Songs of the Disinherited: Anjelitos Negros
Premier: 1972
Length: 7 minutes
Dancers: Woman's Solo
Available for Re-staging: Yes -- as part of a suite of women's solos
Repetiteurs: Stephanie Powell, Randall Smith, Amy Starnar
Categories: SoloMusic • Manuel Alvarez Maciste
Lyrics • Andres Eloy Blanco
Piano and Vocals • Roberta Flack
Length: 7 minutes
Dancers: Woman's Solo
Available for Re-staging: Yes -- as part of a suite of women's solos
Repetiteurs: Stephanie Powell, Randall Smith, Amy Starnar
Categories: SoloMusic • Manuel Alvarez Maciste
Lyrics • Andres Eloy Blanco
Piano and Vocals • Roberta Flack
About Angelitos Negros
Angelitos Negros was premiered in 1972 by the Inner City Repertory Dance Company of Los Angeles as part of the dance suite, "Songs of the Disinherited." It is in the permanent repertoire of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble and the Lula Washington Dance Theatre. It has been performed by Elizabeth Roxas of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Roxane D’Orleans Juste of the Limón Dance Company, Melissa Young and Nycole Merritt of Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and is a signature performance piece for dance soloists Stephanie Powell and Nejla Yatkin.
"Painter born in my native land with the foreign brush
Painter that continues the course of all the painters of old
Even though the Virgin may be white, paint little black angels for me
For they too go to heaven
Painter indeed you paint with love!
Why do you depricate those of your color,
If you know that in heaven God also loves them?
Painter of saints in the alcoves, if you have a soul in your body
Why have you forgotten those of black color in your paintings?
Every time you paint a church you paint beautiful little angels
But never have you remembered to paint a black angel."
"Painter born in my native land with the foreign brush
Painter that continues the course of all the painters of old
Even though the Virgin may be white, paint little black angels for me
For they too go to heaven
Painter indeed you paint with love!
Why do you depricate those of your color,
If you know that in heaven God also loves them?
Painter of saints in the alcoves, if you have a soul in your body
Why have you forgotten those of black color in your paintings?
Every time you paint a church you paint beautiful little angels
But never have you remembered to paint a black angel."