Chimes of Freedom” brings interpretations of Harry Belafonte and Bob Dylan to a performance series accompanying Danny Lyon’s photographs.
WS Chronicle | Staff Report
Reynolda is bringing music into its examination of the civil rights movement, pairing a weekend performance series with an exhibition by a photographer who worked inside the struggle.
“Chimes of Freedom: Folk Singers & Fellow Travelers” opens with an Oct. 1 fundraising gala, followed by public performances Oct. 2–4 at Reynolda House in Winston-Salem. The museum says the program explores the cultural setting of Danny Lyon’s photographs through music associated with Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan and other artists. [
The accompanying exhibition, “Flash Point: The Civil Rights Photography of Danny Lyon,” runs through Jan. 3, 2027. It presents more than 50 photographs promised to Wake Forest University by James and Wendy Agah. Phil Archer and Ashley Givens co-curated the exhibition.
Lyon’s connection to the movement went beyond a visiting photographer’s assignment. James Forman brought him into the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee as its first staff photographer. Lyon spent two years documenting activists and demonstrations, and his images appeared on SNCC posters and pamphlets that helped bring the organization’s work before a wider public.
Music also served an organizing purpose. The SNCC Digital Gateway’s history of freedom singing describes how organizers adapted church songs, invited people to sing together and used music to help overcome fear. Its account recalls Fannie Lou Hamer singing after police stopped a bus carrying people returning from an attempt to register to vote in Mississippi in 1962.
That history gives the exhibition’s musical companion a context beyond the careers of famous performers: songs and photographs were among the tools people used while challenging segregation and barriers to voting.
For the Reynolda program, Joseph Terrell appears as Dylan and Joshuah Brian Campbell as Belafonte. Archer, Reynolda’s Betsy Main Babcock deputy director, also participates. The museum describes the music as contemporary interpretations.
Public performances are scheduled for 7:30–9:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, and Saturday, Oct. 3, and 2–4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4. Listed tickets are $75, or $60 for museum members.
The separate fundraising gala is scheduled for 6–9:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, with a performance followed by dinner on the front lawn. Gala sponsorship information is available on chimes-of-freedom-opening-night-gala .