The Drinking Gourd Festival
The Drinking Gourd Festival is an artistic and musical celebration based on the history of the song Follow the Drinking Gourd in the Underground Railroad. The festival features an art exhibition and performance by students from Washington DC area schools. Students engage in EACP's Follow the Drinking Gourd Music Map Murals curriculum in order to learn about this history of the Underground Railroad, traditional African - American Spirituals and the secret escape map encoded in the song.
About the Song
“Follow the Drinking Gourd” is an ingenious song that was used during period of American slavery to help African – Americans escape to freedom, especially from the Deep South. Legend tells that a man named Peg Leg Joe traveled from plantation to plantation, hiring himself out as a carpenter. Knowing that any straight forward tangible aids for escape would be discovered, and provoke severe punishment from slave owners, he recognized the need for a new strategy. African – American culture was, and still is, widely centered around and expressed through music. During slavery times, most music was vocal. Capitalizing upon this rich song tradition, Peg Leg Joe taught enslaved Blacks on each plantation “Follow the Drinking Gourd” as a ‘code song’ to be sung while working in the fields. The lyrics contain vital escape information that includes what time of year to leave (Spring) and which rivers and trees to use as a northward guide. Of course it includes a constant directive to use the Polaris constellation, called the Drinking Gourd for its shape, as a starry map toward the north and freedom.
History of the Program
Follow the Drinking Gourd Music Map Murals was first presented by Maya Cunningham in New York City with almost two hundred elementary school students who worked on five mural panels. In 2015 Maya Cunningham, received an ArtsNow Grant from the DC Public Education fund the first festival. She collaborated with Adjoa Burrows, children’s book illustrator and teaching artist, to conduct the Follow the Drinking Gourd Music Map Murals program with students at JC Nalle Elementary School in Washington DC. All winter and spring, Ms. Burrows and Ms. Cunningham engaged fifty second and third grade music students in the residency. Both in New York and DC, students learned to sing and perform the song while analyzing and illustrating the map encoded in the lyrics. Ms. Cunningham taught students how to sing Follow the Drinking Gourd and other African – American spirituals that have encoded escape messages. Ms. Burrows taught the students how to draw landscapes using perspective and how to illustrate the natural landmarks that are named in each verse of the song. The children constructed mural collages that are absolutely beautiful. Check out our gallery below!
About the Song
“Follow the Drinking Gourd” is an ingenious song that was used during period of American slavery to help African – Americans escape to freedom, especially from the Deep South. Legend tells that a man named Peg Leg Joe traveled from plantation to plantation, hiring himself out as a carpenter. Knowing that any straight forward tangible aids for escape would be discovered, and provoke severe punishment from slave owners, he recognized the need for a new strategy. African – American culture was, and still is, widely centered around and expressed through music. During slavery times, most music was vocal. Capitalizing upon this rich song tradition, Peg Leg Joe taught enslaved Blacks on each plantation “Follow the Drinking Gourd” as a ‘code song’ to be sung while working in the fields. The lyrics contain vital escape information that includes what time of year to leave (Spring) and which rivers and trees to use as a northward guide. Of course it includes a constant directive to use the Polaris constellation, called the Drinking Gourd for its shape, as a starry map toward the north and freedom.
History of the Program
Follow the Drinking Gourd Music Map Murals was first presented by Maya Cunningham in New York City with almost two hundred elementary school students who worked on five mural panels. In 2015 Maya Cunningham, received an ArtsNow Grant from the DC Public Education fund the first festival. She collaborated with Adjoa Burrows, children’s book illustrator and teaching artist, to conduct the Follow the Drinking Gourd Music Map Murals program with students at JC Nalle Elementary School in Washington DC. All winter and spring, Ms. Burrows and Ms. Cunningham engaged fifty second and third grade music students in the residency. Both in New York and DC, students learned to sing and perform the song while analyzing and illustrating the map encoded in the lyrics. Ms. Cunningham taught students how to sing Follow the Drinking Gourd and other African – American spirituals that have encoded escape messages. Ms. Burrows taught the students how to draw landscapes using perspective and how to illustrate the natural landmarks that are named in each verse of the song. The children constructed mural collages that are absolutely beautiful. Check out our gallery below!