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UID:riverbender-event-57686-20261013T180000@riverbender.com
DTSTAMP:20261009T091036Z
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261013T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261013T190000
SUMMARY:Songs of the Illinois Freedom Road with Chris Vallillo
LOCATION:Hayner Library\, 132 Alton Square\, Alton\, IL 62002
DESCRIPTION:Hayner Library at Alton Square Mall Performance Room (Uppe
r Level) Tuesday\, October 13\, 2026\, 6:00 p.m. “Songs of the Illinoi
s Freedom Road” is a powerful new musical performance featuring the so
ngs\, stories\, and struggles of the Illinois Underground Railroad. Th
e program was developed by Looking for Lincoln to be performed in conj
unction with communities hosting the exhibit. The show features rare f
irst-person accounts of freedom-seekers who passed through Illinois. H
ighlighted stories include John and Mary Little\, who traveled on foot
140 miles to Chicago\, and George Burroughs\, a Black Canadian who wo
rked on the Illinois Central Railroad\, where he helped smuggle escape
es to freedom. Vallillo extensively researched the subject using prima
ry source documents such as the 1857 slave narratives of Canada and th
e WPA Slave Narratives\, as well as the most recent scholarship on the
subject. Vallillo combines these powerful stories with eleven histori
c songs that were sung by the enslaved to inspire and share knowledge 
among themselves. Always a project-oriented artist\, in the early 2000
s Vallillo began creating one-person shows using music as the vehicle 
to explore a subject or theme. His 2008 project\, Abraham Lincoln in S
ong\, received the endorsement of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Com
mission and the CD reached number ten on Billboard’s Bluegrass Album C
hart. In 2016\, his recording\, Oh Freedom! Songs of the Civil Rights 
Movement\, charted at number six on the folk charts\, and the show was
staged with a band and full choir at Western Illinois University. Tha
t show was videotaped and syndicated on Illinois Public Television. Pl
ease call 1-800-613-3163 to register for this program.\n\nEvent detail
s: https://www.riverbender.com/events/details.cfm?seriesid=57686
URL:https://www.riverbender.com/events/details.cfm?seriesid=57686
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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