Lone Cone Library

In the 1930s, black singer Marian Anderson was not allowed to perform at Constitution Hall. But with help from Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson staged an amazing concert at the Lincoln Memorial and became an activist for civil rights.

Enslaved African Americans longed for freedom, and that longing took many forms including music. Drawing on biblical imagery, slave songs both expressed the sorrow of life in bondage and offered a rallying cry for the spirit. Like a Bird brings together text, music, and illustrations by Coretta Scott King Award-winning illustrator Michele Wood to convey the rich meaning behind thirteen of these powerful songs.

Elizabeth Cotten was only a little girl when she picked up a guitar for the first time. It wasn't hers (it was her big brother's), and it wasn't strung right for her (she was left-handed). But she flipped that guitar upside down and backwards and taught herself how to play it anyway. By age eleven, she'd written "Freight Train," one of the most famous folk songs of the twentieth century. And by the end of her life, people everywhere from the sunny...

The history of the American civil rights movement expressed in song.

Surveys the music of African American slaves and tells the story of The Fisk University Jubilee Singers. Illustrated with archival prints and photographs and appended with words and music to seven songs, this account reveals spirituals as an invaluable and unique history of American slavery.

"Ed Sheeran couldn't believe his luck. The redheaded Brit was nineteen years old when he packed up his ukulele and headed to the United States. He landed in LA with no friends and no place to sleep. Sheeran's only move was to sing his heart out and hope for a break. Sheeran tracked down movie star and versatile entertainer Jamie Foxx leaving his radio show. Sheeran impressed Foxx, but Foxx wanted to hear what he could do live. So Foxx invited Sheeran...

Examines the different ways in which African heritage is celebrated, both in the United States and in Africa, in such areas as religious practices, art, music, dance, and storytelling.

Aretha grew up in a family of musicians, singing with heart and soul in her father's gospel choir. She went on to bring that feeling to her own music, creating some of history's best-loved songs that still spark hope in listeners today. This inspiring story about the Queen of Soul features a facts and photos section at the back.

Relates how the famous jazz trumpeter began his musical career, as a poor boy in New Orleans, by singing songs on street corners and playing a battered cornet in a marching band.

"An anthology featuring over thirty Black authors and illustrators to honor Black life past, present, and future"-- Provided by publisher.