Dialing Up the Drama of Lafayette Square ; Tour Reveals Rich Black History; in Historic Area
The Washington Times › May 03, 2007
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Summary
Press your ear closely to the phone, and the voice on the other ends sounds nearly as strong and true as if it were a real diva singing to you, and not just some old recording.
Who knew you could dial up the past so easily?See the full content of this document
Extract
Dialing Up the Drama of Lafayette Square ; Tour Reveals Rich Black History; in Historic Area
You can, thanks to Decatur House's new tour, "Half Had Not Been Told to Me: The African American History of Lafayette Square," which makes use of new "guide by cell" technology to tell the story of the enslaved and free black people whose lives intersected at the square, just north of the White House.
The voice on the phone is part of that story: It is that of the celebrated opera singer Madame Lillian Evanti, who gave a triumphant recital at the Belasco Theater on Lafayette Square's east side in 1932 - just after New York's Metropolitan Opera House barred her from performing.But the connections work on a number of different levels."When you read histories of Lafayette Square, you hear about Daniel Webster, Dolley Madison, and Stephen Decatur...See the full content of this document
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