Juneteenth Performances To Detail Nation’s History Through Song
Local musicians Laurin Talese and Zeek Burse spent months researching artifacts, documents, and more at the Museum of the American Revolution to create sonic representations of the nation’s founding and history for the semiquincentennial.
Zeek Burse and Laurin Talese | ArtPhilly
On Juneteenth, the What Now: 2026 citywide arts festival is hosting free performances at the Museum of the American Revolution featuring songs deeply inspired by the the history of the United States in celebration of its 250th anniversary.
The June 19 “Sound of History” event will see local musicians and past Black Music City grantees Laurin Talese and Zeek Burse performing original music they created after months-long residencies at the Museum of American Revolution. The performance is part of WXPN’s support for the semiquincentennial, which aims to provide the Soundtrack to America’s 250th.
Tickets are free and available online here.
Talese and Burse spent hours poring over documents, artifacts, and more at the museum to glean inspiration for their compositions, which will debut at the event at the museum.
Burse spoke with WXPN about the process of creating music bridging 1776 and 2026.
”It’s been really cool to have all of that information from the historic perspective and try to bring it into the audible and express those things musically,” he said. “Express the journey, express the irony and hypocrisy, express the wins, express the losses.”
Burse and Talese spent every Tuesday and Thursday at the museum, immersing themselves in the history. Their residencies began in November and gave them unprecedented and unlimited access to the museum’s collection through February. Director of Education and Community Engagement Adrienne Whaley told Burse and Talese to take their time in absorbing the museum’s extensive contents.
”You have to spend time with it,” Burse said of all the esoterica housed in the museum. ”[Whaley] was encouraging us to not be so quick to pick something, just soak in all the knowledge and be more like a sponge. And that was really, really helpful for me so that I didn’t become fixated on one thing.”
For his compositions, Burse focused on the written word.
He named Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from Birmingham jail, John and Abigail Adams’ correspondence, and the documentation of slaves who fought for the Continental Army as some of the most influential pieces in composing his work.
”At the beginning when we were screaming ‘freedom, we want our freedom,’ we still had slaves,” he said. “These are different things that show us or highlight how things were in those times.”
Burse’s composition, which he described as “archival,” is a 20-minute sonic representation of the historical artifacts and documents he focused on. The final piece of the project is a letter Burse wrote to his future self.
“I’m now also putting myself within a line of people that wrote things or said things, or in this case sang things, that we hope can be more progressive and inclusive.”
A second performance of Sound of History is planned the following week in Germantown. Details of that performance have not been announced.
Black Music City is a collaboration between WXPN, WRTI, and RECPhilly. The What Now: 2026 festival is series of events, showcases, and more spotlighting the work of artists dozens of Philadelphia artists hosted ArtPhilly.