Tune Every Heart: The Princeton & Slavery Project in Song

TROY ANTHONY is a composer, director, and actor based in NYC. He and his writing partner Sukari Jones, have presented work at Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, Prospect Theater Company and Musical Theater Factory. Troy has been seen in The Public Theater’s As You Like It and Twelfth Night, as well as Prospect Theater Company’s Tamar of the River. He leads the Public Theater’s Public Works Community Choir and focuses on the intersection between art and social justice at the DreamYard Art Center. He is a graduate of Otterbein University.

CHRIS BEARD ’15 is a New Jersey based actor-singer. While in undergrad at Princeton, he could be seen performing with the Princeton Triangle Club, diSiac Dance Company, and the Princeton University Glee Club, as well as several productions mounted by PUP, Princeton Opera Theater, and the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater.

DANYEL FULTON was most recently seen as Sarah in the 5th Avenue Theaters new staging of RAGTIME. She has been Off Broadway as Ammut in JASPER IN DEADLAND with Prospect Theater Company and on tour across the country and Japan as Dionne in HAIR. She’s received Audelco nominations for her performances as Dorothy in THE WIZ, “Charlayne” in AINT MISBEHAVIN’, and Aisha in a new play, A TIME TO LOVE, at the National Black Theater. 

DeMONE is an award winning actor/singer and the founding artistic director of The New American Theatre Co. NY. He is the recipient of a regional Emmy Award and a Joseph Jefferson Award (Jeff Award). Recent theater credits include FAIRYTALE CHRISTMAS (World Premiere) and UNCLE VANYA. Broadway, national, and international credits include: RAGTIME, MISS SAIGON, RENT, J.C. SUPERSTAR, THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS, CROWNS, THE FULL MONTY, BIG RIVER, SWEET CHARITY, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, BLACK NATIVITY, THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, ABOUT CLARENCE AND ME, SIDESHOW, OTHELLO, and GRAND HOTEL.Film/TV credits include: THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER AND PETE, BAD STREET, AMEN, IN THE EYES OF GOD, CALIFORNIA DREAMS, and THE MAGIC DOOR.

TONY VO is an actor and a Drama Desk Nominated musician based in New York City. Select theater credits include Off-Broadway: SEAWIFE (Naked Angels) and NONO BOY (Theater Row). Regional: NY Stage & Film, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, White Heron and The Hangar Theater. Workshops/Readings: NYTW, The Lincoln Center, Ensemble Studio Theater, Ma-Yi, Soho Rep, The Lark, and Prospect Theater. Tony is a founding member of folk band/theater collective, The Lobbyists, for which they were nominated for a 2016 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Musical: SEAWIFE. Ithaca College & NTI: Eugene O’Neill Theater Center alumnus. www.tonyvo.net

Jackson Artis ’20 is in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering with a certificate in East Asian studies. On campus Jackson is the Artistic Director of Fuzzy Dice Improv comedy (Princeton’s Most Attractive Improv Group*) as well as a cast member in Daniel Krane ‘18 and Paddy Boroughs ‘18 senior thesis production “We Are Proud…” Jackson has been trying to get more involved in theater on campus and really enjoyed learning about Princeton’s history and creating this artistic work with his classmates. (*Self-Proclaimed)

Eli Berman ’20 is a Music major with intended certificates in Vocal Performance and American Studies. They study composition with Steve Mackey, Dan Trueman, and Dmitri Tymoczko and sing bass-baritone & countertenor with the Princeton University Glee Club, Chamber Choir, and Contrapunctus XIV. Eli has written and been commissioned for a variety of pieces for concert, film, theater, and multimedia, so they are thankful for the opportunity to use their musical experience to help tell some of the real life stories from the Princeton and slavery research, which they have been involved in since freshman year.

Fergus Binnie ’21 is a perspective Woodrow Wilson School major and vocal performance certificate from Princeton. His long time love of musical theatre and history drew him to the Atelier project, and he has loved his time learning and telling new stories. He’d like to thank Cara Reichel and Pete Mills for their time and dedication to this project.

Douglas Corzine ’20 is from Nashville, TN. A prospective English major, he is pursuing certificates in Translation/Intercultural Communication and Humanistic Studies. On campus, he is a member of the Footnotes, an all-male a cappella group.  He enjoyed learning from his classmates and professors and hopes the project makes an impact.

Haydon John ’21 is from Brooklyn, New York, and is undecided in his major, pursuing certificates in theater and urban studies. She is heavily involved with theater on campus and was immediately drawn to the Atelier course by the magnitude and importance of its focus. She is incredibly grateful to have collaborated with her talented peers and to have been a part of such a creative piece.   

Jinn Park ’21 is an international student from South Korea and a potential Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs major with a certificate in theater. She comes from a theater and dance background, and although she’s a little shy about singing, she will try her best. Jinn is grateful for having been a part of a meaningful project with talented (and funny) people.

Lavinia Liang ’18 is in the Politics Department with a certificate in creative writing. She is involved in slam poetry and plans arts and entertainment events on campus. She hopes you enjoy the show and that, if you laugh, you laugh with her rather than at her.

Asia Matthews ’20 is a proud New Yorker. She is part of the African American Studies Department and is pursuing a certificate in Statistics and Machine Learning.  On campus Asia is a friend, scholar, and member of the campus community that is deeply concerned about Princeton’s history with slavery. She found this Atelier course to be exciting new turf and had a meaningful experience with the project and her peers.

Taylor Pearson ’18 is in the Woodrow Wilson School with a focus in Race, Ethnicity, and Discrimination as well as a certificate student in the African American Studies Department. On campus, Taylor serves on the Executive Board of the Princeton Association of Black Women, is a Global Ambassador to the Office of International Programs, and is a member of the Princeton Perspective Project committee. Taylor plans to pursue broadcast journalism upon graduation.

Irene Ross ’20 is an African American Studies major with certificates in ethnography and visual arts. Because she was born and raised in Princeton, the history covered in this class holds special meaning for her. She loves writing and music, but hadn’t put the two together until this Atelier course!

Andrew Tye ’21 is an aspiring actor and poet with an interest in studying and performing drag. He has performed in 21 shows, including Cabaret (Clifford Bradshaw), Bug (Peter), Gurls (Chorus Member), and Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night (Jonsi). He hopes to major in either English or Anthropology and to perform professionally.

Betsey Stockton (1798?-1865), a former slave of Princeton president Ashbel Green, became a prominent and respected educator in Princeton, Philadelphia, and the Sandwich Islands (present-day Hawaii).

Samuel Stanhope Smith, Princeton’s seventh president (1795-1812) was a slave-owner who argued that environment, not innate biological differences, determined one’s race. His teachings influenced Princeton alumni to establish the American Colonization Society.

Cezar Trent (?-1813), a free black citizen of antebellum Princeton, was the employee of a prominent landowner, the object of a town resident’s published recollections, and a slave owner.

Sam Parker, a free black man, worked in professor Joseph Henry’s laboratory and household from 1840-46. His assistance became so critical to Henry’s research that when Parker fell ill for a brief period in June 1842, Henry’s experiments halted entirely.

Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute and one of the 19th century’s leading researchers in electromagnetism, spent fourteen years as a professor at Princeton between 1832 and 1846.

James Collins Johnson (1816-1902), a fugitive slave freed after an 1843 trial in Princeton, became a prominent figure in town and on campus over the course of his many decades working at the College of New Jersey.

Reverend Theodore Sedgwick Wright (1797–1847), an African-American abolitionist and minister, was the first black man to attend Princeton Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1829.

James Carnahan, the College of New Jersey’s longest-serving president (1823-1854), was a slave-owner and a director of the American Colonization Society of New Jersey.

The Riot of 1846 — In June 1846, more than a dozen Southern students mobbed, whipped, and nearly killed an African American man in Princeton—but only after fighting off other classmates, and local Irish farm workers, who opposed them. 

Read more at https://slavery.princeton.edu/stories

In this audio feature by Princeton Alumni Weekly (PAW), atelier student Douglas Corzine ’20 reveals the challenges of telling these compelling stories in musical form. Listen now or read the transcript at paw.princeton.edu

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