In a free community program Saturday, “A Journey of Ancestral Music and Exploration of the African Ox Flute,” Joshua Allen will present the history, tradition, music and craft of this unique instrument through demonstration, storytelling and song.
The event, organized by Francine Aytes Hunter and the Nickens Family Historical Highway Marker Committee, begins at 1 p.m. at the Lancaster Community Library, 16 Town Centre Drive, Kilmarnock, and is co-hosted by the library, Historic Christ Church & Museum, Lancaster Virginia Historical Society, Northern Neck Hidden History Trail, and NNK250.
According to Hunter, Allen learned traditional hymns trailing a plow and mule, walking in the fields with his uncle and grandfather on a plantation in North Carolina. “His family’s oral history,” she said, “was passed down from multiple generations over time and instilled within him as he was taught how to hand-make African flutes from ox horns. Mr. Allen, who has shared his deep and resounding voic...