Jeffrey Zeigler's - "We Were Fridays" at Weeksville

We Were Fridays is an interdisciplinary music project led by cellist Jeffrey Zeigler - a deeply personal exploration of cultural memory and diaspora. It will follow a story that began in the Griot tradition of West Africa, travel to South Carolina by way of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, then north by way of the Great Migration, and beyond. We Were Fridays explores the music of the Gullah people of the Low Country of South Carolina, a community which to this day has preserved more of their West African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African American community in the United States. Gullah music has influenced spirituals, gospel, ragtime, rhythm and blues, soul, hip hop and jazz. We Were Fridays will extend this reach into the world of instrumental cello music. Told through cello, electronics, and dance, We Were Fridays will explore forbidden love, fractured lines, and complex legacies. As covered in The New York Times , We Were Fridays is one of the most significant works of cultural memory and diaspora to come to Brooklyn this fall. “My father was raised in Philadelphia with no knowledge of his biological family until 1992, when a woman named Burnice Perry contacted him. She became the grandmother I never knew, tracing our lineage back to George Washington Friday. Before she passed, I recorded hours of our conversations; those recordings are the heartbeat of this work…” - Jeffrey Zeigler, cellist and project creator The work is centered around new compositions from Etienne Charles, Tamar-kali, Hannah Ishizaki and Jeffrey Zeigler; and features choreography/dance from Flexn pioneer Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray, and a bespoke interactive book design from sister sylvester. The project is deeply rooted in an ethos of community and intergenerational learning – partnering with the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, the University of Georgia Culture & Community program and the Weeksville Heritage Center to devise community engagement and education platforms. This work brings together community members and elders, along with students and teachers to engage in dialogue, conversation and creative exchange around the project’s themes of memory and diaspora. On October 17, 2026, Weeksville Heritage Center and VisionIntoArt invite you to a day-long community experience in Brooklyn. The program weaves together performance, creative workshops, and community conversations that explore the key themes and inquiries of We Were Fridays —cultural memory, Gullah Geechee heritage, diaspora, and intergenerational storytelling. To RSVP for the event or sign-up for more info, you can share your email here or write to info@visionintoart.com