Sing Freedom!

A personal story told by Leeds choir leader Frances Bernstein, with songs of liberation (Tuesday 22 November, 7.30-9.30pm, Clothworkers Hall, Leeds)

Leeds University Centre for African Studies are offering a chance to see the special show: ‘Sing Freedom – a story with songs of liberation’, a personal story told by Leeds Free Range choir leader Frances Bernstein, set against the background of apartheid South Africa and the trial of Nelson Mandela.

Rusty Bernstein was an ANC activist. When her father was arrested and tried alongside Mandela and six other men, their family life changed forever. Their privileged white existence was replaced by prison, flight and exile.

In Sing Freedom, Frances draws a graphic picture of a child growing up under apartheid with parents who sided with the black majority, and the perilous growth and eventual success of the liberation movement. Her choir Free Range accompany the story with the protest songs that helped sustain the anti-apartheid struggle in its darkest times.  The drama is intense as the trial of Mandela and the other activists reaches a cliff-hanging climax.

Sing Freedom has played at the Garforth Arts Festival, Ilkley Literature Festival and a dozen other sell-out adult audiences in Leeds and Sheffield, as well as repeated performances to schools in Leeds, Paris and London.

Date: Tuesday 22 November, 7.30pm

Location: Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, School of Music, University of Leeds. 12 Cavendish Rd, Leeds LS2 9JT. 

The Clothworkers bar will be open from 6.30pm and there will be a last chance to catch the exhibition ‘Forward to freedom’, about the British Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Tickets: