The Lost World of African-American Cantors (1920 to 1953) with Henry Sapoznik

Henry Sapoznik, an award winning producer, musicologist, performer and writer in the fields of traditional and popular Yiddish and American music and culture, discusses the lost world of the African-American Cantor: 1920-1953. The history of Black-Jewish cultural interaction has always included how Jews adopted and adapted Black music (ragtime, jazz, swing, R&B, blues, etc.), as performers, promoters, managers and record labels. What has not been previously explored are the African-Americans (Jewish and non-Jewish) who performed Yiddish and cantorial music in the Jewish community, in theater, and on radio between the World Wars. Sapoznik is a five-time Grammy-nominated producer/performer and was a 2000 Peabody award winner for co-producing the 10-part NPR series “The Yiddish Radio Project.” Click here to view his Zoom program.