page_title: The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College
section_title: About Kuumba
hierarchical_section_title: The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College / About Kuumba
caption_attribution_description: English: Kuumba Singers on tour in Atlanta
context_page_description: The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College is the oldest existing Black organization at Harvard College. Formed during a time of high political turmoil, the purpose of the Kuumba Singers is to express Black creativity and spirituality to create a safe space for Black students. In existence for almost 50 years, the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College, or simply Kuumba, has served the Boston-Cambridge community as well as the national community through songs ranging from Negro Spirituals to Contemporary Gospel. With concerts held during both the winter and the spring of each year, along with many other performances and a spring tour, the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College are committed to celebrating Black culture and providing a sense of unity and safety for its members. Through its music and performance, the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College strives to fulfill its mission of leaving a space better than it was found in the true meaning of kuumba.
context_section_description: Kuumba (pronounced koo-oom-bah) was founded in 1970 by Dennis Wiley and Fred Lucas, two African American undergraduates of the Harvard class of 1972.  In an era of “Black Power” and Black pride, immediately following the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. and the 1969 Harvard Strike, the choir emerged as a source of community, spiritual inspiration, political motivation and cultural stimulation among the small but growing number of Black students at Harvard.  Inspired by the History of Black Music class taught by Professor Hubert Walters in the spring of 1970, the choir concept was conceived that summer as an outgrowth of a project on Black music conducted by Dennis and Fred and supported by the newly established Department of African and African American Studies and African American Cultural Center.
  The next fall, Marilynn Sasportas, Radcliffe Class of 1974, joined them in Quincy 317 to assist in planning and publicizing the first rehearsal.   The Kuumba Singers were officially born in November 1970 when students from the classes of 1971 -1974 gathered for the first time one evening after dinner in a second floor lounge of the old Freshman Union, now known as the Barker Center.  Following that initial meeting, Walters would assume responsibility as the choir's first director.  The first spring concert, entitled “An Evening of Black Spirituality,” was held in Sanders Theater on Sunday, May 16, 1971.
  It was not easy for Black students to “sing the Lord’s song” in the “strange land” of Harvard during this period of racial tension and campus unrest.  Yet, Kuumba not only provided spiritual inspiration—it was also a source of unity and strength.  The group chose the name “Kuumba” (Swahili for “creativity”) because it best captured the choir's intent to reflect the creative genius of Black people through the rich diversity of Diasporic music and cultural expression.  As written in the organization's constitution, “Black music is a manifestation of the Black spirit – it speaks to our every emotion. Moreover, Black music helps sustain and direct our culture.”
  Reminding the Black community of its past, informing it of its present, and giving it hope and guidance for the future, the Kuumba Singers—through song, dance, poetry, and other forms of artistic expression—have always sought to leave the space called Harvard, and its surrounding community, better than when we found it.  The choir's current racial and ethnic diversity is both a remarkable testimony to, and a relentless test of, that noble and enduring ideal.
  Since those early years, the torch has been carried forward by only two additional directors, Mr. Robert Winfrey and Mr. Sheldon K.X. Reid (College ’96, GSE ’98), and by more than 1,000 Kuumba members and alumni.
caption: The Kuumba Singers on tour in Atlanta
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