She Was Here

June 14, 2026

On June 14, 2026, the voice of soprano Kearstin Piper Brown, followed by the readings of Lenelle Moïse, brought the life of Elizabeth Freeman from slavery to freedom vividly to the stage. Freeman took her case to court, won her freedom, and changed her name from Mumbet to Elizabeth Freeman.

Each vocal selection was more powerful than the last. As Freeman came from slavery into freedom, she learned what her enslaved name, Mumbet, meant. It was French for “animal.” Yet she became a woman who understood that she belonged to herself and

stood up for herself. “She was she who belonged to herself and stood up for herself.”

The story then moved to Phillis Wheatley, stolen from her homeland, shackled, and placed in the bottom of a slave ship, tightly chained to another person. She witnessed others jump overboard and saw people sold on the auction block, including children half her size. Wheatley was viewed as less than fully human—two-thirds of a human, more like an animal. A child, but not considered human, to be treated as the master saw fit.

Phillis Wheatley published her first book in London. She learned to read, write, and speak other languages because mastering them made sense to her. She arrived in Boston in 1761, torn from her mother and father and her homeland of Senegal. She became a Black poet who, in many ways, came home.

There is evidence of personhood in these stories: a person torn from family, homeland, and children, placed on an auction block, and forced to fight for the right to be seen and recognized as human.

Again, the voice of Kearstin Piper Brown gave solace, pain, uplift, and the deep longing for freedom. “I was she, and she was here.”

The entire concert gave rise to the stories of slavery, freedom, self, and family. Lenelle Moïse’s readings and the profound voice of Kearstin Piper Brown told the story of the fight for freedom and personhood.

“Yes, she was here!”