-Williams, Charlotte Nelson, and Cody Gillette. Although the work remained hidden within the shadows for many years, its current rediscovery stands as a triumphant reclamation of Black musical heritage. It’s towards this backdrop of tireless advocacy and unshakable inventive imaginative and prescient that “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” emerges—not as a mere launch, however as a revelation.
Impressed by Langston Hughes’s seminal 1921 poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is a meditation on lineage, reminiscence, and identification. Hughes penned the work at simply 17, but it speaks with the knowledge of millennia. His phrases hint a Black man’s historical past by the nice rivers of civilization—the Euphrates, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi—imbuing geography with soul, and historical past with private testimony.
In Sharon Manuel’s interpretation, Hughes’s already-stirring phrases discover a new register of depth and pathos. Her efficiency just isn’t solely technically very good however spiritually transcendent. She sings not simply along with her voice however along with her blood reminiscence, embodying each phrase with an depth that defies categorization. When she utters, “I’ve recognized rivers historic because the world and older than the move of human blood in human veins,” she does so not as a narrator, however as a vessel—channeling centuries of sorrow, triumph, and unbreakable dignity.
The rivers named within the poem change into sonic tributaries by which Manuel’s voice flows—majestic and solemn over the Nile, rhythmic and ancestral over the Congo, whispering with historic breath over the Euphrates, and swelling with aching satisfaction because the Mississippi turns “golden within the sundown.” Every notice is formed with reverence, each phrase a benediction. There’s a sacred stillness in her supply, but additionally a simmering urgency that by no means lets us neglect: this isn’t only a look again—it’s a name ahead.
Musically, the association is discreet but highly effective, permitting the total emotional spectrum of Manuel’s voice to shine. Her dynamic management, tonal richness, and unerring sense of phrasing convey dimension to each syllable. At instances, she caresses the melody like a prayer; at others, she unleashes it like a sermon. The result’s an expertise that transcends style—a fusion of classical poise, gospel depth, and historic gravitas.
Lately, Sharon Manuel has obtained well-deserved accolades for her work, most notably her reception of the MY MUSIC BLOCK TV AWARD. The distinction just isn’t merely a celebration of her inventive excellence however a recognition of her lifelong dedication to the Black musical custom and its position within the higher cultural and political battle. Her resolution to just accept the award not just for herself however on behalf of the late Gregory Hickman-Williams speaks volumes of her humility and unyielding sense of collective function.
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is, in each approach, a end result—but in addition a starting. It reintroduces us to an artist whose life has been a devotion, whose music has at all times served the individuals. By way of this single, Sharon Manuel invitations us not solely to hear, however to really feel—to wade into the waters of historical past, to listen to the echoes of our ancestors, and to rise renewed.
In honoring Sharon Manuel, we honor the rivers she sings of—timeless, mighty, and ever-flowing. And in her voice, we hear the soul of a individuals, deepened by time, strengthened by resistance, and made superb by music.
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