Freedom's a-Callin Me

Award-winning poet Ntozake Shange and artist Rod Brown reimagine the journeys of the brave men and women who made their way to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

Fleeing on the Underground Railroad meant walking long distances; swimming across streams; hiding in abandoned shanties, swamps, and ditches, always on the run from slave trackers and their dogs.

ah might get hungry

ah may get tired

good Lawd /

ah may be free

The Underground Railroad operated on secrecy and trust. But who could be trusted?

There were free black and white men and women helping, risking their lives, too. Because freedom was worth any risk. Celebrated collaborators Ntozake Shange and Rod Brown pay tribute to the Underground Railroad, a universal story about the human need to be free.

ah am a livin bein' & ah got to be free