RESCHEDULED TO AUGUST 28
Makers Series Artist Queen Drea
Born on the Fourth of July: From Mississippi to Minnesota
A new interdisciplinary sound performance and installation project
Friday, August 28 at 7:00 p.m.
Barbara Barker Center for Dance
University of Minnesota Campus
About the Work
Join Queen Drea for Born on the Fourth of July: From Mississippi to Minnesota, an immersive interdisciplinary sound performance and installation exploring family archive, oral history, and Black cultural memory.
Through original music, poetry, oral history recordings, improvisation, and layered sound design, the work traces the journey of Queen Drea’s mother from Mississippi to Chicago and Minnesota. Rooted in personal history, the project reflects on Black womanhood, migration, caregiving, memory, and family legacy across generations.
Blending experimental sound practice, archival storytelling, and live performance, Born on the Fourth of July: From Mississippi to Minnesota creates an intimate meditation on history, identity, and freedom.
After-Performance Conversation
Following the performance, join us for a conversation exploring The Great American Migration and Its Lasting Impact, moderated by Tish Jones.
Tish Jones is a poet, organizer, educator, and cultural producer.
This is a one-night-only event.
Commissioned through the American Composers Forum’s Recomposing America initiative.
Accessibility
The Barbara B. Barker Center for Dance includes the following accessibility features:
- A power-door entrance on the east side of the building, off 21st Avenue South
- Wheelchair-accessible restrooms on the first floor
- An accessible elevator
- Accessible parking in the 21st Avenue Ramp and Lot 94
- A vehicle drop-off and turnaround area near the front entrance
The lobby and Barker 100 performance space are on the same level. Elevator access is available for patrons using the any-gender restroom.
Accessible seating is available in the front row of Barker 100. Seats can be removed or added to accommodate wheelchair users and their companions. Please contact us in advance if you require accessible seating or other accommodations.
For additional building, entrance, and parking information, visit the Barbara B. Barker Center for Dance campus map.
Queen Drea
ABOUT AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM
ACF’s mission is to support and advocate for individuals and groups creating music today by demonstrating the vitality and relevance of their art. We do this by empowering composers, modeling creative partnerships, and advocating for new music through storytelling and connections. Working with an ecosystem of artists, programmers, presenters, teachers, funders, and audiences, we frame all of our work with a commitment to anti-racism, believing that creating a fairer world for artists benefits all of us.
Founded in 1973 by composers Libby Larsen and Stephen Paulus as the Minnesota Composers Forum, the organization continues to invest in its Minnesota home while connecting artists and advocates across the United States, its territories, and beyond. ACF frames our work with a focus on anti-racism and includes within that scope (but does not limit it to) equitable engagement of diverse gender identities, musical approaches and perspectives, religions, ages, (dis)abilities, cultures, backgrounds, sexual orientations, and broad definitions of “American.” Visit www.composersforum.org for more information.
The University of Minnesota is not endorsing or sponsoring the activities conducted by Pillsbury House Theatre on the University of Minnesota campus. The relationship between the University of Minnesota and Pillsbury House Theatre is solely that of licensor and licensee.
Part of the 2026 Makers Series
Queen Drea is part of Pillsbury House + Theatre’s 2026 Makers Series, a residency program supporting boundary-pushing performances at the intersection of arts and social justice.
PH+T’s Makers Series invites visionary activist-artists to create while in residence within our space and community, developing original work that opens pathways for stories that decolonize, democratize, and liberate.