Good Morning POU!
Today we honor Becky Elzy and Aberta Bradford. These two African American women, who were born into slavery in Louisiana, remembered over one hundred spirituals and shared them with people who had the institutional means to preserve them. The result is a published book in the Library of Congress general folklore collections containing 120 songs, a microfilm shared by the American Folklife Center and the Library’s Music Division containing at least 6 unpublished songs, and 3 sound discs in the AFC archive containing 10 recordings of Elzy and Bradford’s singing.
The priceless audio of the 10 songs sung for Lomax by Bradford and Elzy are in the Alan Lomax Collection at the Library of Congress, and can be found online here: https://t.co/60KfRGiBak pic.twitter.com/IBTUyvIlgB
— Library of Congress (@librarycongress) June 19, 2024