“No Cowards in Our Band” is a musical drama about renowned activist and abolitionist Frederick Douglass through his own words, based on a libretto by Anthony Knight, Jr. In one of his most famous orations, the “West Indian Emancipation Speech” of August 1857, Douglass said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” The piece honors him, starring Masud Olufani, with a trio of opera singers: soprano Nia Drummond, Metropolitan Opera tenor Edward Washington II, and Opera Ebony and Syracuse Opera’s Gregory Sheppard, bass. With the performance just days before the presidential election, the piece is a striking reminder of the power of the pen, the voice, and the vote.
