The Dream Freedom Revival
The Dream Freedom Revival, or, “Dr. Reverend Ebenezer Abernathy’s Mellifluously, Melodious and Medicative Freedom Revival of Greater Central New York,” (DFR) is a character-driven, community-based musical theater project that is inspired in part by the Evangelical revivals that were prominent in Central New York in the 19th century. Directed by IA’s Associate Director Kevin Bott, the DFR draws on this region’s history and legacy of freedom.
Says Bott:
The guiding ethos of the project is that democracy is driven by those who participate in it. Our aim is to use popular performance to inspire and encourage a meaningful engagement with real-world issues in Syracuse and the Central New York region. My goal is that the many groups and individuals working on social and political issues see that performance can be used to bring more people directly into the conversations and activities they’re already undertaking.
DFR events feature a collectively-generated performance with original music, lyrics and dialogue. Bott plays a secular “preacher,” Dr. Ebenezer Abernathy, who travels Central New York to celebrate democracy and encourage local participation in the questions that affect the lives of residents. Musical collaborators include Timothy K. Eatman, IA’s Research Director and an Assistant Professor in SU’s School of Education; Danan Tsan, singer, songwriter and regular performer with Syracuse Opera; Caroline Kim Tihanyi, well-known local singer and songwriter; and Tim Regan, Cazenovia resident and soon-to-be student at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. The “Freedom Choir and Band” is comprised of a diverse group of campus and community stakeholders that includes local performers and activists, as well as undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty members from SU, Onondaga Community College, and SUNY Oswego.
Says Eatman:
The DFR is a unique opportunity to encourage innovation and integration of knowledge and creativity to identify and solve real-world problems through art and humanities. We aspire for the project to develop into a model of democratic publicly engaged scholarship and campus-community collaboration that can be a resource to IA’s national network.
For more information, or to hear music and watch videos, visit dreamfreedomrevival.org, reverbnation.org/thedreamfreedomrevival, or facebook.com/thedreamfreedomrevival
Past Projects
Art-In-Motion – A partnership of Imagining America, Open Hand Theater, and Syracuse Stage, Art-In-Motion combined public conversations and performance to bring together diverse people from the four sectors of Syracuse from 2008-2010.
