“Community Sing Shout," with Goussy Célestin, is a free community gathering that will incorporate the traditions of the Gullah/African ring shout, Haitian rara, and other cultures. These sessions utilize rhythm, call-and-response, improvisation, and movement to foster collective strength, ancestral connection, and community healing.
This program is part of the exhibition, Black Revolutionary Women: 250 Years of a Colony within a Colony, which highlights the lives and freedom practices of Black women during the Revolutionary War era. The gallery will be open before the workshop and briefly after to engage with the exhibition. Refreshments will be available.
All people, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, country of birth, and sexual orientation, are welcome to attend. Please register; limited space available.
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Haitian-American artist Goussy Célestin is a pianist, composer, arranger, vocalist, and dancer with a three-decade career of engaging audiences globally.
Célestin's personal mission is to stir up all her musical influences into a moving experience, incorporating jazz elements and dance influences. She has studied and performed music and dance with such esteemed names as Ron Carter, Jimmy Heath, C. Scoby Stroman, Max Roach, Donald Byrd, Barry Harris, and Sheila Jordan as a jazz pianist-vocalist, while studying with Pat Hall, Jean Leon Destiné, and Camille Yarbrough as a dancer. She’s been a featured vocalist for Rattlestick Theater, has led workshops at the Metropolitan Opera's 2019 National Educators Conference, The Mile Long Opera, and Met Opera's Global Summer Camp. Célestin actively leads music workshops at Bobby McFerrin’s CircleSongs School and currently teaches and manages a program for jazz at Lincoln Center's music education department. She is an alum of ASE Dance Theater Collective, a neo-folklore ensemble dedicated to the traditional/contemporary arts of the African Diaspora filtered through Haitian music and dance. While in Cuba, she had the honor of performing with members of the Buena Vista Social Club, as well as performing/mentoring with members of Grupo AfroCuba de Matanzas, Yoruba Andabo, and Clave Y Guaguanco. She has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, Del Terzo Studio at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, SOB's, the Knitting Factory, NJPAC, Tilles Center, Newark Symphony Space, and Joe's Pub as well as various jazz clubs in New York City. A highlight of Célestin's jazz career is a duo piano performance with renowned jazz pianist John Hicks. Her musical travels include Cuba, England, Wales, Japan, and Haiti, as well as touring parts of the U.S.
Her current project is called Goussy Célestin’s Ayiti Brass.