Swing Low, Sweet Chariot: African-American Spirituals and the Crisis of AIDS

While African-American spirituals came from a place of pain and suffering, they have always fostered hope, and fostering hope is the premise behind this program featuring San Francisco Bay area spiritual singer Kerrigan Black, who died of AIDS in 1993. In this short program, haunting video and audio of Kerrigan singing spirituals, together with a short montage of photographs as the disease ravaged his body, is combined with male and female narrators offering interpretations of the spirituals in the context of Kerrigan's struggle with AIDS. Ultimately, however, this program serves more as a tribute to a talented man and friend, rather than an exploration of the larger subject suggested by the title. An optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (C.Block)