About
Founder & President
Holly Zuber as the founder and executive Director of the Harry Lawrence Freeman foundation comes packed, polished and prepared to lead the charge of equity, education and activism on The Arts, specifically in Opera. When asked the question as to establishing this foundation, Ms. Zuber said “we must gather the foot soldiers who want to eradicate racism by providing funds to educate, support, inspire, so that there will be equal access and equity in The Arts. Then the revisions to the narrative of the black and brown people in The Arts specifically in the genre of opera can happen as well as pave the way for future generations. It’s a movement!”
Ms. Zuber comes to the table as a 34 year veteran in the field of education and enlightenment. She’s a doctoral candidate in executive leadership at St. John fisher college. She is a service orientated entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist. She is proudly a over thirty year member in the alpha kappa alpha sorority Incorporated, a charter member of a local chapter of the national Sorority Phi Delta Kappa Inc. and sits on several boards which she credits as providing her the experience to activate and motivate service towards others. She also comes from a family of community activists, and “firsts” for Ms. Zuber is the great niece of the first black and and possibly the first performed American composer H. Lawrence Freeman. She’s equally proud to be known as the niece of Paul B. Zuber, civil rights attorney and one of the first black men to run for president, the niece of Barbara Johnson Zuber who was the first black woman to graduate from Yale fine arts school and now a celebrated artist. As Larry Blackmon recently stated “the Zubers are the black Kennedys of New York.“
Ms. Zuber’s experiences makes her packed, polished and prepared to lead, manage and enlist a board that will activate inspire and support through education and partnering those willing to be the foot soldiers for the future of equity in the arts is a must. And as Ms. Zuber states often “if not you ~who better, and if not now~when are we going to go for it?”
Jennifer B. Lee
Jennifer B. Lee is Curator of Performing Arts Collections at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University where she has been on the staff since 1999. She majored in English Literature at the University of Rochester, while taking flute and chamber music lessons at the Eastman School of Music, holds an MA in English from the University of Virginia, and the MLS from the former School of Library Science at Columbia. Prior positions were with Library Company of Philadelphia, the John Hay Library at Brown University, and the then combined Rare Books and Manuscripts Department at The New York Public Library.
The importance of the Freeman Archive:
The importance of the H. Lawrence Freeman Archive cannot be overstated. Simply put, it requires that the history of grand opera in the United States be rewritten to include the work of the Freemans and the artistic performance and social history of African-Americans from about 1890 to 1950. It also requires that the usual telling of the Harlem Renaissance story be expanded to include their work here in New York.
The archive includes the original manuscript scores for 21 of Freeman’s operas. His non-musical work is also represented, including drafts of his unpublished book, “The Negro in Classical Music and Opera.” The manuscript scores are accompanied by documentation of the productions of many of his operas, including photographs, art work, programs, advertising, correspondence, clippings, schedules, budgets, and production designs.
Production documentation also exists for the work of Carlotta Freeman as an actress and stage director with many historic black theatre companies, including the Lafayette Players, the Anita Bush Stock Company, and the Pekin Theatre.
The Freemans founded three arts organizations — the Friends’ Amusement Guild, the Negro Grand Opera Company, and the Aframerican Opera Foundation — and records of each are included in the collection.
For more information visit H. Lawrence Freeman Archive finding aid, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University
Learn More
Learn more about the history of H.L Freeman and our continued work to extend his legacy.