Performance: The Prayers of Black Folks: Steph Davis and Jenny Oliver
“Black History in Action (BHAC) at St. Augustine’s is proudly hosting The Prayers of Black Folks: Steph Davis and Jenny Oliver, a music and dance performance.
Steph Davis is a marimbist and cultural activist. Their music engages traditions, epistemologies, and aesthetics from the African diaspora as means for uncovering truthful historiographies, finding creative self-actualization, and reaching for collective liberation.
Hailed by The Washington Post as a “”captivating”” performer who brings “”bright humanity and expressive depth”” to contemporary music, Steph is a marimba soloist and chamber musician touring throughout the United States. Integrating Black and Western European classical music, traditional African American spirituals, and Ghanaian gyil songs, their performances explore the cultural and political landscape of the African diaspora.
Through their arrangements and commissions, Steph has contributed over 20 works by Black composers to the marimba’s solo and chamber repertoire. They have premiered works by Alissa Voth, Damien Geter, and Pamela Z, among others.
A researcher and scholar of African American music, Steph is a teaching artist with Castle of our Skins, a Black arts institution. They are also an instructor of composition, contemporary music, and core studies at the Boston Conservatory.
Learn more about Steph Davis by visiting https://www.stephdavismusic.com.
We hope you will join us for this sensational performance!
Time: Sunday, March 30, 4pm, coffee social afterwards!
Location: St. Augustine’s African Orthodox Church, 137 Allston Street”
Free admission.
Image Credit: Lina Fu, Steph Davis Flyer, 2025. Photograph: Shots by Oreo