The Sing Sing Prison Museum, in partnership with Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program and four regional houses of worship, is proud to announce Unsung, a four-part storytelling and music series bringing together formerly incarcerated individuals, artists, advocates, and community members to explore the prison system through story and song.
Each of the four free, public evenings pairs reflection and dialogue with live musical performance built around a distinct theme:
Date: September 10, 7pm
- Location: Grace Episcopal Church, St. Paul’s Campus, 40 Ganung Drive, Ossining
- Theme: Transcendence
Date: October 8, 7pm
- Location: Central Synagogue, Beir Chapel, 123 E 55th Street, New York
- Theme: Help
Date: November 12, 7pm
- Location: Union Theological Seminary Chapel, 3041 Broadway, New York
- Theme: Care
Date: December 10, 7pm
- Location: Star of Bethlehem Baptist Church, 304 Spring St, Ossining
- Theme: Vengeance
All Unsung events are free and open to the pubic; advance registration is encouraged using the link below.
The December 10th program will be preceded by an SSPM fundraiser from 5 – 7 PM for $65 per person.
“Unsung isn’t about dwelling on the hardest parts of incarceration—it’s about the humanity that gets lost when the conversation stops at crime and punishment,” said Amy Hufnagel, SSPM’s assistant director. “Come sit with us for an evening or the entire series—inside the sanctuaries of many different faiths—where we can provoke conversations for empathy and understanding that never leave you hopeless.”
Musical performances at each event are curated by Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections, which brings together professional artists and men incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility to write, rehearse, and perform original music. This season’s musical programs respond to each evening’s Unsung theme and feature members of the Musical Connections Advisory Committee—many now performing with The Freedom Trap, an ensemble founded by participants after returning home from Sing Sing. “The musical responses invite audiences to listen differently—to the themes, to the artists, and to one another,” noted Manuel Bagorro, creative advisor to Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program. “My hope is that people leave with songs, stories, and ideas that stay with them.”
SSPM is also collaborating with Elyse Frenchman who is a documentary filmmaker and advocate. She runs a non-profit, The Way We See, which creates short films to support individuals in the criminal legal system and drive narrative change. Frenchman will serve as the series moderator and works to bring creative layers to justice conversations; she is a real asset to these conversations.
The Unsung series is underwritten by Lilly Endowment and inspired in part by Agnes Fallah Kamara-Umunna, the Liberian radio host and UN truth commission contributor whose storytelling work has long invited communal reflection on damage, resilience, and transformation.
